In between, series were drawn away in England, at home against a New Zealand team that played the percentages beautifully, and a Pakistan team that escaped defeat in Mohali to inflict a final-day mauling in Bangalore. There was a shellacking at Australian hands on home turf in 2004 – with the captain bailing out half an hour before the toss in the decisive Test – and also the now-familiar capitulation in the West Indies, against bowlers who wouldn’t even have been allowed near the nets in Caribbean cricket’s heyday. A good team with three or four batsmen that had legitimate claims to greatness? Perhaps. World-beaters? Only if you were blinded by patriotism and under the influence.

The one-day side’s descent into hell was far more worrying. Having reached the final of the ICC Champions Trophy in 2000 and 2002 – when they shared the trophy with Sri Lanka – India were second only to a magnificent Australian side at the World Cup in 2003. Thereafter, they could put away only the minnows, with an abysmally ineffectual bowling attack and a batting order living on hype being no match for the world’s finest.

The reversal of fortune engineered by the team management since the home season started has been little short of astonishing. The dead wood has been ruthlessly chopped away, and some of the new faces introduced like Suresh Raina and S Sreesanth have the potential to be big players for years to come. But change being a painful process, there has been much resistance, both within the system and without. The resounding success of the one-day side has vindicated those that instigated it, and the relative failure of the Test team is just further proof that you ignore precocious talent at your peril.

India’s dismal defeat at Karachi had a lot to do with an innings for the ages from Kamran Akmal, but it also owed much to the fact that the team management were not given the team that they asked for. Had a Sreesanth or another right-arm pace bowler travelled across the border – those whose reputations were at stake had pleaded the case – there would have been no three-man left-arm attack of mind-numbing sameness. And had those in the know been allowed their way, there would have been no tampering with the batting order to accommodate individuals at such a cost.

What has been especially heartening about the one-day renaissance has been the journey away from the cult of the individual. Each man has been called upon to perform so many roles that it leaves little room for prima donnas or the lazy ones who hold those around them back. While Yuvraj Singh has grabbed the headlines with several innings of incandescent brilliance, the support cast of Tendulkar, Dravid, Raina, Pathan and, especially, Dhoni has been just as influential. The bowling spoils have also been shared around, with the likes of Pathan, RP Singh, Harbhajan, Sreesanth and Powar all producing match-turning performances. And while the lack of form of Sehwag and Kaif has been a worry, the cohesiveness and sense of purpose has been such that the team has endeavoured to nurse them through the rough patch.

Australia’s conservative approach, especially the failure to play the in-form Michael Hussey, cost them the Ashes a year ago. If it can happen to the best, you can imagine what a stick-in-the-mud approach will do to a team like India. Those that contemptuously dismiss the one-day game as an irrelevance also tend to be ignorant of recent history. Australia’s trek to world domination was based on the self-belief instilled by a World Cup win on the subcontinent in 1987, and three of the cornerstones of the side – Steve Waugh, David Boon and Geoff Marsh – were handpicked out of obscurity by a selection panel that included a certain Gregory Stephen Chappell.

At the same time, those that label Dravid a puppet captain haven’t a clue about the team dynamics. Dravid, as evinced by his sterling displays in times of crisis, has always had the ruthless streak that separates the very best from the merely good, and his captaincy, save for the odd blip like the Mumbai toss, has been clever, proactive and characterised by his leading from the front. If McGrath, Warne and Flintoff don’t think him a soft touch, we can safely conclude that those who do are either peddling a certain agenda or a little soft in the head.

Past glories may be recalled and celebrated, but cricket teams don’t win matches on the back of them. The sooner the winds of change wafts through the Test team – Munaf Patel and Sreesanth have already provided a welcome lungful of fresh air – the sooner the chances of it being as competitive and sharp as the one-day version. It would also help if people didn’t kid themselves with delusions of a grandeur that never was.

absolutely correct,a very precise article, specially highlighting the fact that the drop in the team`s one day standards was certainly a worry,none of the test wins recently were fooling anybody, beating sri lanka in a test series at home withthe side completely in rebuilding mode doesnt make us world no. 2 many a times india has lost a test match whenever put under the pump,but this one day side hasnt been like that it has played well under pressure and only augers well for the future

Love is blind, and so is hatred. ofcourse i am not alien to authors dislike towards Ganguly, but i now find it laughable that after all this while, he chooses to blame Ganguly for the Karachi defeat when he batted better then all batsmen other then Yuvraj. The author seems to find fault with Ganguly for all of Indias defeats, may be india lost the mumbai test to England because ganguly was watching the match on TV in calcutta, which made dravid concious of being watched. some hatred you have, Mr. Premachandran!

Chappel with able support from people like Dileep had been successful converting a bowler to a batsman(Irfan) , a wicketkeeper to a batsman -gradually he will become an opener(Dhoni) - and that they call experimentation !!!!

India has got a captain in Dravid who even takes a beating in his statistics as a captain by loosing in the name of experimentation .. Why don't you jsut face the truth - he does not have enough guts to say "No" to Chappel .. does not have that backbone !

All others except for Dravid are making money out of their performances scoring an average < 25 ... India has been lucky in one dayers that they played teams like SA,Eng SL with their class B or C teams!

Dileep - For once pls open your eyes before comparing these teams with Australia without Mcgrath !

Wait for one match where both Irfan and Dhoni fails !!!

Well written...Thanks.

Excellent article and a very accurate analysis. India had never reached the pinnacle in test cricket, notwithstanding the achievements of Ajit Wadekar's side. At best we were a team with dangerous players but we never really had a complete test side with at least two world class fast bowlers (which I think is a pre-requisite to becoming no. 1 team in test)

However, in one dayers we have performed brilliantly in patches and certainly during the period 1983-1987 we were arguably the best side in one day cricket. Then again we did extremely well in 2003 and looking at our crciketing strengths as well as the crave of the masses it is more important for India to become the No. 1 one day side in the world- which I believe is much more pausible than trying to become the No.1 side in test cricket which can only be a distant dream.

Superb article Dileep. But unfortunately the average Ganguly/Indian fan doesnt have the cognitive capacity to understand such a brilliant observation. The fact is that India was an average team because of all the dead weights and only now has the clean up begun. Only in India will you find a team upset its balance to accomodate a batsman like Ganguly (in the Karachi test). I firmly believe that the current thinking in the Indian team is more because of Dravid than Chappel. Finally he has got an opportunity to create a team that can win series abroad and he is doing an awesome job at that. I think in 2 months time he will answer all these nitwits with a series win the WI, but then these crazed Ganguly fans will still say that it was a victory against a B/C/.../Z grade team. Once again thanks for a brilliant article and certainly a zillion times better than the previous post.

India's obsession with past glory has been portrayed extremely well in this article. For years we have put an individual, the charismatic, the poster-boy ahead of the beleagured Indian team. Gavaskar's centuries, Kapil's five-fors, Sachin's sixes and Azhar's brilliance have provided a mask to a monotonous Indian loss. I personally disagree with the handling on the Ganguly affair, but it was time heads rolled when performance dipped. Ganguly's offside brilliance was negated by his weakness to quality seam bowling, his in-your-face attitude had metamorphosed into bending the law (how many times was he reprimanded by the ICC match refree in his last year?) and it was "dada-giri" towards the end. Greg Chappell came with a task and is doing well. And, finally a man who has doned the gloves, opened against Shoaib and had a role in each of the significant victories India posted in the new millenium deserves our support !

Prior to the the Karachi Test defeat, Rahul Dravid gleefully leaked the news to the press that how he leads from the front, and he opened the the innings in the two tests, and scored centuries.he gloated and accepted the Kudos for the those two tests in Pakistan.
By the way, in the second test GANGULY was not playing,Still Dravid made a choice to OPEN......meaning he was confident as a opener.And why not most of the time in his test career, he has semi-opened, because India did not have a decent opening pair.
So, in Karachi Dravid gets 2 and 3 runs and then promptly blames Ganguly for the loss.
Dravid is a south Indian, Dileep Premchandran will ofcourse support Rahul Dravid.Only proves what we have known for years,Its better to immigrate to the US, if you want to escape nepotism in India.

Well written, incisive and balanced article from Dileep. Its guys like Dileep who makes Cricinfo a very interesting website. Even his latest write up on Ricky Ponting is really good. Hopefully he will be our answer to Peter Roebuck. Way to go Dileep.

First of all congrats on starting an enthralling discussion.

I have to agree with Mr. Dileep Premachandran, India was never a great test side. They haven't won enough overseas series to even contemplate being called a great test side. So the question of decline is irrelevant.

The Indian ODI side is however in peak form these days. This is partly becuase Chappel has experimented with a few players in different roles, thus increasing the versatility of the team.

However it is worth noting that Irfan Pathan's bowling in test matches has suffered due to his increasing role as a batsman. Also I think in the long run Dhoni's wicket keeping will suffer due to his prime focus on batting. This was evident in the last test match of the series against England in which he missed crucial chances.

Chappel has done most things right. I feel sick when some of the past cricketers wait for him to commit a mistake and they jump all over him. These Ex- cricketers really out dated in thinking. As far as saurav is concerned one cannot say whether his playing capabilities are iver. But him coming back to the team will for sure disrupt the team unity.

Ooh. I could feel the vitriol ooze through the computer screen. That chip that you carry on your shoulder against Ganguly allied with that torch you hold high for Chappell is really weighing down heavily on your writing Dileep. And clouding your judgement too boot.

If Ashok Malik was a shrill man, you are a high-pitched parakeet.

If you don't see any difference between drawing with Australia in Australia (give or take a McGrath), and drawing with a C-grade England in India on spin-friendly surfaces, you are so blind that I wonder how you locate your underwear in the morning.

Do you need a high-powered torch to explore that drawer?

Good luck.

Hey saurabh u dont seem to watch cricket or u dont know a shit about cricket.South Africa are not a weak one day team by any stretch of imagination.And dont forget India could'nt even win a single series for a year.They are winning,appreciate and shut up.

Ravi Manchandan's comments above is not in good taste - probably should have been blocked. Good he went to the US - given his mindset,looks like Indians living in the US should be wary for he will probably bring in nepotism in that great country and bring India a bad name. Confused Desi.

Indian team needed to change its psyche. There is a famous saying in Australia " legends in their own lunchbox". I feel this would aptly describe the Indian team of old. Change is painful as Mr. Premachandran has correctly pointed out. I think Greg is going to be a good thing for India. Till you can develop some formidable fast bowlers, fit players that are not living on past glory and a sense of purpose for each time you wear the Indian outfit you can't seriously challenge the best. I don't beleive that as a team we have ever been any good in the past because we have lacked consistency and our away record has been abysmal. Surely those unhappy with Greg must see that or they are just blind?

When will Ganguly lovers realize that their beloved's time was up even before Chappell came in the picture? No doubt, Ganguly's place in Indian cricket history is cemented with his leading from the front attitude and awesome batting. He changed the Indian cricket mentality, for the better, thru his captaincy. However, like all good things must come to an end, his tenure in the Indian side did too. And Mr. Sunil Gavaskar has an agenda against our Greg. As soon as there is a loss, he is all over our coach blaming him for everything except the weather. Like an English cricketer said, Gavaskar is like an old fine wine that turned sour. Most of the cricket lovers I know, fully agree.

I agree with Dilip to an extent. We definitely improved our test record under Ganguly, but he is right, we were never world beaters. If that were the case atleast we could have won in zimbabwe and West Indies. Both the series were there to be taking, but we simply did not have bowlers to do the job.

Chappell is atleast trying to identify test class fast bowlers who can win matches abroad.
Just look at pakistan. even though it doesnot have class batsman, still they win abroad due to very good bowlers.

So to be a great test team, we need to have good bowlers and in time we should be able to get them. Not the left handed variety who spray the ball as if it is a farmhouse.

Couldnt have been more precisely written ! I am no SG basher, i am a "Team India should win" guy, and i think those who think that either Dravid is a puppet, or that SG was ousted because of GCs ego, are not even worth being countered. They do not know what they are talking about, and certainly do not know what professinalism is all about. Instead of being angered by these persons, i feel pity at there state of reasoning. This article is perhaps the best i have read in near history, and i am not the one to over rate something frequently, so i really admire the balance and sanity in the article. Thanks, and please keep on writing..how about an article for those baying for Sehwag and Kaif s blood? Sure they are going through lean patch, does not mean every time they go out to bat you keep on reminding them. Also, i worry about the mental states of reporters who shout SG every time they see GC, knowing very well that its an insult to such a good, professional and honourable man to keep on stepping on his raw nerves.

Ganguly played a great innings in karachi? when? i did not see it. As far as i can recall the last great innings i saw from the dada was against australia in australia it has all been down hill since.

DP is right on the money let us face it and admit it we were never a great team we were always a team that had a few great individuals here and there.

It has only been since we have had foreign coaches that we have started to be a team in the true sense of the word. Might be a bitter pill for some but that is how it is.

If we were in the first gear with wright and ganguly we have just shifted gears with chappell-dravid and who knows we might be a really great team when we have another combination few years hence like waugh-dhoni.

Let us not forget that it will be a long journey which will require planning and nurturing especially at school level.

The future definitely looks bright and the future could be lightblue as oppossed to baggy green or orange for that matter.

I wouldn't mind pointing out to Sameer Kaul that Dileep did not "blame Ganguly for the Karachi defeat". In fact he did not even mention Ganguly, he merely pointed to Akmal's blazing ton! Please can we keep the emotive Ganguly issue out of the headlines when it is not relevant.

Unofortunately, the indian media has always found a sapegoat, but they failed to understand a shrewd professional aussie who cares a cropper about things around him. Why dont those so-called ardent fans of Ganguly try and see how Chappell has instilled a new vigour and a new culture in this Indian team. His philosophy is very simple, perform or perish which is the way to go! thaks dileep for refuting the argument made in another article by a ganguly patriot

A typical southie habit of backing up southie, even if it's a insignificant ones. Here to take dravid up he or maybe most of the southies will even make Habibul Bashar a great coach, if he is coaching india and supporting dravid. And it's also typical views that they know the best in cricket atleast so their views should be taken as gospel, as he asserts thru his writings. We shouldn't blame one dileep, he is not at fault, it's typical southie habit. When there were so many west zone player in Indian team and Sunny was the captain, they'd pulled Sunny down, by showing Kapil as greatest Indian and Sunny a mere pedestrian. Now Dravid is theirs, so obviously they'll do this to Ganguly. Just winning now in Indian subcontinent. Let them go abroad and prove then we'll do it. Leave aside test, even one day performance shouldn't be judged when they're played only in India, with , A, B, C teams. So much with experimentation, result, Sehwag failing, Kaif is insecured, venugopal rao is a zombie, pathan is pinch hitter who can bowl, so on and so forth. Thanks God that yuvraj hasn't become a quality spinner who can bat a bit, else we would've been in trouble. And finally, if everything is for world cup Dravid shouldn't be in the team, as he is not fit as a one day player. It's only because to put him in ganguly fought with selectors to pick him as wicket keeper, so that he can be in the team, and indian suffered by missed catches and stumping. If Ganguly hasn't taken him in the team, the fate of Dravid would've been exactly like Laxman.

dont be so parochial ..you're an indian before you're a southie, northie , kannadiga, bong.......if only people like you were never born ...India could be what it deserves to be ...shame on you shitface

Dear Mr. Premachandran,

I think you have stretched things a tad bit to prove your point. You do slight injustice to India's tour of England. Of course England was crap then, but then again, they were crap all through the nineties and we did'nt find it hard to lose to them then (In England ofcourse). I'm sure all of us would agree that that upto the Pakistan tour in 2004, the team was making a steady and noticable move forward and were all looking forward to better days ahead.

This was followed by a decline that should be acknowledged.

Ofcourse it's obvious (to those who don't have wet dreams' featuring the ex- captian) that Dravid and Chappel are doing a fantastic job in stemming that decline and improving. One doesn't need series wins' to know that.

