Give the dog... hang him

Sriram Ranganathan

The captain of the Indian cricket team must really wonder sometimes what it is exactly that all his countrymen want from him. Over the last two years he has been a run-machine, plundering bowlers all over the world, albeit in one-day cricket. He hasn't been so hot in Tests but then with the idiotic BCCI neglecting Tests for the money-spinning ODIs time and again, it really is no wonder that he, along with everyone else in the team barring the genius, doesn't do well against the good teams.

To bash up Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, we do not even need the national team. Mumbai would do it and so would Karnataka.

To get back to the topic, yes the Indian captain hasn't been too hot a batsman in the Tests against Australia. Sure, he hasn't been hot in the one-day series either. So what is it that the critics exactly want to say? Ganguly is no good? He should be sacked? If so then do they mean sacked as a captain or as a player or as both?

When the critics gun for Ganguly because of his performance it makes sense, somewhat. Even a prolific run machine is of no use to the team when it isn't running. In this case, it seems to be barely crawling. What really gets my goat is the hungama over his Nagma affair and his punch-ups with Steve and his band of sulky schoolboys, who have discovered the taste of losing and getting abused by the wimps of yesterday. No wonder, as with all bullies, this self-realization isn't going down too well.

Let's go through all of Gangubhai's crimes. Even before the series began, he taunted the Aussies with having won their fame at home, an arrow that riled more because of its accuracy. He also taunted the Aussie captain for making certain remarks sitting in Aussie land and wondered if Steve had some sort of crystal ball to know about the wheeling-dealings of the Indian team management and the Test-venue curators. He gave a column-for-a-column reply to Ian Chappel for the latter's know-it-all comments. Maybe, Ian and Steve both have that crystal ball. Maybe, all the Aussies have it.

Let's us go further down the crime-sheet. Ganguly is arrogant towards his teammates. He stayed in a better hotel than his teammates during a warm-up match in Delhi. He didn't show up on the field of play for quite some time in that warm up match and was seen pacing outside chatting on a cell-phone. After the Indian team pulled off possibly the greatest come-from-behind wins at Kolkata, he displayed the bird to the Aussie supporters who, having been brought up in a clean and decent society, were naturally shocked. He then proceeded to make things personal with Steve and the other meanies and carried on a non stop u-hate-me-youknowwhat-I-hate-u-too kind of relationship with them that has extended to the one-day series and will no doubt continue in the Goa decider. He came late for the toss and kept good old Steve and Cammie waiting, then once changed the script by coming early while still managing to screw up by not being in his match clothes. What a monster!

I hope I have correctly chronicled all his misdemeanors and pray forgiveness for any sins I might have forgotten to mention. What I want to know now is what exactly is wrong with all of the above? Barring a couple of episodes, absolutely nothing.

Take the issue of being rude to the Aussie captain and his goons. After taking so much of crap from the Aussies for so long, it is good to see someone from our side dish it out. Let me emphasize a fact. I don't enjoy watching players on the field of play mouthing off and behaving like WWF dramatists but if no one is going to do anything to stop this then the only way is to join the show and do unto them what they want to do unto you. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth and before the other guy recovers, kick him in the unmentionables and pick his pocket for good measure. Which is what Ganguly seems to have done with Waugh.

Coming here as a leader of invincible men and leaving here as a leader of ordinary mortals would not seem very funny to Waugh. Ganguly's Indians have beaten them on the field and Ganguly has beaten them off the field. Which is what makes me mad about the criticism of Ganguly. Barring minor contributions from others, he has taken the path of direct conflict on himself.

Currently not contributing hugely with the bat, Ganguly is doing his bit by riling the enamel off Steve's teeth, something that seems to me to be as good as making a whole bunch of runs in every match. This is specially so when you consider that this is a new and untried technology in the Indian team still. Microsoft would balk at publicizing it, Oracle would sell it as a finished product and then blame the customizations for any failure, but Ganguly hasn't been at all shy of wetting his feet while at the same time trying to fool no-one by passing it off as a planned strategy.

There was a void that needed to be filled and it speaks volumes of the Indian captain that he is filling that void despite the knowledge of instant crucification by all and sundry if things don't pan out the Indian way. Till the time he gets back among the runs, which should be anytime considering the man's class, the Indian media should be trying to find positives in the man given the honor of leading the country instead of finding gossip items. Pride on one's country's winning seems to have taken a backseat to selling more newspapers and generating more web-site hits.

