Tale of 2 players.

Dinesh Kartik must be sitting and wondering why the hell he was left out from the One day Squad? What should he do more, Ok, may be selectors have decided not to have a specialized keeper for one day games. After all Dravid can cover for a genuine keeper, he is been our “covering” gold for many years now. He knows to mimic keeper moves and will definitely make the batsmen believe that there is genuine keeper standing behind.

But I am wrong, they have included a specialist wicket keeper Dhoni, All the best to the youngster. Who knows he will be asked to carry drinks and be the bar tender on the boundary line. What ever, still Dinesh Kartik can carry the drinks and be the bar tender instead, by this he remains in the 14, and he can salvage some pride for his performance in the test series. Why was he left out? Poor Performance

Oh! you want to talk performance, Let us compare performance of the Indian captain Gangully and the Indian wicket keeper Dinesh Kartik. The answer is quite clear in Eastman color. Dinesh Kartik and Gangully played 3 matches and 5 innings each. Dinesh Kartik scored about 146 runs with an average of 29.20 he also scored a fifty and missed hundred by a whisker. Where us, Gangully managed to score 48 runs with an colossal average of 9.60, yes single digit, not even a “Janatha” pass like Gautam Gambeer [35.80]

Selectors can say “So what!”, you know Gangully won the 2nd test for us, at least he deserves to be in the team for the victory. Hey Mr. Selector you have missed a pumpkin here, in the same game Kartik played an important innings of 93 and gave a good batting support to Dravid. His keeping was also up to the mark like he stumped Yunis khan in the first ball, wasn’t all this considered as match winning performance?

My point is, if the elite panel of selectors feel poor about Dinesh Kartik performance, they have some serious soul searching to do, in all aspects first they need to drop Gangully. Though I am not for this idea, situation warrants. Today every TD and H stereotype Gangully that he does nothing other than arranging the field, talking to bowlers and appearing for the award ceremony; I agree he does look like an independent MLA with one seat, has no purpose other than a number count.

Why do we need him? This is the point of discussion for the press and the Blogs. In fact Times of India went ahead and created a forum called “Send hate mails to Gangully”? This in my opinion is not correct, in fact a ridicules idea. Yes, I do have soft corner for Gangully, Why? I have been following him from 1991-92. In my opinion, he is a good player and a captain or may be called a different captain. Why, He is in charge of top class players of the world and first Indian captain who dared to take the Aussies by their ego; His captain seat has been very hot during tours

Gangully started off with a disastrous Australian Debut tour 1n 91-92; He just played one game, I still remember his feet movement for the Aussie “chin music” it was in a sorry state, our collage discussion often conclude that even a 1st division league player would do it better.

Everyone was upset about his selection; he was dropped promptly for the next series, and was never heard again. Like other Bengal players, the quota system helped him on a recall. Lady Fate smiled at him, Siddhu walks out from the Indian team during the England tour. Siddu vs Azar, Sixer Siddu announced a premature retirement and said good bye to cricket.

His replacement Mr. Sanjay Technique Manju was ill, yep this is what we call Fate, Gangully got the call, he had to face the critics again but soon he shut them down. Gangully cracked a class 100 in lords, he proved to everyone that he is capable and he did not stop there. We all know the rest of the story. Gangully went on to be a successful player and captain for India.

Where did this potential vanish? May be he is not focusing? Taking his position for granted? My questions can be raised? My answer - too much freedom, Gangully enjoys too much freedom without any sort of control; a good candidate will deviate if abundant freedom is provided in their work environment. That’s what is happening to Gangully.

So why don’t we get another captain, in my opinion NO, this is the hard truth, there is no player in Indian team to carry the captain mantle other than Sourav; on paper we have a powerful side with lot of technical ability. Dravid is playing well, so we should not burden him with captaincy, some say Sachin deserves another chance, but I see Sachin as an executor rather than a manager. He is a tool, He is someone who can execute a plan not manage it. Same applies to Sehwag. By all means Gangully will be best person to lead India.

Instead of blindly dropping Gangully, I would enforce some control over this freedom; make him responsible for his actions; he should feel that he is responsible for the outcome of a match. Gangully simply needs a check. He has to realize that he is not bigger than the game. Gangully should get the words “No body is indispensable”. If this is done, he will get back into action.

Now, having been given another chance, Gangully should not assume that this free ride will continue, after all they are bunch of jokers. Hence I think in order to recharge his portfolio he should be scoring runs at least in 4 of the 6 one day internationals and win the series for the home team. Yes this the only way he can avoid the axe. If not I am sure the board of jokers, the Blogs and other cricket crazed fans of India will not hesitate to emulate Donald Trump to say “Sourav Chandidas Gangully - you are fired”

All the best to Sourav for the one day series, “final series or a come back series”, it is in his hands to decide, And for Dinesh Kartik, hang in there pal, you are not the first and the last to face the jokers, good thing is like Sourav had, you have ample time to make a come back.