da betobet： Sourav Ganguly is suffering the fate of all those captains who arecaught up in a spate of ill fortune
Ashish Shukla17-Nov-2001Dravid is not having a very happy timeSourav Ganguly is suffering the fate of all those captains who arecaught up in a spate of ill fortune. Everything he does seems toinvite criticism. Be it the handling of his own men or his position inthe batting order, it looks like the Prince of Kolkata must bear thecross all the time.On the opening day of the second Test, it was his introduction ofspinners within the first 70 minutes of the morning that found him atthe receiving end. Ravi Shastri, who is in South Africa as acommentator, described it as `Christmas time’ for the South Africanbatsmen. Former South African swing bowler Fanie de Villiers was alsobemused and struggled to find a logical explanation before settlingfor “you are ****ed up if you win the toss and ask the opposition totake first strike and don’t get them all out on the first day!”Shastri, meanwhile went on to add that, he thought 50 overs byspinners on the first day on a green pitch, with the overhead cloudcover, was disastrous from the Indian point of view.
©AFPBut Ganguly’s move was indirectly backed by South African opener andcenturion Herschelle Gibbs who explained that at the end of the firstday’s play that the ball wasn’t really coming on to the bat because ofthe dampness in the pitch. He also added that there was also not muchpace and lateral movement in the wicket. Ganguly probably decided tobowl his spinners with this in mind as he felt the batsmen would bemade to grope for the ball.With Ganguly letting everybody know that he was keen to open theinnings, Rahul Dravid and Venkat Sai Laxman suddenly became the fallguys. Laxman could be excused as he has made it known to theselectors, in no uncertain terms, that he was not interested inopening the innings ever again.Meanwhile, Dravid, contrary to his public image of a guy willing to doat anything that his captain and coach want him to, hates being askedto open. If you remember, in the Harare Test in Zimbabwe in June, itwas Hemang Badani who finally had to open in his first Test after afew big names couldn’t bring themselves to embrace the idea of facingthe likes of Andy Blignaut operating with the new ball!
©CricInfoDravid’s position becomes trickier if you remember he is also thevice-captain of the side. Shastri thought this was the area whereDravid should have been seen shouldering more responsibility. “He isvery quiet on the field and sometimes you need the vice-captain tocome up with useful advice to the captain. A captain, under stress,could have his thinking cap off.”Dravid continued to be haunted by fresh woes on the field too as hedropped a dolly, offered by Mark Boucher off Harbhajan’s bowling, inthe slips on the second day. That was before Shaun Pollock bowled himfor two when he came out in his preferred position of India No.3 inthe Indian first innings…