Any sensible news follower should know enough to take all gossip generated by these "sports news reporters" with a pinch of salt and maybe a sprinkle of lemon. Not a lot, mind you since all the spicing has been done before the story went to the press. Frankly for me, the issue of Ganguly and Nagma -- who gives a fig anyway? All we want from the captain of the Indian team is to lead the team to victory and he has done that. Till the time India were acting out the role of the perpetual losers, the captain's criticism was justified. Not when India wins against good opposition and shows all the guts and glory effort that one could wish for. All the expert sports writers who were stunned into silence by their huge feet crowding their tiny mouths when India won the Test series are back with a bang spouting off about toss-fixing and match dress code and rude gestures towards Steve in Indore.

All I can say to those people is: Shut up. Go for a vacation till the time India starts losing again (I ain't advocating it here, just mentioning it). Your criticisms would then make bearable reading. Not now, not this month, not this year... Well, maybe, a year is too long. Not this month anyway.

We have a captain, who speaks his mind. He sometimes says things before he even thinks it out clearly in his own mind. Slowly and surely, if we let him do it in peace, he will learn. When people unfairly compare him to Steve and wax about the Aussie captain's undoubted superior leadership, cunning and astuteness, they conveniently forget the start Steve has over Ganguly in learning all that is needed in the cricket world to survive and be the best.

He had good teachers to learn from even as he was a player, right from Border to Taylor, who were very good captains in their own right. Ganguly had Azhar and Sachin to learn from, one never a leader of men but rather a compromise for his non-controversial image (that is a shattered myth now, isn't it), and the other a genius who seemed to have difficulty figuring out why others weren't as good as he was. As for the entire arrogance thing, well, doesn't seem to me as if the Indian players are too worried about it.

If any officials, media tigers or opposing players feel so, who really gives a fig anyway? It is a long time since I saw Indians making the opposition moan, whine and cringe about this, that or the other. For that reason and that reason alone, some applause would be in good taste. For reminding all Indians that we are not the only whiners and when the going gets tough, even the invincible Aussies get going. For reminding us cricket is a game of glorious uncertainties and also for reminding us of all the other cliches uttered at the drop of a hat today by our new generation of commentators in Maninder and Manjrekar.

As I ramble on with my ramblings (poetic, huh), I can hear some people wondering if I imagine myself to be Sunny Gavaskar with Ganguly perceived as Sunny's golden-boy Sachin or do I even detect some faults in the ladaaku Bengali. Sure I am not Sunny (far, far from it... I sometimes get confused as to whether it is Geoffery Boycott's mum or grandmum who would any day make the Indian team as a fast bowler) and I never claimed to be.

Ganguly has his faults, lots of them, just like me, you, Steve and the girl next door. That covers a lot of people, I should think. Just like me, you, Steve and the girl next door don't deserve to be thrown out of our jobs or be criticized by every Tommy, Pappu and Munni, even Ganguly has that right. He has the right to learn and mature; he has the right to make mistakes and be forgiven for them. Someday, he will realize that showing the finger to the Aussie fans in Kolkata is something that he could never justify. I mention this specifically because the amount of rubbish the Indian fans habitually throw on these "performing seals" is much more than what that band of supporters could have thrown during the Kolkata Test or ten Kolkata Tests.

Showing the finger to the Indian crowd, as deserving or as un-deserving as one may choose to view it, would get him lynched and for this reason showing the Aussie supporters his finger seems cowardly and immature. Also immature was his decision to stay at a better hotel than his teammates for that warm up match at Delhi. Maybe he wanted to make a point to the BCCI for making the Aussies stay at that better hotel while giving our own boys a lesser hotel to stay in. However, the way he did it was still immature. Maybe, his making Steve and Cammie wait at the toss as also the toss fixing at Indore was a gimmick. His explanation about a new 2-rupee coin sounded lame enough.

Also possible is that there is no point making him involved in these situations, just plain immaturity? He doesn't have the finesse today that is required to be a shrewd captain who can do no wrong in the public eye while actually doing all that he really wants to do. But he will slowly accumulate this finesse. I bet he wasn't a great offside player at the age of 6 months. He is one today, and that underlines the point I am making here though I hope he doesn't take as much time this time around. He is temperamental but also eager to learn (Yup, I absolutely refuse to believe the 100 per cent genuineness of the news reports of his being stubborn, arrogant and having a one-track mind).

We marched in the wrong direction for ten long years after Krish Srikkant was sacked as captain after returning from Pakistan. A combination of circumstances has handed us a captain who seems to be good raw material, if far from a finished product, to be an excellent captain. Everyone has his style and nothing in cricket ever is the absolutely correct answer. Results count and excuses don't. On that score, Ganguly is doing what we want him to do; so let's just sit back and enjoy the scene till that time (cross fingers, cross toes, cross eyes) that India go back to the losers attitude of some time back. Then we can take delight in tearing apart our heroes and burn their effigies. Not now, not this month, not this year… Well, maybe a year is too long. Not this month anyway.

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