Hi Prema,
I believe you have a power in your pen rather than in your brain. Do you know it is only the Ganguly who has started inclusion of new and young lads in the teams,he only started to drop the zonal quota systems, during his tenure, most of the young players started to get chances to show their mettle, he led the team single handedly to be a runners up in the World cup with a complete new Team India made by him only. There were no Mohinder, no Gavaskar, no Srikant, no Kirmai, no Madanlal. Hi Prema, do you realise the value of these cricketers or understand the quality of these cricketers. Ganguly had no quality palyers like these but the spirit, generated by him in team India, is an unprecedented issue for us. Greg Chappel, following his way with a little bit of more tricks. I strongly believed, Dravid has become today's dravid only due to Ganguly because once he was so out of form in ODI for such a long time or he was so unfit for ODI that he would not get a chance in team eleven had Ganguly followed Greg's performance policy. Since Ganguly had no good quality wicketkeeper-batsman and since he had enough trust and good relation with Dravid, he continued him in ODIs. Who can forget those days.People like Prem can apparently seems to forget all glorious days of our past but most of Indians are not same. That is why, flooding supports from all over the India is coming up for Ganguly, not only from Bengal. We should not be extra happy by beating England or Srilanka or Pakistan because everybody knows that opponents were very weak due to many reasons and still we didn't face opponents with full squad of first eleven players.

A very well written article, which correctly points out we were never a great test side, more so towards the end of Ganguly/Wright era, something which most Ganguly obsessed fans don't realize. However, after opening in two tests and having good success, Dravid didn't think of too much of danger in opening, so the Ganguly factor wasn't the main problem in Karachi. Overall, whether something has been little unfair to a single person (Ganguly) doesn't matter much as the team should be given more preference, which is happening for the first time in last 15 years.

Mr Uttiya's comments are a joke. In this day and age he prefers to divide the country and burdens India's recent ressurgance with a term i like to use as "Southern Backing". He fails to realise that in the end, an Indian is an Indian no matter which part of India he comes from. I am disgraced by his thinking.
Questioning Dravid's place in the team is absurd. Dravid has been the architect of his own fate and deserves his place in the team more than anybody else.
I admire the guts Ganguly showed and by far he is has been the most courageous captain we have had over a long time. But I personally feel that his place in the team has to be questioned due to his lack of performance. At the end of the day, the best eleven must represent the country. Steve Waugh and Ganguly can be spoke of in the same breath as far ruthlessness is concerned. But even Australia did not spare Steve Waugh when he failed to deliver.
Change is a permanent feature and I am sure that this Indian team will traverse great heights in the upcoming years. If Ganguly can get his act together, I am sure there will be a place for him in the team. But only time will tell us of his fate.
And let us all as Indians stop branding our fellow countrymen and take pride in them no matter where they come from. Move forward as one.

Dear Uttiya Misra,

Really accurate analysis. Hope you go on to win the Nobel prize.
Yeah, we Southies are one narrow minded race. We even support Chappel because he hails from South of the equator. We think he's an honourary Southie.

And yeah, Dravid sucks in the one day format, and thanks for opening our eyes to it. For years I supported him for being a fellow Southie, when he's averaged only 47 with the bat in the ODI format over the last four years. Even the current winning streak is a conspiracy hatched by our Southie Gods.

Thanks once again for opening my mind. I wish I were a Bong Dada fan (ooh, many apologies for redundancy). Then I too could have had wet dreams about him.

Dileep is arguably the best writer on cricinfo and this latest article of his presents a very balanced view (in international perspective) of the recent past and the present state of affairs of Indian cricket.

Ganguly lovers (I used to be one) must accept the fact that he probably had lived on the cricket arena beyond his "use by" date.

wll written..gr8 article

What crap is Mr. Uttiya talking about.
southie backing up southie..? and they brought down Sunny for the sake of Kapil..?
Just read your comments once more and you yourself will realise what illogical load of crap its is...

i believe there was an article recently on this site showing dravid as the most consistent captain/batsman in ODIs... with an average close to 50. and recently, with a pretty decent strike rate too, his achilles heel in the past. and he is a team player- he is vital to india's success, especially overseas and i am confident we will see that in the coming months.

those coming out with "typical southie" comments... maybe you should look a bit closer to home for evidence of nepotism. I was an am a ganguly fan, i really hope he can get himself back in the side (as an opener, he has no place anywhere else in ODIs), but fact is india is winning without him. not in the tests, but he has had no significant contribution to our test team ever since that brilliant century in brisbane- he did not deserve to be in the side.

as for sehwag and kaif... if you remember, sehwag has been failing in ODIs for a long, long time. and hasnt been doing great in tests for a while either. kaif was doing brilliantly under chappell until recently, he's just in a run of bad form and i think its a bit ridiculous to blame that on a coach. i do think laxman should be given a fair go in ODIs again though.

brilliant article mr premachandran, keep them coming.

Very well written article,and those morons going southie supports southie ,dravid is from maharashtra.Ganguly supporters should go and get a mental checkup,absolutely no tactical brain and supported ppl who were willing to clean his boots.Akash Chopra,Sanjay Bangar,Murali Kartik were a few players who were chucked out beacause they didnt catch Dada's fancy.The current series win is due to Dravids captaincy now when did i see ganguly exhibit tactical brilliance ... Biting his fingers ..!!

I stand by Dileep.

We shouldn't turn a blind eye to the change in the players' attitude. In the past, we were celebrated chockers when we chased. We have blown away matches for the sheer lack of method in the chasing madness. But now don't we see a difference? Yes, Chappell is a tough nut to crack, and haven't we had too many soft nuts all these years? Man-management is an art, and managing Indian cricket stars calls for supreme skills. Chappell has it in him, be it shrewdness or arrogance.

It is time we kicked the southie-backing-southie argument right in the butt. Come on, for 16 long summers we have been praying for a Mumbaikar.

It boils down to India, and to a winning India. If it takes an Aussie to turn these bunch of players to winners, so be it.

No one wants to take the sheen off Ganguly's glory. No one can delete his numbers -- Chappell cannot retouch Ganguly's or Indian cricket's past.

Some argue that Chappell wants India to win because he is at the helm. Precisely so.

Patriotism apart, when was India giving the best side in the world sleepless nights? We have to accept facts as reality. India have largely been a team hinged on a few brilliant players.

Recent series wins force us to believe in a change.

And, a true fan must hope that the recent performances are not some flashes in the pan.

Dravid is a good captain, and Chappell is no country pumpkin.

Love is definitely blind, or so it seems. Stats don't tell every thing but they do represent "FACTS". Ganguly, the captain averages 33.42 in his last 15 tests. This includes substantial amount of cheapest runs. He should have been dropped long back. At the same time I would like to add that no-one is immune from being dropped.

NO performance => NO Position.

Doesn't matter whether it is Tendulkar, Ganguly or Dravid.

I think that the problems in test cricket have stemmed up from poor batting in second innings. Dravid for now matter how good he is, cannot do a Ponting or an Inzaman in the second innings. We simply don't have it in us to bat it out on the last day of the test. Further, the reason that Pakistan escaped in Mohali (and same with New Zealand) is the poor quality of pitches. The pitches were slow even on the last day offering nothing to Kumble or anyone else. A year ago, Sehwag filled in some of the cracks in batting, but with him failing, those cracks are more evident than ever. I love Tendulkar but hope that he is not shown the same disrespect as Ganguly. Moreover, the poor form of Harbhajan in tests (after his finger injury) has also been worrying. I think that the Test team too needs some revitalization by infusion of young talent something which comes under the perview of the selectors. In that sense, Tendulkar's injury and Kaif's poor form are a chance to see some new talent (Raina???). Lets hope it is not the tentative Ganguly. If he is back, I would prefer vintage Ganguly!

Very well written article indeed!. But a lot of comments still hover around Ganguly, which makes me feel sick. And to add to that there are a couple of hypocrites who are talking about 'Southie habits'. I fail to understand why these comments are published. Some Misra says southies supported Kapil because Gavaskar was not from South. Its hilarious.

But let me not get into it. The article was a very objective one. And although we should be very proud of India's great performances in the Test arena under Ganguly, we should also realise that we never won a series abroad except for the Pakistan series, when the Pak team was definitely at a low. But if anyone thinks that I am taking away credit from Ganguly, they are very much mistaken. If anything, it was a series triumph authored by Dravid who captained in two of the tests and scored a match winning 271 in the last test that Ganguly participated/captained.

I completely agree with Dileep here !!! In fact I've been wondering how this reality hasn't occured to people for this long !!!! Ok, let's forget the improved showing in the last couple of years in Test matches, but when have we really consistently competed/ challenged the top sides ?? I haven't really heard of an incisive indian bowling attack for god knows how long ??????? !!!! When have we consistently kept good batsmen in check ?? The likes of Inzamam, Younis Khan, Yousuf seemed to literally toy with the attack more recently. As for the Indian batsmen, there's no doubt they are world class, but they definitely struggle the moment the ball does even a bit for ordinary bowlers. Boy...I've been thinking that something has been wrong with my honest assesment all along, but Dileep has echoed my views.......however, all this having been said, how do we explain India's ranking as 3rd best in the past few years ??? Surely there's some credibility in this.

Whassup DP? Dont you as a veteran journo want to keep an escape route or two open when things turn to go sour for Team Chappell-More? Maybe save some ammo for yourself when the Team plays away series and in the longer run proves that it is no better or worse than its predecessors, winning some and losing some.
Can your superlative imagination picture an Indian coach (legend, to boot) for the Aussie team, and if you can, then conjure up visions of the coach being eulogised after manipulating the ouster of the Aussie skipper, fingering the Sydney crowd, and experimenting wholesale with the team slots and dismissing the defeats as a part of the eventual winning process? The day you can honestly do so, that day you will stand vindicated.
Meanwhile, I suppose, we have to continue to suffer your one dimensional, logic defying diatribes against a successful ex-skipper and equally prejudiced support for GC and extended to KM and RD. In fact, I suspect, Rahul probably would like to see Saurav back, having mutual respect and trust in each other's performance and support. It is the Team More-Chappell that is afloating, not Team India.

And GS Chappel won more tests for Australia than both Gangully and Tendulkar combined. As much as i love sachin, he was NEVER a matchwinner (the big but crucial contrast with the genius Lara)and seemed always too conservative to do"a Laxman". Some of his devoted fans will say that he could have -well maybe -but the fact is he didn't and it now time to look to the future. As Australia did with Stephen Waugh India must do the same with Gangully and Tendulkar.

I really wish you hadn't named Ganguly in your article. I wager half the comments (I really couldn't read all of them!) are about you being unpatriotic and blaming everything on Ganguly. Of course, your article has nothing to do with it!
India have never been world beaters on the test stage because apart from Kumble, we have never had a single bowler who could really run through sides. Pathan, Sreesanth or anyone else who is performing in one dayers, would probably fall flat on his face in tests. Reason...? Probably a lack of speed. I wonder how Munaf will perform, but I wager in couple of months he too will go Pathan way. Hey - you got to conserve your fitness and you can't bowl fast and still manage to play all the matches!

not quite a great article that people are making it out to be, but some observations are interesting.

Interesting thoughts. I can relate to Premachandran's point of view because I have felt much like him myself. But in India and Pakistan, it would take another 100 years before we stop putting indiviuals above institutions. But absolutley no harm in getting your thoughts across. Very well written too.

Agree with Dileep on the fact that having Chappell has helped move India forward. That does not take away from the fact that there is still lot of room for improvement - the most heartening aspect in recent times has been the fact that the lower order has contributed a lot over the past year or so (yes we need to sort out the batting at top /middle order really quick). With Pathan / Dhoni - its like one more batsman - add Bhajji / Kumble / Powar and that really helps. All of the above have shown the willingness to tough it out which has been noticeable more so in the Chappell era. To give the devil his due - Ganguly / Wright started a tough journey right after the match fixing scandal (Champions Trophy 2000) and Dravid / Chappell are carrying it along. Theres been a few stumbles along the way - but with Ganguly as captain - Indian cricketers visually shed the soft player tag. Chappell and Dravid are making sure that continues but not at the cost of performance.

As a final note lets not be communal in our approach - in the end its all about India - not North / South / East / West.

What becomes clear from all the comments posted is that we as a nation are a confused lot.

Essentially we love mediocrity, we are an emotional bunch who love or hate. Cold logic is as much a part of the Indian psyche as cold cereal is a part of our breakfast.

Rahul Dravid or Saurav Ganguly, Anshuman Gaekwad or Greg Chappell, here are a few unalienable truths:

Cricket is a sport
It takes talent first and then commitment, attitude and hard work to become a good cricketer
It takes a bunch of 11 to 15 good cricketers to make a great cricket team
All great cricket teams will not be so great anymore in a matter of a decade

Great Cricket Teams:

South Africa in the late 60’s
West Indies in the Late 70’s early 80’s
Australia in the late 90’s early 00’s

We were never in that league and still are not. Hence, what’s all the fuss about? Myself, I’m very pleased to see an Indian team winning a one day series where most matches were won by a different cricketer and I don’t have to switch off the TV when Tendulkar gets out or Kapil’s spell is over.

Well , we have been debating on team india's success in the sub continent..
Lets wait & see how they perform outside the subcontinet before labelling all the great experiment.
I personally find GC an [bleep - deleted by editor] & do not think he will servive more than a year...
Lets be honest ,no sporting legend has ever been a great coach,all look good as commentators & post match analysts.
Be it Gavaskar,CG or Bycott..
Most of the legendry coaches have been ordinary players & thus the reason for them to understand & motivate newcomers to believe in themselves & inspire for greatness..
Please DO NOT RUN DOWN SG & JW because there inning is over..
I wish the very best for DRAVID & team India..

Nice article. Here I would like to make a few points. I think both Chappell and Dravid have done a very good job with the team. Also as far as test cricket is concerned ita a specialist task and the team's performance will only improve over a period of time. I also feel that people always pay tributes to the Chappell-Dravid combination and forget that for a change the selection committee also seems to be putting the team's intrests at the forefront rather than there own zones.
Kiran More and the rest of the selectors also need to be appreciated for a job well done!!

There are two issues which are not being touched by many.

First our recent one day victories. All these have been in the sub-continent. Of the 24 matches since Dravid took over as captain, only 5 were played in Pakistan and the rest in India. So i feel it is a bit premature to judge how well we are performing in the one-dayers. Maybe the West Indies tour will give an idea. It is not a perfect idea, the fact that the next World Cup is being played there makes it a useful parameter.

The pitches and the conditions, by a common consensus of experts that mostly consist of past cricketers of the current England series is sub-standard.

On the other hand what the Ganguly-Wright combination achieved was a Test victory in every tour abroad except South Africa. Just recollect the times when Tendulkar gave up captaincy and people will understand what I mean. So berating those victories does nobody any good.

What we now need to achieve in the Test arena is series victory abroad with a higher level of consistency. From the kind of playing eleven that is being chosen for Test matches, I am not sure we are on the right track.

Dileep says India is not a good test side...that is true. However, is it improving in the ODIs? Still to be decided! Yes, they have been under pressure from England...but England are not a good ODI side to begin with even if Trescothick, Vaughn and Giles had been included. Also England places much more emphasis on its Test side than on the ODI as noted by Hoggard. We should not jump to conclusions that India are able to play under pressure just because they win on home ground against a weak England side. India are still building the fundamentals and I think Chappell is taking them in the right direction. The litmus test will be the ultimate prize, the World Cup which is not being held on home conditions. If we get that, then people can celebrate. I think after that time, it will be time to drop Tendulkar from the team and infuse some new talent for the future. We have to be ruthless in order to win. The Aussies did it to Steve Waugh so why do we have to hang on to players who live off past glories. Hopefully more victories in the ODI setup will rub off on the Test side. I also believe we need to give Dravid some time to mature as captain...we gave Ganguly more than 5 years. There is no reason not to think that with all the money that the BCCI have raked in recently (and hopefully will spend wisely) and all the talent that is available in India and the love of the game, that we cannot produce a side as good as the Aussies.

1.This business of cricket being a 'team' game is a bit overrated. I can't think of many sides that scored 400+ without someone getting a hundred. or running through opposition without someone taking 5 wickets. I mean, Aus is supposed to be the ultimate 'team', but everytime Warne and McGrath don't play they look vulnerable...so isn't it all about Individual brilliance?

