Indian team rallies behind a beleaguered captain
25 June 2001
The demand for Sourav Ganguly's head is steadily increasing with every
failure of the Indian skipper but the team is solidly standing by him.
After Ganguly was dismissed for just two in yesterday's triangular
one-day series match against Zimbabwe, Melbourne Radio rang up team
manager Chetan Chauhan to know why the stylish left-hander should not
be asked to sit out and sort out his batting blues rather than be a
liability to the team.
"I have a lot of time for him," was Chauhan's cryptic reply which put
an end to the issue.
A desperate Ganguly also sought to draw solace from his opening
partner Sachin Tendulkar's clean chit to his batting technique. "He
(Tendulkar) has assured me that my technique is okay and I should not
worry on that count," the skipper said, while putting up a brave face
amidst continued failures.
"I know the runs would come shortly. I can feel it from inside," said
Ganguly who has led India to five wins in eight Tests.
But that has not prevented the critics from raising the shrill over
his inability to get the runs. The website of the company telecasting
the series is flooded with hate mails for Ganguly and questions on his
form and captaincy are appearing on the ballot boxes of various other
sites.
The pressure is showing on the captain who is not leaving any stone
unturned in his efforts to get back to his scoring ways. He is having
an extra session in the nets and is usually on the ground an hour
before the team arrives for practice.
This, from a man who usually does not like to bat much at the nets. "I
do not quite like batting in the nets but if that is the answer (to my
bad form), so be it," he said.
In the matches too, he has tried various methods to break the shell.
He briefly toyed with the idea of going on the attack to shrug off his
poor form but discarded it quickly after it failed to click, and he
did not want to be seen as an irresponsible batsman.
He did not duck his responsibility even when he had to face the new
ball on the fourth morning of the Harare Test though it ended in an
yet another failure.
But it's not the efforts but the figures alongside his name on the
scoreboard that count and Ganguly needs to get those as quickly as
possible to silence his critics.
In yesterday's match, he took two wickets while bowling and thought
that finally his time with the bat too might have arrived. Alas, that
did not happen and Ganguly had to be satisfied with his bowling
contribution only.
His deputy Rahul Dravid answered his detractors in style when he
scored a brilliant 180 in that epic match-winning association with VVS
Laxman in the second Test against Australia in Kolkata, and Ganguly
knows he will have to come up with a similar effort to turn his
fortunes around.
But till that happens, his - and his fans' - agonies will continue to
haunt him.
© PTI