He struck a century with 131 runs in his very first test innings, which happened in summer of 1996 vs England. In the next test match in that same series, he struck yet another century by scoring 136. India awoke to a new player who appeared to be the savior. Within the next 2 years, he had accumulated a booty of 5 test centuries to his name. In the ODIs too, his graph rose steadily with 4 centuries in 1998 and 1999 each, and 7 in 2000.
And then things changed. In the last 2 years, he has no century in ODI to his credit, and gathered an extremely painstaking one in a test match which was vs Zimbabwe recently. His last 3 centuries in ODIs have been against Kenya (2) and Namibia (1) - not huge reason to celebrate even on the day they occurred. It has been 3 years since he scored a century against a respectable opposition in an ODI, which was vs England in Sep 2002. Clearly, he has lost the silken touch. And he has had 3 years to regain it, but there’s no hope in sight.
He came, he saw and he conquered. Today, he stands vanquished. The Maharajah of Indian cricket has somehow managed to hold on to the crown of the captain, but we wonder if all the Indian subjects are anymore his fans. His performance of late has been amongst the worst in international cricket today. Players around the world who performed at his level have long been replaced and stronger talent has come to the fore everywhere. Then why isn’t Ganguly not been sent out yet ? The Maharaja and his little band of brothers need to realize that any political support they are enjoying at the moment to be in the team is at best fragile. Nothing speaks louder than performance. And performance comes from fitness, discipline and commitment - which unfortunately he chose to let go from his systems since long.
So Mr. Ganguly : You have had a lot of ardent fans. And I think that you can salvage a lot of pride if you hang up your boots on your own accord right now and make way for people who can make a difference to the Indian team and get us back to winning ways. The World Cup 2007 is too precious for us fans to let go for reasons that relate to the past. We need players that perform and will give their best today.
Cheers !
Deepak