Having said that, big scores make us tend to forget smaller, yet important contributions in the matches. Taking Dileep's example of 2001 - True VVS dominated minds in Kolkata and rightly so. Dravid's contribution too was huge. Let's not forget, we had a decent opening stand in the second innings - not spectacular, but Das and Ramesh did more than just see of the new ball. Ganguly hung around to get 40+, and Tendulkar grabbed the critical breakthroughs post tea on Day 5. Let's look at the Chennai test. India built the first innings lead thanks to several good scores - Dravid, Sachin , VVS,...in fact in the end a sixer hit by Bahutule in the first innings, Dighe's little knock in the chase, and Zaheer Khan's 0 (yes 0) saw India home.

So, this thing about India's victories being about individual brilliance alone is a bit of nonsense

2. It's a little early to talk about where we are headed as a team - we haven't played outside the subcontinent in a very long time - and that's the real test.. I think the Windies trip will reveal a lot!

Well..we were never really a world class team,ALSO we don`t have any good strike bowlers to take 20 wickets to win a test match.....so there is no question of decline.....BUT the fact is we haven't faced quality teams in ODI's (and if u call ENG,SL,Pak (ODI) good teams then gimme a BREAK)..try doing such things in name of EXPERIMENTS and see what will happen to you against the AUSSIES.....

I am afraid I disagree with Dileep here that India will do well in tests also given time. Its quite appalling that a team who is winning gloriously in ODI's is actually being thrashed around by visitors like mere minnows, where at one point even Australia called it a frontier which it yearned to conquer. But it seems possible now for everyone who comes to India to play tests. It is just because of playing on the flat tracks of one day cricket that batsmen are so used to that they cannot play on seaming tracks at all. Even bowlers struggle to bowl sides out twice because they just dont know how to get batsmen out cheaply. I strongly suggest that this experimentation business should be put aside and team has to be trained or otherwise a minnow will come and embarrass India which will be a real shame.

Good article.One thing i can't digest is the tactics of using 5 bowlers in a one day game which our team is doing now.I can't remember any cricket playing country doing it.Will Dravid and Chappel do the same playing against Australia or Pakistan.This was one of the reasons why we failed in the Jamshapur game.Had Uthappa been played,the story might have been different.

Wonderful article. As far as the question of "world beaters" is concerned, yes it would be people who are "under the influence" who would believe that .... The author might have wanted to make it "under the influence of Ganguly". India's victories abroad have been talked of with great aplomb by Ganguly .... but what were those victories - ONE test in Australia in a DRAWN series (sans McGrath and Warne - no Perth and no lively wickets), ONE test in England in a DRAWN series, EVEN a DRAWN series in Zimbabwe a few years ago, ONE test in WI, in a SERIES LOST no one loses to WI these days), ONE test in SL in a SERIES LOST (Ganguly was livid as I remember as a Kaif inside edge travelled to the boundary for India's winning runs in the Test they won - Ganguly was left 98no ....), an absolute hammering in NZ, and as far as the win in Pakistan is concerned, we all know Dravid captained part of the series. I think it is Ganguly who somehow has the public believing that he had developed a team of world beaters.

And as far as the individual writing about how blame could be apportioned to Ganguly for the Karachi loss .... simple answer - Dravid had to open when he simply isn't an opener - we all know that he failed. At No.3 he might well have guided the innings to safety and the match to a draw.

One of the best articles and straight to the point... Great!!! This current team under GC and RD has a vision and is heading in the right direction. I get irritated by the pro SG unwise comments, Agreed, he had his moments of glory, India's performance improved overseas, but we still did not win a TEST series (other then the Pakistan series). Besides NATWEST we never won a ODI series, and the World Cup run in 2003 was almost 3 years ago... yes we needed to realise that CHANGE was needed & that's now happening.... KEEP IT UP GC and RD....!!!!

Good article...However, I do see Ganguly coming back in the team. If he gets enough practice in his restaurant as a waiter. Maybe he can get a water boys job as a 12th man.

Well said..very well said. Great analysis.

I believe India's performance in tests have been found wanting due to the performance of its batsmen especially in the last day of a test match. Most of India's wins have come when either of Dravid, Laxman, Tendulkar, Sehwag have been able to produce good innings. But of late only Dravid seems to be batting well. Tendulkar's defensive mindset has not helped the team's cause. One does not remember the last time , Tendulkar produced a defining innings which changed the Test Match in India's favor. I agree with Dileep when he says that in a one day match, a fresh face can engineer an immediate turnaround. But for India to win test matches consistently, it is imperative that atleast 2 of the above 4 (Hope that Wasim Jaffer/Yuvrajy are also able to perform more consistently) are able to make good innings.

just wait in case we lose two mickey mouse matches in abu dubai then all these bongs will pounce on us "sothies" the problem is with "them" not us they want ODI success not test success and they are being given ... and yeah for once dileep premachandran hit nail on head saying we have never been close to no1 team in world never closest was probably few years back in australia and pakistan with dravid's runs and certain ganguly "captaincy " sad fact thet even with billion dollars in the kitty unlike ECB in early 2000's who set their stall out to make england the best and now closer then ever before india only money no performance tough times ahead with west indies and south africa in horizon dear sehwag yuvaraj dhoni etc god knows what will happen

This is an interesting article. I am a strong supproter of India (although not from India) and followed most of the games since Wadekar's time. Unfortunatley the selections had to be aware of political consequences which did not help India to do better and select the best from anywhere from India. It looks like it is changing. We should welcome this. Ganguly was great when he was at his peak and it is only fair that he moves on and give an opportunity to an upcoming youngster. Same with Dravid who is doing and excellent job and has to go one day. Greg Chappel with his philosophical touches makes cricket more interesting. I think all the teams undergo a cycle of ups and downs and India cannot be exceptional. India is doing well (as most of the other teams are). We should appreciate and make all the cricketers who are playing for India happy even after they quit. Hope Greg Chappel doesn't need to teach this philosophy to the people who has a long history of philosophy.

Excellent Article Dileep. Always to the point and unbiased.

India was never a consistent test side even under Ganguly. Great sides win consistently. Due credit should be given to Ganguly for imbibing spirit into the team which resulted in wins against Australia and Pakistan and a creditable draw against Australia in their den. What was missing under Ganguly was the foundation to become a great side. Foundation of fitness, discipline, strategy etc. He did not have any of the three. While some may argue that he at least had some strategy I think he was more a man of instinct rather than strategy. If we had the foundation we would not be losing one day and winning the next day. We would be expecting to win (like Australia) rather than hoping to win.

I see that foundation in the current one day team. It will take at least another 6 mo to a year before it starts to show up in the test side.

One of the readers posted a comment that while Dravid scored 2 or 3 runs, Ganguly batted the best in the Karachi test. Instead of opening himself Dravid should have made Ganguly open. Then he would have scored -5 (his runs – number of times he hops around for short balls). India lost the match because they did not take a regular opening batsman to take the shine of the ball.

While it is sad the way they dumped Ganguly, there was no other choice. The man did not want to leave so had to be pushed out.
Dravid has all the right qualities to be the best captain India had. Judging by the number of victories is not the correct measurement. It rather should the number of series abroad and at home as separate categories.

Dileep, kudos to you for writing a sensible article.

We all know that the Indian team with youngsters was groomed by the Ganguly-Wright combination. Ganguly did a great job and was one of the finest One Day players to have played for India and the best captain who looked into the future. But as someone has said we cannot live in past glory.

In our daily life we come across Managers who live on past glory and who do nothing worthwhile to justify their position. They just sit, earn the big bucks, praise their seniors and continue to torment subordinates and give no results for any growth.
We always think that we should blow the whistle and expose these guys to the upper Management and get in some new guy who could forge ahead.

When Chappel took over, Ganguly was in his past glory. And Chappel like a true professional, not caring about anything blew the whistle and wanted to look ahead. Appreciate the boldness in this approach and he has taken the hierarchial system by storm. It has given us positive results in the One day version. I am sure it is going to give great results in the test arena too.

Once we get the two fast bowlers who perform consistently, we have a great test side. I do not see any decline. There are only a lot of positives.

And please let us not talk about North-South divide atleast when talking cricket.

In today's world performance matters. Not past glory. Kaif and Sehwag if they are great players will fight back from the slump. I am sure Tendulkar and Laxman will be back in the test arena to the normal self. So guys a lot of positive stuff is coming out now which will definitely augur well for the future.

Cheers

Arun Paul

An explanation for the 'agitation': Many of these fans detest Chappell personally because Chappell has a personal agenda. They were shocked that Ganguly was dropped especially for the tests v England, after he had done more than enough at Karachi. The fault in that Pak test was poor individual form. These fans wonder why Chappell had not reversed the poor form. Instead he picked on some experienced pros like Ganguly and Laxman to humiliated and unstablised them. His preference all along had been to bring in ODI specialists like Yuvraj into the test team. They admit the ODI team had lost its way before Chappell. Now, having done well in ODIs, it seems his focus is entirely on the WC. Ganguly had presided over a great ODI team effort to reach the finals of the 2003 edition. These fans are not sure whether Chappell's team can even repeat that feat. Overall, they felt the test team was well led under Ganguly and had performed admirably. Now test performances are going to the dogs. By the way, Ganguly has been a great ODI player. Then why is he excluded from the ODIs?- Is Kaif worth more than Ganguly? Is Sehwag a better opener than what Ganguly has been and can be again? Chappell should keep an open mind about these things.

For all you Ganguly supporters (I cannot understand the blind faith or logic behind it) - let me ask you this - who made Yuvraj open in the Tests (we all know why). Who forced his way onto the tour of Pakistan at the expense of perhaps a Kaif or a youngster he likes to say he backed. And who stooped to the lowest levels to undermine Laxman's confidence in Zimbabwe in an effort to keep his own place in the team (by telling Laxman that Chappell didn't want him in the team). There are so many of these examples - these come straight to mind without too much thought.

When will you all realise that it was always all about himself and never about the team. YOUNGSTERS?? He'd rather be in the team by hook or by crook at the expense of any of the yougsters that he claims he backed.

Dileep Premchandran has hit the nail on the head. Ganguly overstayed by about 18 months. Zaheer and Nehra had the talent but never developed their all round potential. India as a test team has been average at best. Since 2001 India has had 6 great players but 5 average ones too and that dont make a good team. No test team cant afford average players and India has had 4 or 5! Dravid's team will achieve greatness in both tests and ODIs in the future, because for once India has a mix of GREAT and GOOD Players unlike in the past when there were a surfeit of average ones making up the numbers with the greats.

Sir

It is very disgraceful that Cricinfo is publishing comments such as those from Ravi Manchandani and Uttiya Misra.

I hope one day Chappell does not throw out a 'Northie' cricketer and make Irfan Pathan captain - And some poor kid named Iqbal writes in favour of that. The above individuals will be talking about how the team is being hijacked by some Islamic conspiracy.

Southie? Does that mean anything? Since when did people start being chauvinistic about a meaningless geographic entity like South India? It is as intelligent as saying that Tendulkar will support Sreesanth because they both smell the Arabian sea in their houses.

I hope individuals like this are a really small minority.

Guys

Dont u have anything else to do, why r v wasting our time on this...Do u think the cricketers or the coaches care to what we say...Worry about your job your family and your life, there are so many things to achieve...Lets watch cricket and leave there once the match gets over...

Mr. Dileep

i agree that mr. chappell has transformed our one day team by inducting young energy & zeal into it. greg has got da best out of pathan, dhoni etc. but do note that all these 1-day wins under greg have come in sub-continent (india, pakistan) where ball rarely goes above stump height.also it is not easy to chase scores above 250 in SA,NZ, AUS etc. like we hav been doin now.we cant be sure if dhoni, pathan, raina will perform abroad if promoted up the order . so it is too early to judge the 1-day team's performance.

but dont be so biased against ganguly. he was one of india' s best captains who took India to the No.2 side in tests & ODI in 2003-04. he instilled mental toughness in the side & had a gr8 eye for spotting talent. he backed guyz like sehwag, yuvraj, zaheer, kaif, nehra all the time & they delivered. probably, ganguly & wright failed to maintain the high standards they had set for themselves & the team,
but such things happen.

There are too many who have hopped-on to the "Love Ganguly, Hate Chapell" bandwagon. It's time these folks realize that in modern day cricket a player is only as good as his last performance. One simply cannot be allowed a free ride on account of past glories. Dileep's analysis is spot-on. India were never really a good test cricket team. There have been sparks of brilliance now and then but they've been due to individual accomplishments rather than the whole team performing. The transformation in the team in the one day game is yet to translate into success at the test arena but with the right set of players test cricket glory cannot be too far. To all the Northie-Southie bashers/hatemongers I have only one thing to say - "Please get back into the holes you've emerged from. Your stench is just unbearable". Keep up the good work Dileep.

dear arun, i ll leave aside my cricket credentials away for a while. i just want to make a suggestion. you were too excited to write your piece in which you say, i know a s*** about the game. well you might be right but you dint realise that what you were talking about was not posted by me at all. if you will see carefully the person who posts something, his name is written at the bottom of the piece not on top. i can understand, you probably got too moved by what the the next person has written.
some people have written that Dileep has not talked about ganguly at all, well, i feel quite sure that when he talks about, to accommodate certain individuals, he is looking at ganguly. plus if we visit cricinfo often we can understand. there are times when i have read an article first and knew, oh Dileep is at it again, and then checked the author to be Dileep. But the silver lining is, for every dileep there is a rahul bhattacharya. who wrote that wonderfully balanced article, praising and criticising Ganguly where it was due. and please dont react, Ganguly saga is not over. Fighter that he was and is, He will come back to play a "Test".

what may be a problem for india going forward in onedays and has been already a problem in tests is the obsession with playing 5 full time bowlers. Statements like we need 5 full time bowlers to win matches especially abroad do not appear to have been based on verification of facts of consistently winning sides. In one days if we have 4 full time bowlers and 2 good part timers like yuvraj and sehwag, where is the need for a 5th full time bolwer. Invariably the 5th full time bowler bowls not more than 5 overs and is usually the most expensive. The argument that you need 5 bowlers to win matches overseas seems even more faulty because pitches outside india especially in australia/england/s.africa tend to help bowlers more than subcontinental pitches and hence 4 bowlers should be able to do the job in such conditions. Infact, india has usually won matches where the batsmen have aggressively dominated scoring at more than 3.5 runs an over. this can happen only if we have 6 batsmen .. else if two wickets fall quickly the rest of the batsmen go into a shell ..as in the back of their minds is a long tail..and one has to just look back at recent indian batting history to note that indian batsmen have invariably lost their way when they go into a shell..

Mr Premchandran,
Leave it or take it, ganguly was the best captain india ever had.He might be arrongant, he might be biased towards few players but he was never selfish. I am so distressed by the treatment given to ganguly, look at dravid, in his "hey" days he was pathetic as a one day player, so ganguly asked him to keep wickets so that he can be in the team and now dravid doesn't want ganguly in the team. Look at EX-master blaster shewag, he came into the Indian team because of ganguly ( ganguly always favoured shewag,bhajii, yuvraj )and now Shewag thinks ganguly is a closed chapter. I know I am diverting from the topic, but I just want to show how much hurt I am because of the treatment given to ganguly. Mark my words, ganguly will be back in team again...sooner or later.

