New Delhi, December
16
The Selection Committee’s decision to sack Sourav Ganguly from the Test squad was understood to have been largely influenced by coach Greg Chappell’s views on team composition for the Ahmedabad match aided by those of captain Rahul Dravid.Chappell was keen to give more opportunities to Yuvraj Singh who has been in very good form and the selectors decided to respect the views of the team management, a reliable Cricket Board source said today.
The source said Chappell insisted on a regular place for Yuvraj in the playing eleven which made it difficult to accommodate Ganguly in the squad.
One of the selectors did support Ganguly’s retention in the team but his view was overwhelmed by that of others, the source said, disputing reports that the sack decision was unanimous.
Ganguly was dropped from the team for the third Test against Sri Lanka beginning in Ahmedabad on Sunday, a decision which has triggered off demonstrations in Kolkata and evoked strong reactions from former cricketers and
politicians.
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Decision unanimous, irreversible: ShahVadodara, December 16
Despite the mounting pressure, BCCI Secretary Niranjan Shah today said the decision of the National Selection Committee to drop Sourav Ganguly from the Indian squad for the Ahmedabad Test against Sri Lanka was “unanimous” and thus “irreversible.” Mr Shah, also convenor of the committee, said the BCCI would not like to interfere in the matter of selection of the Indian squad. “BCCI President Sharad Pawar has already clarified that selection of players is the sole discretion of the selection committee,” he added.
— UNI |
Apparently rattled by all-round criticism over the way the deposed captain was sacked and a sympathy wave created by it, top Cricket Board officials, including President Sharad Pawar sought to wash their hands off by expressing shock over the decision and promising to discuss the issue with the selectors in the coming days.
The source claimed that no Cricket Board official had called up the selectors before the meeting or had put any pressure on the committee to drop Ganguly.
“There was no pressure on the selectors by Board officials. The decision to drop Ganguly was taken by the Committee and nobody had influenced it”, the source said.
“Since the team management was not keen to have Ganguly in the playing eleven, he could not be kept in the reserves. So he had to be omitted,” the source added.
Joining the protest against the ouster of Sourav Ganguly from the Indian Test team, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee today described the move as unjust and ‘an insult both to Sourav and all of us’.
“This is unjust... It is an insult to both Sourav and to all of us,” Bhattacharjee, an avid cricket fan, told reporters at the Secretariat when asked to comment on the issue.
Raising doubts about the ‘intelligence’ of those responsible for Ganguly’s ouster, the Chief Minister, known to be on excellent terms with the former Indian skipper, said “the question is, whether they are competent to take such a decision. I think, no”.
Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee today threw his weight behind Sourav Ganguly saying the former cricket captain surely deserved a place in the Indian Test team.
“I think we should not play politics in cricket or any kind of game. He is a good player, he should find his place in the Indian team,” Mukherjee told reporters here.
Amid raging controversy over Sourav Ganguly’s exclusion from the Indian Cricket team, Lok Sabha will discuss the issue next week.
Responding to a submission by Mohan Singh (SP) that the issue should be added in the agenda for next week in the House, Speaker Somnath chatterjee said: “I have allowed this to be added in the agenda. The issue will come up for discussion.”
He said that great “injustice” had been meted out to Ganguly, who is a great world class player, due to politics in the game.
“Such incidents will affect the morale of young players and we must take corrective measures,” he added.
Meanwhile, Kolkata and other areas in Bengal continued to simmer over the unceremonious removal of ‘Prince of Calcutta’ as reports of train and road blockades kept trickling in from different parts for the second day today.
Expressing ire at what they believed a plot against their hero, youngsters squatted on railway tracks almost at every station on the Eastern Railway’s Sealdah-Bongaon section disrupting suburban train services.
In a number of fringe areas of the city and in districts, people also put up barricades on the main roads hampering vehicular traffic movement.
A report from Barrackpore in north 24-Parganas said a group of 20 cricket fans, including seven young girls, started hunger strike demanding reinstatement of Sourav in the national cricket side.
Even as protests continued over his exclusion from the Indian cricket Test team, Sourav Ganguly today declined to comment on the issue.
“I’m not speaking to anyone in the media. I have no comment to offer on this,” Ganguly told PTI when contacted over phone.
Asked whether he had any plan to quit, the left-hander said “Please spare me. I don’t want to talk to the media.”
