Sourav Ganguly Would Be Proud

Never in my wildest imagination did I think that a simple post criticising Dilip Vengsarkar and his fellow fools selectors would draw such a heated response.

Some of you may know that we also post some of our articles to Desicritics. I wrote this article about the recent overhaul of the Indian cricket team and also posted it on Desicritics. The passionate, bordering on abusive, responses from Sourav Ganguly fans proved to be quite an insight (and an equally hilarious one) into the minds of the average Indian cricket fan.

Sample some of these, err, heated responses to my published thoughts:

"It seems that this author understands nothing, like a cart puller is giving lecture on what apparatuses India should use on Chandrayan. Why not a 'Kadai', it will help to collect rain water in Moon atmosphere !!!"

"this author has gone crazy.. he needs to go and get his basic understanding of cricket rectified.."

And this after Ganguly scored the 83 in the warm-up match:

"WHERE ARE YOU HIDING ENIGMA....'MR KNOW ALL' OF CRICKET."

"IF YOU HAVE ANY SHAME LEFT IN YOU, DO NOT WRITE SUCH BIASED SUBJECTIVE OPINION ABOUT INDIAN CRICKET. YOU NEED TO PUBLICLY APPOLOGIZE FOR YOUR CRAPPY ARTICLE."

I must say that this was the best of the lot:

"What Mr. Enigma, Ganguly's 83 was a solid slap in the face of you and your likes. You must be a pathetic looser who loves to lick Greg Chappell and Kiran More."

I'm not sure if Ganguly would be proud or disgusted at the ferocity with which his backers respond to a suggestion that he should not be in the team.

Regular readers of this space would understand my love for Ganguly's talent, in his prime. However, even after his innings of 83, I do not believe that he is the right choice for the Indian middle order in South Africa. This opinion has nothing to do with being anti-Ganguly, because I'm definitely not. It has all to do with his performances on the international stage over the past 2-3 seasons and his marked decline in form and gumption when the going gets tough.

I am the first one to hope and pray that Team India and Sourav Ganguly succeed in the Test series. Why wouldn't I want to see those silken drives piercing seven fielders through the off-side? Especially now that he is likely to be in the XI for the first Test, I hope against all hope that Ganguly does his nation proud - just like he used to.

Until then, I will resign myself to dreaming about what it would be like to "lick Greg Chappell and Kiran More." After all, that is what "pathetic losers" do, right?