It is a refreshing article after the bile juice we have had to endure about india's drop in test form.In all the hysteria we forget how india batted in the first 2 tests in pakistan and dominated england in tests in india.Maybe we still lack the incisive bowlers who can wrap up entire team and have some batsmen in their twilight years but as dileep put it ,it takes longer to build a test team and some deadwood choopping needs to be done which won't be easy.We have trusted chapell so far who has lived up to it admirably .There is no reason why we should't now

So, after bashing ganguly it looks like the article is also saying John wright is a good coach but he wasnt best at that time. I guess you couldnt find any other words to describe ganguly as everyone has used everybit of theirs and now it is the turn of Wright to face the music of words. Please, remember if not for john wright, we wouldnt have chappell today, we wouldnt have so called "Team India" today. Well, agreed India is doing well in ODI format, no doubt just that we will have new opener every game until sachin arrives, then we will have new one drop batsmen for every game which is hailed as strategy or experimentation. I am very surprised that we are yet to figure out the best 11 for the world cup which is a year away and we will hardly have 30 ODI's from now till world cup. As per DP article, under Ganguly/Wright era if drawing against England in England (DP calls it England B team - FYI it was almost the same team which had levelled the series when it toured India - remember flintoff did not shine in that series) , levelling series against Australia in Australia, winning against Pak were not good and cannot be considered excellent for a team that was only loosing away then i dont understand how can home series victory aginst SL and England (the current touring side is worse than the one that had toured India before), Pak series victory in Pak, drawn series against SA in ODI format which India is supposedly excelling now can be considered as an acheivement. Yes, India are doing better but in no ways these feats aginst SL, pak and Eng can be considered as an acheivement. DP had mentioned that in Aus (2003 series) they did not have Mcgrath and Warne, but can anyone point out any team that had levelled a test series in Aus apart from india. During that time even Pak toured Aus that too with sohaib on their side, but the result Pak was washed away in all the 3 test matches. Coming to Karachi test, people have said that Dravid was forced to open in order to accomodate ganguly, dont we all know about famous animation between dravid, chappell and ganguly on the eve of first test match in Pak, it was widely described as dravid asking ganguly to open and ganguly declining it. This comment was emphasized by Nasser Hussain who was commenting with Imran khan for a TV channell; But later all of us know that ganguly wanted to open and dravid wanted to take on the mantle upon himself. So, kindly stop the non-sense that dravid opened because of ganguly declining it. When dravid was so particular that he wanted to open inspite of ganguly willing to, i just dont understand why has he hesitated to do that previously. Does this mean he will lead by example only when he is the captain???? Sorry for these words on dravid but thats how it looks to be. How can all of a sudden even when the other person is ready to open, dravid decides against it and he opens the batting. The same thing is now happening in ODI, if Dravid is so reluctant to open and the current opener sehwag is not performing with sachin also there, doesnt it makes sense to give ganguly an opportunity. After all sachin and ganguly formed a formidable opening partnership until ganguly sacrificed his opening position for sehwag. Well if ganguly is not fit for ODI format, is it on the basis of running between the wickets or batting or fielding? If it is running between the wickets then please take a look at the cricinfo article for people involved in run outs(running himself out and running the opposite end batsmen out), you will get an answer to it. Then for fielding agreed ganguly is not a great athelete, is sehwag an excellent fielder??? If India is willing to accomodate and wait for sehwag to get back to form even for one year of not scoring a century, then i dont see any wrong in giving chances to ganguly who has been the second person to score more then 10,000 ODI runs. What is being asked here to give chances not to keep him team if he is not performing. The botton line is ganguly was not removed when he had to be and removed when he was showing enough promise. If people are talking about karachi test and ahmedabad test against SL, please refer to articles by Arjuna ranatunga and others they will tell you who batted better in both the test matches. So stop throwing tantrums on ganguly and ask Chappell's boys to move ahead by defining a role for everyone. One thing which strikes me is everytime chappell describes sachin role as mentor.... what is he meaning??? Wasnt sachin offering any advice to team members before chappell came, he is portraying it as though it was his new strategy and no one else who is as senior as sachin in other teams are doing it. The other side of it appears like even if sachin doesnt score heavily, he will be in the team because the team doesnt have any mentors apart from sachin. Please mark my previous words, i had referred as sachin doesnt score heavily and i did not say sachin not scoring, so dont pounce upon me that i am aginst sachin. No way!!!! had ganguly exhibited the same silence 5 years back as what dravid is doing now, i wonder who would have been the captain now?????????

Excellent article, Dilip! For once we have someone who can think, analyze and articulate well. For those Ganguly-lovers, remember that it was the same “Prince” who was reprimanded and fined more times than you can count. Whats so Princely about that? And Gavaskar… Well if you even remotely remember his times , he always played for his records and NEVER for the team. It was the same Gavaskar who said –back in 2000 ---that Dravid is not suitable for the one-day games. Gavaskar always had an agenda. First it was his record and now his son Rohan. For once, we have a team that thinks and plays as ONE unit and the credit goes (partially) to Ganguly/Wright and Greg/Dravid.

If we cant celebrate victory and give credit where it is due, we don’t deserve to be part of ANY sport , leave alone cricket.

Excellent article, Dileep. Indian cricket's evolution has been half dimensional over the past decades – and mostly headed south. There has been little or no evolution in attitude, culture or results. It has always been a few good, face-saving, performers amidst plethora of loses. Greg and Rahul are adopting an "evolution in a test tube" approach, to instill in the team all that it failed to nurture during all these decades, within the short period they have in hand. Kudos to the much improved selectors, team management, Team India and a growing breed of honest writers like Dileep. It’s natural for sports men to fall. But champions get up, dust themselves and move ahead, instead of rolling around.

Great incisive article Dileep..and whats necessary to remember is that the personnel in the team have remained more or less the same in both form of the games(with certain notable changes!!!)...hence them doing well in ODI's and not so well in tests means that are extraneous factors affecting the performance in the test arena...and we all know what they are don't we...do the alphabets SG and the meddling politics of the BCCI ring a bell??!

The article made lot of sense. Even then, I would argue that our one day success should not be hyped to this extent. It would make more sense for India to play tournaments with 3 or 4 teams and win a series.I personally do not see a point in playing 1 team 7 times and emerge a winner. It does not convey anything about how we are going to perform in the world cup.We need 2 more teams to compete against and a cup to play for.
All we are doing right now is decorating our stats.I wonder what new plans they would come for the same players 7 times and still lose the 6 th one day.It does not make sense.
I hope Sehwag and Kaif set an example right away by going back to domestic cricket and get their errors rectified. In sehwag I see a ganguly, some one who cannot come out of his comfort zone and try to improve as a player. I am sure kaif will.

I think this article is more precise and less sensationalist than Ashok Malik's. I certainly disagree, as the author does, that India has failed or declined as a Test team since Chappell's arrival.

However, this is not, as the author suggests, simply because there wasn't anything to decline from, for one cannot simply throw aside the progress the Test side made under the Ganguly-Wright combination. True, the home record went a little awry, but neither Ganguly nor Wright are to blame for that. You can't expect touring sides to not be able to adjust to Indian conditions after 20-30 years of telling experience. However, if you look at our abysmal away record: not having won a Test abroad for time immemorial, the resurgence led by Ganguly and Wright was more than laudable.

Nothing has changed under Chappell really. There hasn't been a decline, to be honest. Let's not forget that the first two Test matches of the Pakistan series were played in conditions which were literally paradise on Earth for batsmen. And two-three sessions which cost us the Karachi match can hardly be labelled as decline.

What then remains is the recent drawn series against England. Again, this failure was more because England were more than inspirational in the last Test match...again, two sessions that sealed our fate.

At the same time, the same team tasted cake-walk type success against Sri Lanka at home last year. One cannot discount that... Chappell really hasn't done anything different to the Test team.

And also the fact that in series against pakistan, most of Pakistan Middle-Order was woefully out of form. The only man scoring runs was Shoaib Malik and still they chased 330 runs.

Well written article. There are some worrying trends in our test team. The team's inability to play Mohd Asif well in helpful conditions cost them the Karachi match along with Akmals fantastic fight back.

Apart from Dravid the rest of the team including Tendulkar based on his form over the last three years will always struggle against quality bowling in helpful conditions and worse we are unable to play spin in helpful conditions too as seen in last series in Srilanka.
Apart from Tendulkar's wretched form, I frankly cannot see Sehwag lasting any longer at the top of the order. He is not out of form -- he has been completely worked out. He will always struggle against good opposition and the sooner the team and he himself realises--it will be better for the team.

Hey guys It OK.
These are just comments, his comments its not possible that they might be true or right. Its OK to have opinions.
And yes he is right. I think dravid is the best thing that has happened to india in recent times he plays as if his life is on the line. Ganguly; good captian a fighting one, but made one of the biggest mistakes in his life by giving the world cup of 2003 to Ausies. He won the Toss and gave them a chance to Bat. Well that is the only descision I think he made bad. Rest this column is about the indian wins and losses and just like a pakistani writer he writes that when they win its against a B team and when they loose its like all hell broke loose. This is amazing..... Leave it man let them play. They play to their full potential. The play good cricket thats all. Tendulker the guy you ppl praise the most is not that good a winner as dravid. There is a joke that us friends have that whenever Tendulker makes a century against any big team India looses. So I sometimes curse them pakistani bowlers when they get him out in the 90s. Hey man let him make his hundred its a passport to our success. Cheers mate its all a joke thats all. I went to Karachi Test All the way just to see him play. He didnt play there for long but every single of his shots is a mastery of placement and power. Other than that i think leaving the old behind and thinking about the future is what all should do. otherwise England might not have never won the ashes. The key players of that side had never played a test against the ausies and did not know what defeat was all about. Thats why they were good. So we should accept new blood and give them time.

Dileep, Dileep,

How can you now forget the famous one at Headingley,
When you the speak of the greatest of them three,
For this was a match that had a certain mister crawley,
allegedly the best player of spin and turn in the old blighty
And though that was a song by the bat chomping ozzy,
We know that was a test match worthy,
of a mention in the greatest of them three.

surely, you agree?

Thanks for a great article, Dileep. While, as you say, the test team performance has not yet declined, it has to be recognized that it is in grave danger of doing so. The greedy and shortsighted BCCI effect (due to scheduling of an insane number of meaningless ODIs that crowd an already packed test schedule) is likely to dominate over the constructive efforts of the Chappel-Dravid combo.

The ODI team has been successful because of its bench strength - the only way to sustain performance with a crazy schedule. It is much more difficult to create a pool of 20 players for test cricket than it is for ODIs, as you need specialists for the longer version of the game.

DP, S Kaul, U Mishra and everyone else.....

Why is that we are unable to analyse the current Indian without bringing in SG and comparisons? Can you people respond to Dileep's piece without bringing in SG? Try doing that!

In comparison, let me also point out that the English supporters are looking at the ODI whitewash (immediately after their great victories in the recent past) in a different perspective - not bashing Nasser Hussain or bringing in Geoff Boycott or anyone else.

Grow up Indian fan / supporter!!!

Dearest CyberPunk,
As you said Akash Chopra,Sanjay Bangar,Murali Kartik never got dad's fancy but how come I don't see them in the team now ?
I think "Jammy" is very busy eating "jam". One last thing,
the only reason these guys didn't play because you can only play 11 players in a match.

The author is in an illusion. Look at the england team Trescothick, Vaughan, Jones, Harmison are out. With the bat and ball they can contribute significantly and a win against an English team without these guys cannot be treated as a benchmark for Indian Team. Imagine if Australian team scores more than 300 in the world cup finals will any of our players stand up to it and take the Aussie attack to swords. I think you are jumping into a conclusion very early. Our bits and pieces team is not capable of putting in desparate fight till the end and that too under this rate of experimentations and our major run machines out of order.

why drop only gc ????.drop sachin. in last 10 tests he averages 28.50 which includes a 100 against SL. but no 50s.in last 15 tests it is 34.70 excluding bangladesh.Just recall a test
in past 3yrs that sachin has won for india

ok that's fine with me that india never been a good test team, but atleast ganguly gelled some ordinary players and he was heading to become a world beater. but rash indian politics lead by bizzare dravid who was a mere pedistrian ODI player when ganguly included him in the team india being constantly opposed by giants. lets forget all, resurgence of indian team is not due to dravid or chappel, it is just due to four player
1. yuraj is in prime form
2. dhoni is great player
3. pathan is lucky getting away
4. harbhajan is unplayable on indian tracks.
but on the other end apart from yuraj they are ineffective in tests. i realy blame dravid and chappel for defeat in mumbai as they dropped inform kaif and included out of sorts tendulkar and sehwag. had kaif been in indian team they would have won the series. shame on chappel, drvid and particulrly management for this blamish.

Great article. I agree with most of what was said. Inda was good in test cricket for a while because of the big 5 and still did not win much apart from a few tests because Team india lacked test match winning bowlers. However though I am no SG lover, I think they shud have included SG atleast for the dead rubbers against END and the 2 odis in abu dabi. They could have seen what he is worth as a batsman and a part time bowler. If he failed they would have had reason to dump him for good and shut his followers up. If he had performed team India would have got back its greatest openeing pair of all time "Sachin and Saurav" and Shewag cud have been pushed back to the middle order. Oppurtunity wasted. Though I understand Greg's hatred towards SG (Who would ever like a person who talks to the media abt team talk.... it was a cheap stunt that too for a scratchy 100 against a club attack of Zim) I think Greg should learn to forgive SG and give SG one last chance for the good of Indian cricket.
If SG performs good for team India... if he fails then good too... SG can be a closed chapter and cant haunt Team India.
Anyone saying Dravid is a puppet and soft should just shut up. Listen to what yuvraj had to say abt Dravid. He said by openeing against Pak when the team was in trouble made the team envy and respect him. Who are we to sit at home and comment on a person whom we know nothing about. A person need to spew obscenities, strip naked and dance in a balcony, break the ICC rulings to be aggressive. Dravid has proved he is a rock and his opponents respect him for that. So all you Dravid bashers can just shut up and enjoy what he is doing for Team India. If not for Rahul Team India would have not won any of those famous tests that SG is taking credit for.

I believe that Dileep_Premachandran got it mostly right. The ICC test and ODI rankings may not be an absolute measure of the performance of the current teams but here is where it stood immediately after Ganguly was captain for the last series compared to where it is now.

ODIs:
May 2005 7th with a rating of 97. Currently 3rd with a rating of 115.

Tests:
October 2005, 3rd with a rating of 112. Currently also 3rd with a rating of 111.
One test lost in Pakistan and one test lost against England recently could be the only low spot for the present Dravid/Chappell era.

First of all, to Dileep Premachandran, I say the following: Kudos!! A brilliant article that has hit the nail right on head is what we have read right now.

The Indian team was going through a rough phase, because certain individuals such as Ganguly were more keen on pressing their own agendas than winning matches for India. I used to love Ganguly as a capatin ... he has given India some of it's finest moments. He was also an "in-your-face" character, which meant that he wouldn't take things lying down. However, after a certain point, machoness and bravado can only go so far. The plain fact is that by 2003 any bowler who pitched the ball short and into him could get his wicket. I've seen some of his dismissals, and it seems like he wouldn't have lasted 5 balls in a local match, forget internationls. Players should be picked on their performances, and not on their reputations. Ganguly was once a feared player, but over the past couple of years, bowlers would be eagerly anticipating his arrival to the crease just so that they could get a cheap wicket.

Something similar can be said of Zaheer Khan And Ashish Nehra. When they burst onto the scene a few years ago, it seemed that India would finally have a pace attack to be recoked with. I loved the way Nehra shredded Engalnd's batting in the 2003 World Cup. However, over the past couple of years, they have lost their pace and become less effective. What's the point of having someone in the team when they can't perform their primary function -- pick up wickets? The batsmen could make as many runs as possible, and yet there would be a possibility of losing because our pace spearhead (read Zaheer Khan) would pitch the ball short or too full repeatedly, match after match.

For all those people that think the Indian team is in decline, have you even watched any matches that India has played, or are you just caught up in the hype of Ganguly in India? I am an NRI, and I have never lived in India, yet I support the Indian team to the fullest. I am very happy they have made these changes and dropped the dead wood like Ganguly, Khan, and Nehra. These players were contributing nothing to the team lately ... every time these 3 played, it looked like 8 players were taking the field instead of 11. Sreesanth, RP Singh, Pathan, and Powar have proved that they have what it takes to carry India to the next level. The ODI successes are just the beginning. Give the Indian team some more time, and you will see the same results in the test arena.

And finally, for all those people who still want to continue harping on that Ganguly should be in the team, wake up and smell the coffee. The Indian team had had a string of successes since they dropped him, but you guys turn a blind eye towards them. Yet, when there is one defeat, you clamour for Ganguly to be reinstated to the team. Let me ask you this ... if Ganguly would have been in the team, could he have prevented the team from losing? Answer: No. All the opposing bowlers would have to do is dig one in short, and Ganguly would be trudging back to the pavilion would another score of less than 20. Stop supporting Ganguly and give the new youngsters who are winning matches for India your support. They are the ones who deserve it, not someone who has his glory days, but then overstayed his welcome.

