Sourav Ganguly must go out as a man at peace with himself

That is why I find it a little difficult to follow what the new chairman of selectors has said. Srikkanth suggested that Ganguly could now bat freely and without the sword dangling over him which, when he was a player, he didn’t like either. I believe, quite to the contrary, that Ganguly has pulled a fair bit of pressure towards himself. Also, don’t forget he is not guaranteed four Test matches because nobody can make deals like that.

But having known Ganguly over the years, I suspect he won’t mind the pressure too much because if he delivers now, having upped the stakes so much, his legend will only grow. All good players back themselves and so has he. There is another reason I would like him to score runs here. A lot of very fine players retire as bitter men; for the rest of their substantial life they carry the hurt of denial, believing they could have done more. It is one of the saddest things in the game and given the kind of career he has had, Ganguly must go out as a man at peace with himself.

Luckily, unlike financial institutions, the retirement of cricketers doesn’t have a ripple effect. I am not surprised at all that Anil Kumble was unhappy (most would have angry!) at the suggestion that he was moving on too. All he had said was that this was his last chance to beat Australia and you can’t argue with that because the next test series is two and a half years away. The probability of him playing till then is as strong as the chance of peace in Afghanistan.

But Kumble has a point. And a reason to be upset. India and Australia have produced consistently outstanding test cricket since that great series of 2001. This is one of the highlights of the cricket calendar and yet, the focus is not on performance but on when great players are going to leave, presumably on the assumption that they are no longer good enough. Kumble has always said that he is now taking his career series by series and for a man who has rarely demonstrated anything but dignity, I think we should take his word for it and move on.

Curiously though, this has had a positive side-effect (doesn’t some good come out of everything? Or is that only in our movies?); for the first time there has been no mention of Sachin Tendulkar. A man who stood apart has now been herded into a group and collectively dissected. He won’t mind that too much for he is at heart a simple man who likes to go about things quietly, in his own way. Now, he won’t be thinking about retirement just yet! I suspect it will be a joint rather than a bowler that will cause that decision to be taken!

So a fine series gets underway with a fine player proving that statistics of the past rarely have relevance to the present. If we could predict what cricketers are likely to do based on what they have done in the past, this wouldn’t be the greatest game in the world. Ricky Ponting struggled initially but good players get over small phases in their innings like a mountaineer does the loss of a water bottle on the way. When the captain is in a good mood, it rubs off on the others and Ponting will have gone to bed in a very good mood.