The Law may be an ass and the same might apply to cricket’s international governing body, the ICC, but for Sourav Ganguly, a six-match ban at this stage of his career could well mean the end of the road.
Just as everyone was celebrating a great one-day match and its dream-like finish, the news that Ganguly has been banned for six matches by match referee Chris Broad for his team bowling three overs short came as a shocker.
Being a repeated offender — this is the Indian captain’s second offence this year (coming after his 70 per cent match-fee fine in the Vizag one-dayer) — his offence became a “level three offence”, punishable with a six-match ban.
Whatever the merits of this law and the severity of the punishment, the ban comes at a time when Ganguly does not seem capable of putting bat to ball and there have been demands that he sit out in the team’s interest. He has repeatedly failed in this series and this ban now means that he will not be playing the last two one-dayers against Pakistan including the big-ticket Delhi tie.
Rahul Dravid takes over from here, and who knows, for a long time to come.
{{/usCountry}}Rahul Dravid takes over from here, and who knows, for a long time to come.
{{/usCountry}}Ganguly has served Indian cricket very well, both as a captain and as a batsman. He is just 33 runs short of becoming only the fourth batsman in the history of the game to score 10,000 one-day runs (detractors, please note). But his recent poor form has not helped his cause much.
And, to go out of the team in this manner is not only unjust but also unfair to the man.
It was sad to see the man who has been admired for the way he has led the Indian side, being booed by the Ahmedabad crowd.