Even conceding some pessimists comments that Sr Lanka,England aren't the greatest of one day teams to have walked the earth,can it be denied that a year or so back we were struggling to beat teams like zimbabawe in ODI series(i mean going up 2-0 then 2-2 and win a "final" 3-2).
The greatest contribution of Chappell has been to instill the winning habit which I am sure will rub off on our test side.Remember the Australian taems win in the WC 1986 catalysed them into a great Test team over a period of time which we must give to this Indian team.

Guys we have to appreciate the team building up now and we have now become good chasing team in one day cricket.Saurav ganguly's team could never chase except for 1 or 2 matches.We lost all the finals.I think he was a good player but not a good captain.He has leadership qualities but couldnt inspire the team because of his attitude.He has attitude problem that made him lose his career.If he had left captaincy and stayed calm in the team, he would have still been in the team.Now every one in the team is better performer than saurav.
Lets encourage the current team rather than keep hitting the past.

Being a Bengali,I have a strong like for Sourav Ganguly no doubt but fact remains he is not being missed.He had enough time to correct his deficiencies like his weakness against the short ball but slept over it and is now paying the price.
No true Indian fan should in his right mind suspect the intentions of the GC -RD combine...it remains commitment to excellence.
Ganguly was good but unfortunately all good things must come to an end.Ganguly has taken us to a certain level for which I'm sure he is loved and respected irrespective of State preferences(which anyway is blown out of proportion) and its now the turn of RD-GC to take us to the next station.Its time a section of the Bengali press and certain Bengali "intellectuals" such as former Bengal Ranji cricketers and useless Tollywood "stars" who are using the Ganguly issue to flaunt themselves on Tv at the slightest oppurtunity realise this.
However Kiran More's comments about Ganguly should be universally condemned.Surely a cricketer who has played for the country(leave alone been its most successful skipper)deserves better treatment.Is it asking for a bit too much??
All the best to the RD-GC combine in their quest for excellence!

Mr. Dilip, There is no use banging heads on the wall. In the era of competition there are always the sloths who protest the way things are being run because they cannot handle the speed and pressure due to their own laziness. This includes the supporters of such people, who arnt even close to the real action by light years. The only way things can be proved right or wrong is through results. Lets all wait for the world cup and see who is right and who is wrong

In terms of analysis reason can be found for many things. Success can have many reasons and same for failures. Chappel is good but not great. Dravid will now feel the pressure when batsman like Kaif and Sehwag are not performing. Also Its my personal opinion Sachin will also struggle if he continues to play like he played in the recent tests with two minds.

WI World cup: we have sri lanka, bangladesh and bermuda in our sides. Bangladesh can cause a shock and Sri Lanka will try to get back at us. So a chance may come that we may not qualify for the super eight also.

Now for the analysis Irfan and Dhoni performing while top order collapsing. Individual performance gets us through always and so the same case here. Dravid and Chappel have done nothing except given a new term EXPERIMENTATION.

While passion is good, it is also bad. We always have the habit of praising the team too high if they win a few mathces and dump them altogether when they lose a few. Talking about the string of one day victories, bear in mind that all the victories have come within a short space of time and within the subcontinent. We can be termed world beaters and great side only if we go and win in places like australia, SA and NZ.

While Chappell and Dravid keeps talking about performance being a key to be in the side, continuing to keep Sehwag and Kaif seems inexplicable - it is fair that Ganguly was dropped as he was not performing but the same logic does not seem to apply to Chappell's 'favourites'!!!

Excellent article.After a really long time i see truth written,no frills attached.
Ravi Manchandan...Uttiya Misra....need nothing more than a severe spanking.u insult indians...dump ur shit else where and dont bring it to ur country men.shitheads
Cricinfo,please dont put up such irrelavant responses

I have always been a fan of Dilip Premchandan. His articles showcase his immense understanding of cricketing dynamics. Mr Premchandani has discussed some excellent points here. To call him prejudiced and opinionated is just ridiculous.

Understanding the game of cricket and understanding its dynamics/politics/adminstration are two entirely different things.Indian cricket is served by the best brains in the form of Rahul Dravid and Greg Chappell and the less said about their cricketing acumen the better. The problem with Indian cricket is that every dick, harry and soumitra (as some eminent writer had written earlier in his post) has something to say. All these ill witted hyperbole will not serve any good.

I very much agree that public debates are really important to improve state of indian cricket. However, we need objective and sensible analysis from people possessing some degree of understanding of the game and not just pedestrian comments from some quotidian people.

Take a bow Mr Premchandani!

Well.. its a good analysis.. but with a bias.. Its become a favourite pastime for all the Indian Cricket writers to blame Ganguly. I'm not an avid Ganguly fan but I do not like the way he has been treated lately.. He deserved much better.. Dont forget that today's Yuvrajs, Sehwags, Harbhajans and the likes owe a lot to that man. He was the one who backed them to the hilt..
As of Dravid.. well he is very likeable person.. but I dont regard him as an astute captain.. it seems he just follows wat Chapppal ;-) tells him.. He will be tested against aggressive teams like Australia in their own den.. I just hope he does well..

Fun reading all the senti comments. Far more interesting than the article. As for the southie debate ( i am a southie too), the person who started it will crib if he knows the indian team is not served idli dosa for breakfast...hehehehe.
As Dravid says, it is only a game...so move on with your lives guys..the team will still get millions irrespective of whether they win or lose.

It is great analysis Prem.

When Ganguly was captain, we got victories because of VVS, Sachin & harbhajan. But now even Dhoni, Yuvraj & pathans perform because of Greg Chappel & Rahul Dravid. Nice analysis.

Bear in mind that these people started where Ganguly left. But he started when India is a dead wood (now you are mentioning Ganguly as dead wood) because of scams.

Yes. We need to forget the past glory and praise the Australian born coach. Then only we can win the world cup in 2007.

Worthy article and timely too!

Let's face it, Wright and Ganguly initiated a mini-revolution and Chappel-Dravid combo are taking it further. Both pairs need to be credited for the results achieved, but as with any revolution, heads roll to make way for the newer crop. That said, the way Ganguly was dealt with was far from optimal. A senior player of his stature should have been clearly told of the expected role, underlining the 'horses for courses' rule ( not that Dada was unaware of this! )and leaving nothing for imagination. Remember, cricket is a gentleman's game and 'Dada-giri' unlikely to survive.

Lets wish that Indian team does well, rather than bringing in the regional divide suggested by a friend(?!) from the US.

And Cheers again to Dileep!

We may or may not agree with greg chapells policies. But the fact is that Indian cricket needed someone who took the hard decisions. And here was the man who was ready to take them.
It was very evident that India was struggling in the one day game simply because they were very predictable. Seven Batsmen , Dravid as keeper , four bowlers. Sehwag and tendulkar at top follwed by Laxman , Ganguly , Dravid Yuvraj Kaif. No flexibility. No adaptation.
Greg Chapeel has changed all that. No we are taken seriusly as a one day team. Whave actually have 11 decent fielders and even when six wickets are down we still have hopes of winning.
Chappel needs to convert this success into the Test Arena. He has admittedly ben part to some strange decisions, but give credit to the man, atleast he is bold enough to believe in his convictions.

Cricket is a sport. We as Indians sometimes forget that, mainly because there are very few sports in which we are good at. The USP of cricket is that it is a team sport and we as indians come together either in joy or anguish as our cricket team plays.

the non representation of an individual in the team has broken this camaraderie in the recent past amongst the loyal Indian cricket fan.

Ganguly's ouster in my view had more to do with his fading away as a team man rather than his cricketing abilties.

Finally we have a new look indian cricket team that looks and plays like a team. Give it a chance.

Good article Dileep. I think our ODI team is getting better but the real test will be whether we can match or even better the strong teams like Aus or SA before the world cup. It feels good to see the team win the series against SL, SA, Pak and Eng but still not sure if they were really tested at any time by a stronger opposition.

Sir,
I have always appreciated your style of writing. But, I do not agree with some of your observations this time arround.
We must alll remember that India is yet to be tested against the very best in One Day International cricket. We have been having a dream run but we have only bee, of late, tasting success within the terrotorial confines of South Asia against some mediocre sides except South Africa and a confident Pakistan side to some extent. So I believe that it is too early to jump the gun.
Just as you tried to minimize the home success against Austrailia in 2001 to a few brilliant peaces of cricket, similarly the recent success in the shorter version can merely be said to be a product of heroic performances by Yuvraj, Dhoni and Pathan. We canot allow our faint memories to forget what a critical role captain Ganguly played in transforming the Indian side in those tumultuous times. I do'nt at all say that the current side is not doing well. My only problem is that we as Indians, are often too critical of our successes.

Dear Mr Premachandran
i have been a regular reader of cricinfo since its beginning. Your articles have always been interesting, a joy to read. Your arguments in this instance are logical, and they reflect the feeling of millions of genuine cricket lovers, people who want to see India develop into the best side. You may definitely get brickbats from the exIndian players such as Wadekar, Gavaskar and Bedi. i think Sunil Gavaskar is experiencing premature senility from what one reads in his 'columns'. We all know that Chappell has been good for Indian cricket.

Well done Dileep. Keep it up.

Soorya

In Cricket, Test matches are well and truely won by great fast bowlers. It's the plain and simple truth. Until and unless, India produces a great fast bowler in the league of Ambrose, McGrath, Donald, Pollock, Akram etc, we are not gonna win a test series abroad.
This has been the case with all the dominant teams in Cricketing history. Windies were dominant where ever they palyed in the 80's and the late 90's cus of their great fast bowlers. Australia dominated the last decade bcus of the irreplacable Glenn Mcgrath and even the South Africans had abroad success in the 90's when Donald and Co were in their pomp.
Also,if you think further,Pakistan's record overseas had always been better than India's , the reason being they had Akram and Younis and now Akthar and the ever improving Mohammad Asif.
Srilanka and India have Murali and Kumble but they haven't till date won any series for their teams abroad.
So, guys, it doesn't matter who is the coach or captain of Indian Cricket team, what matters is the why for christ sake, we don't produce great fast bowlers who have that X-factor along with skill to grab a 5 for or 10 for and therby win us matches abroad??
Hope,we find an answer to that question someday..

Well written and creditable response from Dileep to that wholly unsubstantiated and subjective garbage written by Ashok Malik recently. Cricinfo has partly made up for its gaffe of letting Malik present a very low quality article on its real-estate by carrying this riposte from DP.

Any dispassionate fan knows India was always an average, sometimes poor, TEST side. And we'll continue being so until we find a good bowling attack. I believe Dravid and Chappel have this in mind and are attempting the right things.

Well written article. Decline in test match performances in India
started when Ganguly was captain, with the opposition playing well against spin. Did we not lose against australia, last time they toured india? I dont know why Ganguly gets the credit for youngsters doing well. Should we give credit to Dravid, for Raina doing well? And keep Raina out, when Dravid has a form problem and is not playing well? We lost in Karachi, since we picked Ganguly, and not pick a specialist opener. Dont forget Aakash chopra's contribution in the victory in Australia, shielding the middle order against top quality pace, less mcgrath

Decent article Dileep, however I wouldn't call it one of your best. It lacked some of the pure acidity that I personally enjoy.

The reality is, 1998-2003 was the second "Golden Age of Indian Batsmanship" - and it is a pity that we couldn't get a bowling line-up to match it. Tests, ODIs, 20/20 - whatever the canvas is - this game requires balance.

If we combined India 2001-2003 with where Munaf, VRV, Pathan and Sreesanth will be in 2007... then we'd have a team that would have been "great".

So, now that the batting is in decay (unless everybody here thinks Yuvraj, Raina and Kaif are worthy replacements for VVS, Ganguly and Tendulkar) and the bowling stock is on the rise, we'll have to deal with another generation of bittersweet pursuits.

The current ODI team though, I have to admit, has the potential to become the world's number one. Munaf needs to crank it up on the consistency stakes... Kaif needs to work on finishing... Tendulkar WILL act like it is WC2003 again... Yuvraj and Suresh are awesome additions... and then there is Dravid... along with Powar, Pathan and Harbhajan

Our best fielding outfit, one of our better bowling line-ups and a damn good batting line-up means we have a serious shot at ODI greatness.

I still can't believe THAT batting line-up never got the privilege of tasting more success. Bittersweet indeed.

Z.

Good article. I believe that no Indian player should be encouraged to be lazy. If we need to sacrifice something like then do it.

I think we are getting too carried away by one day victories against SL, Pak and England. Against a better team like SA it was 2-2 and who knows we may probably have lost if rain did not wash off one game.

We are creating too much hype around players like Sreesanth, Munaf and Raina. Let them perform consistently abroad or win a series on their own (like Asif did for Pak) then we can say that they have star capabilities.

Fortunately for Chappel and Dravid, the real test will not come soon as India do not have tough test tours in near future. The current WI team can hardly be classified as international quality, they have lost against every team in recent past.

Also I still dont understand why the writer has so much hatred for Ganguly, after all he laid the foundation for being a strong team under all situations which made us win test matches abroad (atleast we did not loose like earlier years). Just because Chappel told that he creates rifts in the team, we are rushing to conclusions.

If you're saying that test team was never great because it did not win outside the subcontinent, where has the ODI team won? In India and Pakistan! Wait till they are tested in alien conditions before hailing them as world beaters!

Hi Dileep,
I agree with you about the fact that this isn't quite a decline in tests, but you seem to have dismissed what we achieved from 2000-early 2004.

Technically, your statement is correct that we didn't win any series of importance outside the subcontinent. But how many times had we won even "matches" outside India before that? Just some 13 times. In this duration we won at least one test in England, WI and Australia and SL, not counting Zim/BD.

And whoever has witnessed any Indian test series in Pakistan before knows very well that a Pak team in complete shambles can always regroup when it's against India. I wouldn't dismiss a test series win for an Indian team in Pakistan regardless of whatever circumstances it was played in. In the 80's it looked impossible that an Indian team will have enough confidence and temperament to play to its potential in Pak.

I am not trying to differentiate between Ganguly and Dravid as captains here, but I have also been watching test cricket for more than 20 years and in those 3-4 years from 2000 we did win some good tests.

Check this: From 1932-2000 we won 13 tests outside India.
After 2000 we have won 12. Sure, that's including BD and Zim. But we did go to Zim in '92 and '98 and we all know what happened.

India has gone past 600 only 7 times outside India - 5 of those have come after 2000.

During the break of 2004 (after which it took a turn down), Tendulkar, Sehwag, Laxman and Dravid all had their career best scores against Australia and Pakistan, and except for that immortal innings of Laxman at home, those would have been all outside India.

I am sure you will agree that it did not happen that often before 2000. When I say it isn't quite a decline it's because they haven't played outside that much yet after GC-RD took over.

i personally feel that india will still not become a true great one day side. The recent wins have been against moderate teams, and when the team lose someone like pathan, they will be much weaker. I think that ganguly should not have been dropped after his performences against pakistan, and greg chappel seems to have a personall grudge against him. someone like venugopal rao cannot replace ganguly, no matter how good he seems at the moment. some people do not understand the importance of ganguly to the indian team, both as a player and as a captain. I agree that we are doing well now, but i do not feel that this will remain the case. i agree that greg chappel has brought something different to this indian team and has been a good coach. But removing ganguly was one of his bad decisions, as he would have come back into form. they are refusing to bring him back even if he plays outstanding for bengal. But i hope that india manage to continue this form, and become an outsnading one day outfit, even if i do not agree with some of the things that have taken place.

Its not about who was dropped and who was picked. Its about is the Indian team declining in Tests and is it doing well in ODIs.
Is it doing well in ODIs - hell yes!
Is it declining in Tests, hell no! Its been where it was all the time - insipid as a team. Chappell was not alone in India's success in ODIs and Ganguly was not alone in India's failures. So please stop this sentimental crap about who did what to Indian cricket!

I couldnt have agreed with Dileep more. Some sensible read for the people who were really irritated with what Mr. Mallik had to say. I found Mr. Mallik's article lacking in decent cricketing sense. He shouldnt even be allowed write on a website which is unarguably the best website for cricket analysis. Dravid and Chappell are trying to bring a lot professionalism and discipline in the Indian side. It is something which India needed so desperately esp after Ganguly saga. It is the captain who excecutes all the plans which the team management makes. So you really can not doubt Dravid's contribution to the team's revival.

