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The game may be up for Ganguly
Unwanted by fans and unable to put bat to ball or persuade his bowlers to send down their overs in time, Sourav's future has never looked worse.
Sourav Ganguly's career was in a shambles on Wednesday even as the Indian cricket board moved to appeal the six-match ban imposed by the International Cricket Council on the country's most successful captain.
Unwanted by fans and authorities alike, vilified by the media and unable to put bat to ball or persuade his bowlers to send down their overs in time, Ganguly is undergoing the most turbulent phase of his career.
It is debatable if the 32-year-old, nicknamed the Prince of Kolkata by former England batsman Geoffrey Boycott, will emerge from the crisis unscathed.
Given his poor form with the bat — the left-hander averaged 9.6 in the drawn three-Test series against Pakistan last month and aggregated just 31 runs in the four one-dayers — many see his ban as a blessing in disguise for India.
Ganguly, who boasts an Indian record of 19 Test wins as captain, has not scored a Test century since a brilliant 144 against Australia in Brisbane in November 2003.
A one-day hundred has eluded him since the World Cup semi-final against Kenya in Durban, South Africa in March the same year.
"What the Indian board and selectors could not do, the ICC has done," said former Indian captain Bishan Bedi, an outspoken critic of Ganguly.
ICC match referee Chris Broad imposed the unprecedented ban on the captain for his team's repeated slow over rates in the ongoing six-match series which stands locked at 2-2.
Having fined Ganguly 70 per cent of his match fee in the third match at Jamshedpur, Broad imposed the ban when India fell three overs short during the last-ball thriller at Ahmedabad on Tuesday which Pakistan won by three wickets.
"I made Mr Ganguly aware of the potential penalties at the previous hearing and it is unfortunate that this warning was not heeded," Broad said in a statement.