Keep up the good work, Dileep.

I think it is a good article. When did India ever win 6-1 or 5-1 whatever it was against SriLanka and then defeating Pakistan so badly in Pakistan.also now up against England 4-1 so i dont see any problem. yes there were few defeats in test arena but they are going to be allright. Also, Ganguly was a good batsman but there is so much talent in India that if you dont perform you dont deserve the place as simple as that. thanks

Mr.Dileep's articles often elicit the strongest of responses( For example, the "little england" article)...There were certain intersting pts that I found myself agreeing with, but it was the comments section that fascinated me..
We Indians sure are a passionate lot, aren't we?...The thread seems to be growing by the minute, with interesting arguments all around...

Well,I am a Ganguly fan and will always be one (the only 2 innings that I will cherish forever are Sachin@ Sharjah and Dada@Taunton), but I think its high time we laid this issue to rest. The team is doing well. Even conceding that their recent superior run of form was on the sub-continent, IT IS STILL ONE HELL OF A RUN..We gotta give credit where its due...As for those who think it is not an exceptional achievement and we have to prove ourselves elsewhere, against "better" teams, lets wait and watch...and give them some time.. It should be consentaneous that the team is going in the right direction...simply coz they are winning...

Mr.Kamran Khalid has rightly pointed out that most of us sub-continent people(read "journalists" in particular) are fair-weather supporters and pretty bad ones too, at that..since we undermine most wins and scrutinize every loss under a huuuuge magnifying glass..

Lets just leave the Ganguly saga behind and move on guys.
Let sleeping dogs lie.

Just one more thing, about the southie/northie-bashing that I saw. Even though they don't merit a comment, it is an absolute disgrace to see such comments, even on a global forum like cricinfo.

good article. all these ganguly fans should just shut up..ok he did his bit for the team but its time to move. Sg was most sucessful captain but 5-6 victories were against either bangladesh & zimbabwe. so the question is was he realy our best captain? was he better than gavasker or a kapil? also SG had support of dalmiya so he could pick & choose his team. no other captain had that b4 him & i suspect even dravid is not enjoying that. coming to dravid..ppl who says that ganguly got him into th odi team is all crap even if he did than it was for his own benefit so he could play an extra batsmen. ppl writing abt this south vs bong stuff realy saden me, remember we r all indians first. i m right in thinking that we all want to see india as no.1 team.

I've given up all hope on reading anything objective about Indian Cricket long ago.
We are masters of politics and not surprisingly people seem unable to let go of their personal agenda.

I wonder which little birdie has been singing in authors ears about -

"... team management were not given the team that they asked for. Had a Sreesanth or another right-arm pace bowler traveled across the border..there would have been no three-man left-arm attack of mind-numbing sameness. And.. there would have been no tampering with the batting order to accommodate individuals at such a cost…”

This when chief selector seems to be thickest of buddies with ‘team management’.

1. Right Arm bowler
India went with Agarkar, Pathan, RP & Khan. Didn't any one realize that there are 3 lefties and Agarkar is a little bit - lets say - fragile? If it was ok at that time what changed later to call for another right-arm bowler?
In the 1st test only one leftie played - Pathan and in the 2nd all 3, so ‘left-arm attack of mind-numbing sameness’ was there only for 1 test. In 2nd both RP and Khan returned impressive figures. Only dud was Pathan who had figures of 1-180+ in the match. Agarkar sat out injury but was declared fit before 3rd test.
So to bring in a right armer you have to drop either 1of the 3 lefties or a spinner. Pathan would've been a candidate but he had a score of 90 in 1st innings, Harbhajan was indeed replaced but with Ganguly. Why was Ganguly picked is another matter, point being if you cannot utilize the available right armer, then what good a 'Sreesanth or another right-arm pace bowler' would do if you can't bring him in the team?
In the 3rd test, all 10 wickets in 1st inn. were taken by lefties(sameness indeed) and in the 2nd all lefties gave 100+ runs for a wicket each (sameness indeed!!). So 3 lefties were good in 1st innings but failed in 2nd innings (50-50 result for 3 lefties).
But India lost - suddenly someone realized that India lost because of ‘three-man left-arm attack of mind-numbing sameness’ and because team management was not given a right armer.
2. Opening
Dravid opened in 1st test to accommodate Ganguly in middle order. This was - 'Leading from the front', but Ganguly was not there in 2nd test. Wonder why an opener was not brought in. Dravid opened again, this time to accommodate Yuvraj in middle order. This was again 'Leading from the front’ - that he scored a century in both tests is icing on the cake.
In 3rd test situation reverted to that of 1st test (Ganguly back in middle order and Dravid still opening). The difference this time was that Dravid failed in both innings and India lost.
This time the $&!# hit the fan (or was thrown at the fan) and cries started about how India lost because the best Indian batsman had to open to accommodate a certain Ganguly in the middle order.
Moral of the story - use 'Leading from the front' tag when you score a century, but start bitching left and right when you fail!

Witness how Sehwag and Kaif merit all support and hand holding because they are 'proven performers'. Wonder what criteria excludes Ganguly from same classification - Is it only age... I don't think so.
I hate hypocrites and will say this -
Both the previous and the present captain are biggest of them all and current coach is not far behind.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing and it’s always 20/20. Please use some of that. Don't cloud your reporting by bringing in personal agenda and please - not another mention of 'team management' and 'those in the know'. Just gives away the game of politics played openly in the name of cricket reporting.

To all those who think that India was never a great side - are you trying to say that the curret side is a great one! If yes, I think you are blinded by patriotism or have weak faculties. Neither the current run of Indian team wins in ODI nor in tests impresses anybody. It's true that most of the teams India has faced were second rung. And the way they capitulated in the final test in Lahore was pathetic.
I don't think this team has half the mettle of the side which won 1983 WC. A few made-up TV stars can not bring you a world cup. As for tests, not so long ago the record for highest score ever chased was against a Team which included greats like Sunil Manohar Gavaskar and Gundappa Vishwanath, not to forget Mohinder Amarnath and Bishen Singh Bedi.

Excellent article. I agree with every word in the article. Great job. India is greater than individuals. Ganguly fans, please think. Ganguly did whatever was required of him and it is time we move on. Chapel did most of the things correct. Dravid will be the best captain India ever produced. Nobody is perfect, but they are trying their level best to improve Indian cricket. To win in Tests we need to take 20 wickets on pacer friendly wickets like Mumbai match against England.

This is typical desi discussion. No logic, only emotions.

Mr. Premachandran: We know you are a Sourav hater. But do you really have to subject us to your opinions again and again? Sourav is long gone. Give him his due and move on. Where does this hatred come from?

As for what GC has done, it is too early to say anything. One year is hardly any time for any coach to prove anything. GC's past record is nothing to gloat about. So, lets not waste any space claiming his greatness. I agree with his philosophy of experimentation and preparing players for multiple roles. However, that only works in ODIs. Test matches is for specialists. Lets see how India does over the next one year before we decide how Mr. Chappell has done.

Thanks to everyone for participating. Lets keep the decibel level low.

Suresh:

A quick question for you. GC's phylosophy of 'Perform or Perish' seems applicable only to a handful of players. Don't you think the same is applicable for Shewag and Md. Kaif? What is Venugopal Rao doing in this team? He has played about 12 odd matches with a highest score of 38! Tell me honestly, are you comfortable with the Indian top order? Don't you think the guy with 10,000 odd ODI runs with 22 hundreds is still required if we have to have a sound team for the WC?

Thanks, Subhojit

First of all, let me ask all you people a question. Instead of giving credit to DP on this wonderful article, why are you making articles of your own?I stand by DP and I concur with his argument that Chappell & Co are doing a fine job and Ganguly and his Mavericks had their day in the sun. Lets all appreciate the fact that DP has refuted the previous article brilliantly and presented a more holistic view to all readers.

Interesting article and opens a new viewpoint in the never ending analysis of the fortunes of the national cricket team. As good the analysis is, the very fact that the success from 2000 - 2003 has to be belittled to positively highlight the recent ODI successes betrays the author's prejudice. By any accounts the last Australian tour, where visions of a whitewash was the only recurrent dream for a fan before the tour, the fact that we came perilously close to winning makes it as epochal as the 2005 Ashes at least from Indian Cricket perspective. Same goes for the winning of the India leg of the Australian tour in 2001 and going to the finals in the 2003 world cup. Moreover, the author conveniently forgets that we didn't do as well in the ODI phase of the Aus tour as we did in the Test phase to justify his axiom that the test team was never as good as the ODI one. Is it a case of selective amnesia to justify arguments or prejudices?

The other recurring fallacy in the article as well as many comments above is to treat the 2000-04 era as a gangluy era and the present as a dravid era. The irony of the matter is Dravid was the most important cog in the previous era as is Pathan or Dhoni in the current one. In a team sport attributing success and faliure to a single individual and naming eras is a disservice to the stellar service of Kumble, Laxman and Harbhajan and many other vital contributions from others in the said period. Ironically the atriculate author seems to overlook this aspect with impunity for arriving at his conclusions.

The 2000-04 era saw the maturing of Dravid, Laxman, Harbhajan, re-emergence of Kumble and hence the team as a whole was a lot more robust. Unlike the premise in the article, there wass no essential disconnect between ODIs and tests apart from the fact that good ODI players eventually matured to become good Test "and" ODI players. In that sense the so called Ganguly/Wright era was at the sweet sopt of such a maturing cycle. No doubt the current crop of the wannabes would eventually inculcate the discipline of Test cricket and hence the fortunes of the Test team would go north. Attributing such a cyclical phase of team evolution to captain/coach eras and bringing in regionalism and selective standards of judgment is essentailly detrimental to the sport. The role of a coach/captain is that of an enabler who ensure best practices and fresh ideas are introduced and divisive instincts are kept at bay. But this operates alongside the dynamics of skillsets evolving in the players. Ultimately ideas and strategies don't win matches but a group of committed players who implement them effectively in the field.

The detestable manner in which Ganguly removal saga was handled, raised a lot of questions about the professionalism of the board, chappell, Ganguly and to some extent of Dravid. But using that as a plea to pile on articles and analysis dropping to the extent of belittling a glorious phase of indian cricket where we excelled as a "team" in home or overseas and in test or ODIs is "just not cricket" anymore.

Non Sequitur Mr Premachandran.

Indian batsmen are having a nice time in grassless farm pitches. Come southafrica later in the year. Then we will how some of the batsman like dhoni can bat with legs stuck with glue in their crease.

Dilip is just backing blindly to Chappel. May be we were not good side in test but do we need to continue with past or should we improve. Allready we have given a lot power to Greg now it is his turn. He is no way better than Right.

Hell...it's been one long posting after another. U'd think India's erudite millions have been awakened by Dileep.

So here's my take on the article. I thought the article was well written. And very interesting, that's why you have so many people commenting on it.

Coming to the whole issue of Ganguly, Dravid or Tendulkar. C'mon folks who are we kidding here, this is professional cricket which is unforgiving. Ganguly was a great captain and a good batsman. But you have to earn your place in the 11. Whichever way u look at it, Ganguly does not merit a place in this side. Same goes for anyone else, whether it's Tendulkar or Dravid or even Sehwag.

And the whole thing about Southie and anything else....gadzooks give me a break. Does it matter whether you're Southie or an #@#**%@#*. You have to be such a dimwit to bring that up. It pains me to read such inane comments. Ganguly was one of India's best captains and I hope Dravid does as well if not better. I hope India does well at this World Cup, I don't care if Dravid leads us or an orangutan that comes from the remote jungles of Timbuktu. What matters is that for once i'd like that winning feeling, and if Dravid and Chappell take us there, i'm all for that. Cheers to them.

A quite brilliant analysis by a top quality writer who tells as it is. Chappell has done a great job. India were disappointing and declining for too long, the spunk had gone. He has been strategically bold and agressive in both tests and one-dayers. He has made difficult selection decisions and blooded and developed the young guns. There have been some painful times, Karachi and Mumbai, but sometimes one step back can mean two steps forward. Getting things done and moving forward is hard work in India. We should try and understand the failures (so far) respect the progress to date, and give him more time to mould a new attitude and team. The batting legends are in decline and we need to develop a new quintet of fast bowlers. That is a hell of a challenge

Great Analysis with complete bias.
One good example was prem telling that past victories were based on individual performances.But what has changed now?? is it not true that we have not won a single match recently where everyone contributed?? most of the time Top order failing and one of the doni or yuvi or irfan shining!
He adds that we hav'nt won a series outside the sub-continent is true! But The truth is never in history we won series out-side the sub-continent.We won 12 matches out-side the sub-continent until 2000 in 68 yrs and won 11 matches in 5 yrs until 2005 nearly on all good sides.Is that not somthing notable?? We didnt had any overseas series yet after chappel tookover to claim that we are seeing some promise in the side.
About recent victories in one-day series.The quality side was only SA where we lost two and won two.We were not really at top on them.
Our all victories came against SL(5) and PAK(4).Now its england which we know what its current team status is! Is this a tremedious Achivement on home grounds.Rememeber we are always tigers at home.
We didnt have any tournament yet where more than one quality team is involved(even at home)

Anyone with a bit of comman sense can understand this hype or bias by the media sensationalizing as if we were bangladesh or kenya earlier to dravid-chappel and now doing an Australian thing(did we go atleast near to it??)
About tests
We won 48 matches between 2000 and 2005 and won 21 out of which 11 are out-side sub-continant in which WI,ENG and AUS are involved.
we shouldnt compare this with dravid-chappel(we played 8,won 1 each on SL and ENG).Is this somthing out-standing for putting a caption "congratulate team-india".
What's confusing is why is this hype as if we never won and became the leaders or doing like leaders after dravid-chappel.
Anything to reveal that??
Experimentations?? is that what we are looking for??
If so magical influence of attitude indulged into indian team(as said by guys like prem)
why did dhoni and all the team surrenderd to England so cheaply?? lets take dhoni's shots! Is this the attitude developed??
All we say to prem is to speak somthing that makes sense(atleast to him).Dont try to hype things from somthing very little.
As i said we were not BD or ZM earlier this dravid-chappel and didnt transform to AUS.
Not alteast near to it yet!

I simply don't understand how fast can people come to conclusions. I personally feel India is doing pretty good at the moment. The games in recent times have been played with real competitive spirit and with a will to win. There is this extra energy in the current bunch of players.

And I don't understand why people take recent victories in the sub continent lightly. And why do people keep saying that the wins were against a B class or C class teams. Have a look at the Indian line up. Had we lost these games, many of us would have branded the current Indian side as a B or C class team (No Ganguly, no Laxman, no Kumble, no Zaheer etc.). And now that we are winning it is convenient to say others were not full-strength teams.

And why do people say that the wins were in the sub continent? Do you think playing in Indian conditions is easy? What can the cricket team do for all the matches being played in the sub continent. Wherever the game is played, they have to give the best shot to win. Be it in the sub continent or overseas. Let us wait tille they have games overseas and see if they have it in them to succeed in different conditions.

'Glory that never was'.. well said Dileep.
While one could agree that test-team 'decline' doesn't have any sense, what-so-ever, it has to be said that, today's oneday achievement should be put into proper perspective rather than getting glorified like this. There certainly is progression in our one-day effort, but in no way it tells anything about team's status as world's best. And again, with all played and won, it was still the efforts of few individual (consistent, at that) that carried us through!. Shouldn't it still concern us?!.

Anyone with a bit of comman sense can understand this hype or bias by the media sensationalizing as if we were bangladesh or kenya earlier to dravid-chappel and now doing an Australian thing(did we go atleast near to it??)
About tests
We won 48 matches between 2000 and 2005 and won 21 out of which 11 are out-side sub-continant in which WI,ENG and AUS are involved.
we shouldnt compare this with dravid-chappel(we played 8,won 1 each on SL and ENG).Is this somthing out-standing for putting a caption "congratulate team-india".
What's confusing is why is this hype as if we never won and became the leaders or doing like leaders after dravid-chappel.
Anything to reveal that??

If there is so magical influence of attitude is indulged into indian team by chappel(as said by guys like prem)
why did dhoni and all the team surrenderd to England so cheaply?? lets take dhoni's shots! Is this the attitude developed??
All we say to prem is to speak somthing that makes sense(atleast to him).Dont try to hype things from somthing very little.
As i said we were not BD or ZM earlier this dravid-chappel and didnt transform to AUS.
Not alteast near to it yet!

making pathan a batsman is flexibility ,making dravid a keeper is foolishness(never mind it worked).
reachng wc final is failure,
beating england b in a oneday series is success.
reading such comments make me pity the absurb levels to which indians sink sometimes to debase an individual.
ganguly was willing to open
dravid didn allow him.
now india lost because dravid opened.
then it follows the whole yhing is dravid's fault.
any one with opposing views are welcome to have a debate.

I would like to make some points Mr Dillep,
1) India were an inconsistent abroad under ganguly.we won some and lost some.before that we were quite consistent as we always lost.Obviously you preferred that.
2)India were poor in one day series during the time of Sourav ganguly.as far as i know,We won every bilateral one day series till the one against Pakistan.even that we lost under the captaincy of rahul dravid as ganguly was banned(again his fault no doubt that bowlers didnt bowl at a quick rate,pakistnis cramped in ahmedabad heat,he should havemade the ground cooler)
3)people say india lost all finals under ganguly,previously we didn't.of course we didn't as we seldom reached the final.
4)agreed dravid and chappel have taken part in only three test series,they have won one.lost one and drawn one.pretty good record .i dont think so,considering that india had won in pakistan and beaten england .yes we had drawn with srilanka last time in india,but that was on the flattest ,dullest wickets ever seen,they were comparable to faisalabad and lahore.
4)also lot of people blame the ganguly dalmia axis,what have they done?
what is their crime-
that dalmia made the BCCI the richest board in the world
What has Raj singh dungarpur ever done than make statements.
i know a lot you have opposing views, i welcome one and all to oppose me using facts and not great generalisations like chappel has brought a breath of fresh air and stuff.
by the way i am from kerala in the deep deep south.

Great article. Excellent observations. I would like to point out that the toss was not the only factor why we lost at Mumbai. The truth of the matter is that out of 5-6 regular batsmen, only Dravid was performing, which made things difficult for India. So let us be done with the 'toss fiasco' and look at cricketing aspects rather than things associated with luck, unlike in a 1 day where toss could be more crucial, but not of paramount importance. Also I hope readers remain objective and analyse rather than getting into the realms of politics and cheap North/South/East/West divide. We are Indians and should be proud of it and work to improve upon our shortcomings.

Hmm..some interesting observations about Ganguly and Dravid eras.

We drew the series in Australia. Australia were without McGrath, Warne. Lee was injured for half the series. Barring Gillespie there was no real world class bowler. That's an attack running at 40% at best.

We won a test in WI - and Merv Dillon (remember him) was the 'spearhead'. Well we lost 2-1, which I think was worse than the 1-0 defeat in the previous series because then there were Ambrose, Walsh, Bishop at that time(well compare that to Merv who? And Sachin was out to a no-ball on 92 in the first innings of that test too).

So we were never a great test side really.

The current one day success is good - SL were made to look ordinary, but they were no 2 remember? Pakistan are a very good side and we thrashed them in Pak. England were below strength at times and in any case they never play so great in India.

At the same time it is alarming about the form of Viru, Kaif and Sachin (well OK, at least the test form of Sachin for sure). It's amazing Chappel has not been able to sort out this.

Viru seems to have been sorted out by oppositions - it remains to be seen how long the party lasts for Yuvi, Raina, Dhoni.

One point about South Indians supporting Dravid: It is strange and I notice this a lot in my southie colleagues too. It is strange because Dravid is not a southie but a Maharashtrian. (Which probably leaves him in nowhere land. OK, maybe that explains it ;)

It is only natural that when Cricinfo's poster boy RD is under pressure due to the test loss in Mumbai, someone has to jump into the fray and denigrate Ganguly and try to illuminate Dravid. Dileep Premachandran, who as someone earlier said, " is in blind love" with his childhood hero , GS Chappell, is the perfect man for this.

The analogy drawn between the Australian side and Indian side is also severely flawed. Premachandran's efforts to eulogize Dravid the captain is understandable. Brand equity of Rahul Dravid should not diminish at any cost.

The main isssue is that people have started realising that Ganguly was not the souce of all problems as made out by Cricinfo and the exit of Ganguly has not solved all problems. This useless article is an effort to stymie those questioning voices.

Hey all of you! Are you serious when you talk of winning the World Cup next year with this bunch of cricketeres? We do not need any analyst to explain to us the status of our ODI and its prospects.Just watch each game and marvel at the missed opportunities that are evident in the team that is supposedly being tuned up for the big event! We are wasting a lot of time in mixing up two issues- one finding the right combination for the impending World Cup and two - coaching the talented players to the next level of maturity. No team in the world has got this so much wrong as we have.In the process, we have destroyed the confidence of some of the best players-example Sehwag, Kaif, Gambhir and caused immense moral harm to the entire Team India by denigrating and decimating its former skipper Ganguly who was the architect of Team India in the first place.The players have been taught a wrong lesson that you do not have to respect a former skipper. It is this moral bankruptcy that will remain a festering wound for a very long time to all cricket loving Indians who have any sense of value left in them.Inflicted upon by a handful of politicians and vested interest groups, this moral misdemeanour will come back to haunt us for ever. Cricket has been turned on its head from a being fun sport to testing one's allegience to the powers that be. No art in this , man!!

The siginificant change that has happened today is that the Indian one-day team is becoming like an organization. People are given roles and responsibilities and anyone is expected to step up and perform when one person goes on leave. In organizations work goes on and does not depend on individuals. This is exactly what has happened to Indian one-day cricket.

Well written article, if you are a person totally biased against Ganguly. Some of the points mentioned in favour of the present set up could be right, but what one sees in this article is a total lack of respect for what Ganguly and John Wright had achieved for the Indian team. A team which was in total doldrums was built up with the help of good support staff ginving importance to fitness and youngsters. There emerged people like Yuvraj, Sehwag, Harbhajan, Zaheer, Kaif etc. Even Dhoni came into the team at the time of Ganguly. Now here we a person who is a respected cricket writer mentioning that Indian drawing a series against Australia, of course without Mcgrath, is nothing great. What a joke. In passing he mntions about India drawing a series against England in England, which many previous illustrious teams could not dream of achieving.India won the Natwest series on the brillaince of Yuvi and Kaif. But do not forget the brilliant opening that Ganguly gave with wonderfully entertaining on slaughts on Flintoff and co. The author moves onto the Newzealand series and he gives more importance to Newzealand drawing the series in India. Before Saurav - Wright combination Azhar was the most succesful Indian captain with all the wins in India. Now Dravid is very succesful in one dayers and majority of his wins are in India and the recent ones against an England team which cannot even hold a torch to one of our Zonal teams. Appreciating the good points of Dravid- Chappel partnership is one thing but negating the succes of the previous combination is totally uncalled for and very very irresponsible. Its almost as if the writer has any personal problems against Sourav Ganguly. He might not have been at his best during the past one year but please dont underplay his achievements for the sake of bloating the egos and images of others.

While it is beyond any argument that the foundation for this team has been laid by Ganguly with his uncanny and rare ability to spot talent and then back it to the hilt, the fact remains the subsequent souring of relations with Chappell has pulled the team down, one that was already feeling the heat with an awful 04-05 season. Also if news reports are to be believed then his refusal to open in Pakistan(refer the "discussion" Dravid, Chappell and Ganguly had on the morning of the first test) coupled with "instructions" from the Board to play him meant India did not play any of the games in Pakistan with their best XI. That was the reason India lost. It got worse when Ganguly played the worst possible shot on the second morning after having done all the hard work and looking like the only top-order batsman who had come to grips with the conditions. We played three left-armers since the only right-arm pacer was Agarkar. Given his abysmal test record, it is a surprise he was being considered for the longer version.

The one defeat India needs to see is the capitulation in Mumbai. It was pathetic since there the Ganguly-in-team excuse does not hold any water.

As Mr.Premchandran rightly points out mastering test cricket will take longer as the skills required are more specialised and also I think the scope for experimentation is rather limited. Instead a team needs top quality players for every position and that will take longer.

I am not sure what is wrong with winning in the subcontinent. Very clear that Ganguly had his moments, but was too arrogant. What are trying to discuss here? Team India's performance or the treatment meted out to Ganguly? How is Ganguly more important than Kapil Dev who was dropped and never picked again? He kept getting one or two wickets every test, but was dropped permanently. Ganguly was not only dropped for his performance, but also for his work ethic. What cricketer will feign injury and leave a test match just half-an-hour before the toss? When personal agenda becomes more important than the team, that team is on the decline. Read the results of Ganguly's last year of captaincy. No test series wins (except against Zimbabwe) and one-day performance was even worse. Team India is not anyone's property, but an organization. Ganguly, the Chairman, was just fired by the board and a new one appointed. Let's just find out what the new chairman (Dravid) has to offer! Good luck Team India.

Uttiya Misra ji..aap mahan ho. Some clear, concise and stunning analysis from you. Just wishing that you write more. Your writings will outmatch the "match ka mujrim" program by quite a distance.

(and also we need some fun too...)

Cheers,
A Southie

It is amazing to read some of the comments here. Sunil Gavaskar was "SELFISH" says a bloke. I guess I am being charitable by calling him a bloke, for he forgets Port Of Spain, Banglore, Melbourne. If not for Gavaskar, Indian cricket would still be a Third World entity. And as for Mr Premchandran's observations, he does highlight the reasons for the Karachi defeat but doesn't spend so much time on the Mumbai disaster. Perhaps criticising the Mumbai defeat doesn't suit his agenda. The press waited for five days to ask – to ask – Dravid why he put England in. They spent four days defending and creating excuses for his decision. Five bowlers, fresh wicket, England batsman... and the yawn. Imagine if Azhar had made that decision, we would have been told how he did at the behest of the Dons. And if Ganguly did... all hell would have broken lose just after the toss.
Anyway, I am surprised that Dileep says there is no decline. We were never a great Test side, but of late we were winning at home atleast. But unfortunately, we seem to be struggling to do that. Yes, we beat Sri Lanka and I should be jumping with delight. I would but then I saw Pakistan beating them at home.
The funniest thing was Dileep pointing out Greg Chappell was "a member" of the selection committee that discovered Steve Waugh and David Boon. As far as I know, both Waugh and Boon worked their way to the Australian side, through sheer performance in domestic cricket. It wasn't like Imran Khan picking Waqar Younis or Wasim Akram from complete obscurity. So thanks Dileep for letting me know that Sambaran Bannerjee is a cricketing great for picking Mahendra Singh Dhoni (by your Chappell argument).
Get over your prejudices all you people. Ashok Malik was right. We still suffer from the Colonial hangover.

Good article, premachandran. One would be blind to not see the change that Indian cricket has undergone in the past year.

We talk about Chappell so much and he should take credit for it behind the scenes, but its Dravid who's out on the field and making things happen. Too much emphasis on Chappell needs to stop.

You are certainly right about we never being a great test side. In fact that test defeat in Barbados in 97/98 and 01/02 still rankles. But I think in 03/04 we were showing signs of a really good test side.

Dravid is definitely the best player in India right now to captain the side and I hope he stays around for years. Chappell's policy of brooding youngsters is right and will fetch long term returns and one should stop looking at short term results. Dravid is a genuine guy, leads from the front and needs to be supported.

However, the recent test defeats against Pak and Eng have been painful and cast doubts about the change. Although I think there are causes for concern, the present selection policy is a good one and should be persisted with. The batting was the main reason for those defeats and I doubt that Ganguly's presence would have changed those results. As an immediate series looming ahead, it is imperative that we win the WI test series. If we lose that one, then we do have a serious problem. It is now time that people like Yuvraj start taking the role that Sachin, Dravid and Ganguly had 8/9 years back. Players like Raina should be groomed and the odd test defeat should not be looked upon as the defeat of the century.

What Nonsense!! You are comparing the test series defeat in 2004 at home to one of the best australian sides ever to a drawn test series at home to a second string england team!!!?? Are you seriously crazy??

Our test team is definitely on decline. As far as the one days go let them go outside the subcontinent and then chase a total!! This team is a bunch of flat track bullies and that is why they were so easily sorted out by the english bowlers in the test series.

In the one days, we made sure there was not a single pitch that would bounce even above the waist and then unleashed our spinners on them.

This team reminds me of the "Glory" days of Azhar and wadekar when for a period of 5 years they won everything at home and lost everything outside....

To me, it's the results that matter. If you guys consider yourself to be Team India backers, that and the direction that the team is taking is all that should matter to you. I see nothing wrong the direction... emphasising youngsters roles in the team is certainly a step in the right direction and I see nothing wrong with the current crop of youngsters. They seem to be good, talented young kids with good heads on their shoulders. Given a little time and patience on our part, I feel fairly sure that this team's success will transcend both forms of the game, given time and support.

Ok, I didnt mention this in my last comment.

First of all, we are not glorifying these recent victories by team India. It is still a work in progress. But you have to really not have logical cricketing sense if you can not appreciate the approach Indian team management is taking.

Second, Northie southie thing just brings to fore where the loyalties of some Ganguly fans lies. With the country or an individual. You have to be really biased to stick to Ganguly'past record and damaged legacy even now. Whatever happened to him was of his own doing to stick to captaincy at any cost. I think he would have been better off to give up captaincy and probably go back to domestic cricket for a few months and get his bearings right and get his place back on merit rather than extra-merit considerations (like politics).

And people who talk about team management's policy of "perform and parish" and in he same breath talk about giving chances to sehwag and kaif are just contradicting themselves. But it has to be understood that Indian cricket is reaching all sorts of places now and there are lots of young cricketers who knocking at the doors of national team. So, you have to perform (not all the time) to retain your place. It is not "street" cricket you know.

Finally, just an appeal to everybody. We, Indians no matter wherever we are passionate about cricket. It is time to support our team. Lets put ganguly saga behind once and for all.

This is to let all cricket lovers, all over the world know that Saurav Ganguly holds the world record for the fastest 9000 runs in ODI, beating Tendulkar, Lara, Ponting, Inzi, Jayasuraiya and Dravid - all of them - by a decent gap in terms of number of innings played. And he also holds a world record for achieving the fastest incremental 1000 runs, between 1000 and 9000 runs! He has repeated this 9 times!!!
Any more argument about why he should be an automatic choice in the oDI team, specially when his only "crime" is he is the second fastest player in the world after Sachin Tendulkar between 9000 and 10,000 runs?
Since his 10000 run phenomenon is still fresh, obviously he is still in the mould of a record maker, notwithstanding the excesses of More and Chappell done unto him. Why the apathy?

To all the Ganguly lovers who might read this.

Ganguly has come, Ganguly has gone. Ganguly is 33. He finished with a test av. of 40 (which is good) and a one day av. of 40 (which is great). He will go down in history as one of India's greatest captains. So, my question to you- instead of celebrating his achievements, why do you take the attitude that anyone else will automatically do a bad job? He's too old and not classy enough for a recall, so why do you still beat your chest and clamour for one?

Just let it go, for crying out loud.

Mr DASGUPTA - Maybe you would also like to mention, AS GANGULY HAS TIME AND AGAIN - that he had a very successful WC'03 in SA. He scored 3 hundreds - all not outs - 112*, 107* and 111*. Amazing. Never mind that these hundreds came against Namibia and twice against Kenya. And just one last thing .... the remaining innings in the WC against teams that mattered - he scored 135 runs at an average of just over 16. But I am sure you, like the man himself would like to ponder over the 3 hundreds, right!!

This has been a good run 16 victories in a row chasing.But the best part is that these victories have been built around what we call as utility players. But these are players who are not taking their place for granted and are giving their heart out for the team. In the last ODI Dravid literally talked about the entire team and not just one individual player, this is something that has not happened to Indian Cricket. This series win is more memorable because our bench has proved much stronger than the bench strength of mecca of Cricket. I would like to see the current team face of against New Zealand & Australia and see how they fare against them..till then hoping that Indian Juggernaut continues which culminates in the World Cup 2007

Rohan,
Obviously there is a deliberate attempt here to ignore Ganguly's world record in ODI's, over a 10 year career! You want us to be fudged by an event (of 4 weeks) and ignore the achievements of Saurav Ganguly over ten years. I wonder ,.... why??? Can you not be magnaminous enough to acknowledge a world record by a fellow Indian?

Dileep is spot on, but some of the comments just sicken me. I have been a great fan of Ganguly, but the fact remains that, by the time Dravid took over the reins, Ganguly's form was non-existent, his technical flaws against pace were deeply highlighted, his captaincy was a joke, and his disruptive influence on team ethic was evident.

Why not give Dravid and Chappell their due? They have turned this team into a terrific one day unit. And by the way, SL, SA and Eng are not B or C grade teams as one person put it. SL was world no. 2 when they arrived in India; SA was world no. 2 when they arrived in Ind; and England had just levelled the Test series, showing what a competitive bunch they are (even if not a quality one day team). And what about recovering from the Karachi defeat to beat Pakistan 4-1 in Pakistan?

One of the reasons England have turned into such a good team from a bunch of losers and whiners is because of the unstinting support, through rain or shine, that they have received from the Barmy Army over the past 2 decades. Unless we get behind our team in a similar manner, instead of looking for conspiracies and flaws under every stone, we will end up killing the goose that lays the golden egg.

well written article.....but blaming Ganguly for the loss at Karachi was a cheap shot and was uncalled for. It marred the rest of the piece.

Recently, a lot of things were spoken about this new look of Team India. Adjectives like "brave", and phrases like "taken the responsibility on his shoulders" etc. have been used extensively by people lile Sidharth Vaidhyanathan, Anand Vasu and a few others @ cricinfo. Similar things in the past were not celebrated like this. Why are these people getting too much excited while things in its reality are not all that fine. First of all, what are the achievements of this new team and its management. We were promised that they would take India to the next level. It would be nice to see what level we have reached. To win outside the subcontinent we need better pitches(faster tracks) and even now we are making square turners to win against a half strength England. I doubt wheather Powar could ever bowl on such tracks in the domestic matches. While the new management has ditched players like VVS, Sachin is put too much of pressure and is on the verge of loosing his bite because of the insecurity which is developing in the team, Shewag as a player under the new management has lost all his confidence and same is the case with Kaif. Kaif started to misfield as well. Cricket is not a power game like WWF. It needs talent and grit. How many of the new guys would perform like VVS or even Ganguly in the long run, not to mention Tendulkar as his batting is in a different class. Chappel has shaken the team for sure and to my cricketing knowledge the present lot wouldn't be enough to win matches in South Africa, England, Autralia & New Zealand. At the same time our column writers are still writing from an Utopian world. Who are they trying to fool ?

Folks,
Greg has done a great job in revitalising India's one day team. But it really matters what you do in the field. So Greg may be the brain but without heart (Rahul) can he achieve anything ?
Also team management has different yard stciks for different players. They humiliate Ganguly and they don't bring him even if Sewag fails multiple times. He plays one good innings and lives on that for 10 matches. His weigh and one day average are inversely proportinal nowadays.

Dileep, Kudos to you for writing a great article and i hope that atleast for some , obviously very few of us you keep on writing.
I would also like to commmend Kaushik for his level headed approach and not a with "cricket expertness"
which we all Indians seem to develop without ever touching a bat at a level higher than street play.
Also can we please stop quarrelling over Ganguly-Dalmiya. That is bygone era. And yes before we argue over subcontinent or not, can we atleast savour these victories?
Let the faster pitches come and we shall deal with them. Right now atleast be decent enough to be a united Indian and support India.
If we are so passionate about regionalism then why the heck does no one watch Ranji Trophy, etc?
C'mon grow up.

For all the big talks by Mr Chappel & Mr Dravid about "Building a Team for World Cup 2007", I wish to ask them only only one question: Can you possibly fare better than Ganguly of World Cup 2003, or, atleast reach the finals. If not, without the politics & bickering we have already "ACHIEVED" the reaching the WC final stage. Show us something beyond, or, QUIT since you have made enuf for your ten generations

To my opinion, this article should not be considered as comparative studies between two era; Ganguly-Write and Dravid-Chappel, but much beyond that. Definitely, credit should be given to G-W pairs who transform the Indian team to a stage where D-C pairs can implement their strategy successfully to win matches for INDIA (no south or north india for god shake). What is common in both eras is they are not hesitant to build up a process that can build a better future of Indian cricket team. Ganguly introduced some better tactic than his predecessor which worked well, and then he failed to live with his own expectation. Now D-C pair is implementing some more process to this team which Ganguli failed to foresee. As a whole, Indian cricket team is transforming to a better team than before by learning from their past (that’s what Dileep is talking about… I guess). The only failure we had is to accept the fact that “one should acknowledge other’s success and let them lead”. It is the same way that England and Australian captain do! Hussain – Vaughan – Flintoff (don’t be surprised if it happens) or Steve – Pointing. So please don’t see it as an article between individuals but an article which appreciate the change that is required in long run for the betterment of Indian team. Now the fact that Indian team is doing well under Dravid, we should back them in stead of spoiling the spirit of the game. I am sure Dravid will be in the same situation like Ganguly (no one is a sole performer for ever) and I would like to see whether he would acknowledge his successor (Sehwag or Raina who ever!!) in right time before being stepped out with honor!

I think al the Gangully's so called followers- look at this , In the first time India reached 3rd spot n ICC Ranking.It is coz of Dravid's captaincy.

Gangully success coz of dravid. Remeber - not otherway around

Much of the present position-taking among cricket lovers vis-a vis Ganguly and Chappell has its root in the role played by and the studied silent posture taken by Dravid and Tendulkar. As the senior players they should have been the first to acknowledge the contribution by the former skipper to Indian cricket. This action alone would have quelled the fervent pitch that the spat took. Their silence has made them look as accomplices to the ensuing saga. They have not proven themselves to be "greats" but have given the impression that the spat between the two is completely a spat between Ganguly and the rest of the Indian team. Only Harbhajan and Yuvraj had the common sense to acknowledge the role of the former skipper! They showed the stuff that they are made of!

Mr Dasgupta - Yet again you continue to harp on about Ganguly. You talk about respecting him in one of your diatribes. RESPECT?? How do you respect a man who tries to stay in the team at any cost, any expense. And perhaps Tendulkar and Dravid have not spoken out in his favour because they find it appalling, that the man could stoop to the levels he did to get onto the bus to Pakistan. Besides how will you explain away what he did to Laxman in Zimbabwe .... telling Laxman that Chappell didn't want Laxman in the team!!!! A total lie .... to undermine Laxman's confidence, so that Ganguly could stay on in the team by sidetracking Laxman. You can harp on about Ganguly all you like - but it has a shrill ring to it, which only a few have time for. The WC scores that I pointed out to you - they are just one example in a string of several episodes - Ganguly likes to draw attetion to his own scores without bothering to point out who he scored those runs against. AS THEY SAY - "AT LEAST GOD DOESN"T THINK HE"S GANGULY"!!!!

First of all a hearty congras for prem for this article. I dont know why some guys are just obsessed about Ganguly.I do respect and salute his achievements but one has got to realize that he has not performed well enough. some guys are just insane to say that ganguly should be in the team.
Well i chanced to read a comment about the so called southies. I wonder whether he woke up from the wrong side of the bed.I wonder why dropping ganguly has become such a big issue when a certain kumble was dropped from the ODIs. Laxman was dropped from the mumbai since we had to play the bestXI.
but i disagree on one aspect where prem has hailed India an improved team. There is still a long way to go and i would only say they have improved and are tough when they win overseas in ODIs . It would be interesting to see powar (riddler as some say) performs outside India

Rohan,
Where did you get these facts? Heresay or best-guesses? For example is Ganguly still blocking Laxman? I will like to know where did you read about these "episodes" - as you term it.
I will rather like to see objective comments based on facts which are widely published, like cricketing statistics, as found in Statsguru. All my comments are based on Ganguly's own cricketing records as preserved in these books.He is the holder of a world record for the fastest 9000 runs in ODI's. Challenge such facts if you have to but I have no space for speculative gossips.
And yes, I am as much a fan of Ganguly as I have been of many other truly greats of Indian cricket. No one can ever take Ganguly's records away, much as they may have wished to.

Well, Sid - Heresay, best-guesses - I guess you were dreaming of Ganguly when it was all happening .... Why not try answering this question - why is there such disdain for Ganguly with essentially the majority of the people writing into this column. Insofar as your statistics are concerned - what can I say - you termed the WC'03 as a 4 week tournament, just because I GENTLY reminded you of his 3 hundreds (Namibia, Kenya and Kenya), AND an an average of 16 against teams that mattered. Instead of discussing those facts and silmilar skewed records - you continued to harp on about the 9000 runs. Much of Ganguly's records are skewed in the manner of the WC'03 performance. But I am sure you will want to harp on about the fastest 9000 runs etc etc etc.

As far as taking Ganguly's records away from him is concerned - nobody could take those away from him - mainly because he will be standing guard at the gate, telling everyone about each and every record he holds (no matter how skewed the actual fact). Come to think of it he probably holds the record of the fastest to 9001 as well!!As to challenging facts - I've thrown up a few that you have chosen to ignore.

I talked earlier of India's victories abroad which have been talked of with great aplomb by Ganguly (and I am sure yourself).... but what were those victories - ONE test in Australia in a DRAWN series (sans McGrath and Warne - no Perth and no lively wickets. If England are a "C" Team then Australia were without McGrath and Warne), ONE test in England in a DRAWN series, EVEN a DRAWN series in Zimbabwe a few years ago, ONE test in WI, in a SERIES LOST (no one loses to WI these days), ONE test in SL in a SERIES LOST (Ganguly was livid as I remember as a Kaif inside edge travelled to the boundary for India's winning runs in the Test they won - Ganguly was left 98no ....), an absolute hammering in NZ, and as far as the win in Pakistan is concerned, we all know Dravid Captained part of the series. I think it is Ganguly who somehow has the public believing that he had developed a team of world beaters. There are some facts!!

How about answering the relevant questions about the youngsters he blooded - YUVRAJ - well, Yuvraj was suddenly an opener, and at least the discerning follower knew exactly why. And where was this love for youngsters when he was "politicing" his way onto the bus to Pakistan.

Ganguly isn't "STILL" blocking Laxman - but I think it is a well established fact that he was attempting to do so in Zim. Sorry - it is a fact well publicised. YOU may want to disregard that.

I will give you this though - if only Ganguly wouldn't have forever being blowing his own trumpet, I wouldn't be here trying to present a more real view to his skewed statistics.

Rohan,
Again, facts seem to hurt many like you; when fully biased, it actually hurts.
Ganguly made the following contributions to cricket in India at the age of 27.
1.He identified Yuvraj, Sehewag, Kaif, Zaheer, Harbhajan,Nehra, Balaji, Parthiv Patel and Dhoni as the constituents of the Indian team.
2. TEAM INDIA was a Ganguly innovation.
3.HUDDLE was a Ganguly innovation.
4.Ganguly is the most successful Test captain that India has produced in 73 years.
5. Ganguly was the first cricketer to have appeared in the famous TV feature Profiles in Leadership programme by Harsha Bhogle.
Therefore your insinuation that Ganguly is a slimy and scheming mischief maker does not lend credence to any of the examples, as instanced above.
Please keep the destroy Ganguly agenda, like many others have done, within limits of credibility. Even I may enjoy it.

Rohan,
Further to above, Irfan Pathan was a Ganguly discovery. There are so many that it is easy to forget who is not.
The Kenya match which you have referred to n times was a SEMI FINAL in a World Cup and yes, Ganguly scored a century in the Semi Final. Kenya reaching the last four, is surely not Ganguly's creation.So what is wrong in getting a century in the Semi Final?

Sid,
It may have been a semi-final but it was STILL KENYA. Besides the statistics that I mention do not go away with the second Kenya match being a semi-final. In terms of your other comments - you continue to refuse to address the issue of Ganguly's shenanigans with regard to getti ng onto the bus to Pakistan. It was a desperate attempt to stay in the limelight and continue on in the the team at any expense. His politics to remain in the side cost "KAIF" a Test place in Pakistan. Was he not a "youngster" who Ganguly blooded?? Besides - not only did he keep Kaif out of the Test tour, he also deprived Jaffer and Gambhir a place in the playing XI. Ganguly may like to create this illusion that he is the master of a grand plan to take India to the top, but the bottom line is, that when it came down to the crunch - he was more worried about somehow retaining his place and he did so at the expense of someone like Kaif for the Pakistan tour (and either of the openers in the playing XI). And this was at a time when he was not deserving of his place and would not have otherwise been selected.

You also do not addressed the facts that I have laid before you with regard to the wins abroad. A lot of those wins came in series that we either drew or even lost. I am sure to that you may say that atleast we started winning Tests abroad. Well, that is not the answer - winning is about winning a series. Besides if we started to win Tests abroad .... we also started to draw often, and even lose some at home, that is not something that people actually remember. But essentially the point is - there is no use gloating over overseas Tests wins if you cannot return with a series win.

You have also not responded to the issue I raise with regard to Ganguly harping on about the talent of Yuvraj, how wonderful Yuvraj was. That was true enough, BUT what happened when Yuvraj scored a 100 in Pakistan (under Dravid). Suddenly Yuvraj was good enough to open the innings according to Ganguly, all other openers (Aakash Chopra in this case) be damned. This was again simply an attempt to keep his middle order place his own.

What about his refusal to play the Nagputr Test against Australia?? Was that not petty, apart from the fact that he was probably wondering how he would play on a green wicket. The rats are the first to desert a sinking ship.

Finally, as I have said, if only Ganguly would have let things be, if only he would not keep on about himself - others would not be pointing out the glaring skewedness of his comments. And last - I wouldn't even venture into the territory where you imply that Ganguly was one of "India's" greats. Please ....

Rohan,
You may be better positioned to understand the importance of Saurav Ganguly,when I inform you that he has been elected as the "SERA BANGALI of 2005" or the First Person of Bengal by 80 million voters. He has beaten Amartya Sen and Buddhadeb Bhattacharya among others. He has captivated millions in his native state and indeed in the country by his contributions to Indian cricket. By throwing insults on him, you are actually insulting this vast number of people.Be a realist and do not get carried away too far to be on the band wagon. You do so at the risk of dividing a people.

Useless thread, too much noise no substance. We have hailed A India team whenever it did well, and threw muck when it didn't. The same with all journalists. A never ending sequence of ebb and flow. And those who have abused Gavaskar on this, no comments to them since they know nothing of cricket and are wasting their time here, like me!!!!

with reference to most of the comments above, i must say the obsession with ganguly is disturbing.....i wouldnt be surprised if most of you'll have large posters of ganguly doing his shirtless dance at lords and salivate at the sight of his hairy chest. in other words...the article is about india not about freakin ganguly. but by the looks of it just mentioning his name means everyone blames poor old ganguly.

Yes sure....the world is against bengalis and the "southies" are ganging up on them. latest news is that they have been throwing dosas and idlis at dear ganguly to push him into a bowl of sambar where he shall drown into salty oblivion(pardon my over dramatization but im just trying to keep up with some of the other posters).

Now before the ganguly fans start throwing raw fish at me let me inform you that i am not a ganguly hater. yes ganguly was a good captain. yes john wright was a good coach. Mr. Premlongname says so. All he is saying is we were never a great test team under them. Is that not true? How does that offend people so much that they start insulting Dravid? To you ganguly shirtless poster owners(all 736763 of you), isnt dravid the guy who helped dear Ganguly to most of his glorious wins? There are stats to prove that...but the thing is THATS NOT EVEN THE POINT. The point is this isnt about dravid helping ganguly...this is about Dravid helping INDIA(you know...the country we support). Now just ask yourself this... does having Ganguly in the team now help India? Do you really think our team will be better with Ganguly in it?

and before im accused of being a southie who obsesses over dravid, im not. Im a bengali and did like and respect Ganguly...i do not like raw fish though.

P.S. no i did not surrender my soul to the "southies" in return for a lifetime supply of idlis.

Its articles like this that restore my faith in humanity. Please dont bother yourselves with the nonsense posted by your detractors.