La affair Ganguly
I am an ardent fan of Ganguly. I boiled within, when the entire country turned against him in the issue Ganguly .vs. Chapel. I admonished him, within, for his exposure of private talk between him and Chapel. However, I justified myself, when the venom in Chapel got exposed by his e-mail to the BCCI. The Ganguly, I see is a person who nurtured more youngsters than any other Indian captain; a patriot who waved his T-Shirt against our erstwhile rulers; a most graceful Batsman, who could execute the most beautiful sixers on the front foot and so on.
Dear Ganguly, “please announce immediately that you would not like to play as a government nominee or with political backing. You would rightly regain the position with strong claims with your performances to come.” I am unhappy that he was dropped. But more unhappy the way in which his exclusion is being politicised by the politicians. Nothing more could be expected when a hard core politician heads the BCCI. Earlier, a rank self centered business man was heading BCCI. There will be dawn, only when real cricketers start managing their own affairs.( In a way it brings justice to my anguish expressed in Mumbaikar .vs. Chennaiette or Chennaivasi?. Has any one in Tamilnadu, the public, Media or politicians, rise one and all together when gross injustice was metted out to V V KUMAR, TE SRINIVASAN, Sivaramakrishnan (Batsman), Shekar, Kumaran, Balaji, W V Raman, Sadagopan Ramesh, Badani, Sharadh, Dinesh Karthik and many more ). However much, I admire Ganguly, I can not see him play by nomination. He would again be stressed with the pressure to perform. He should regain his place, by strong Domestic claims.
When, he is off form the entire media writes him down, including the commentators; his continuation in the team is a national debate in the Media, including NDTV; it was nausiating to see a funeral procession which is being witnessed by the person himself. He was treated by the media, public and cricketers, more as an entity than a living soul with sentiments, feeling and pain. A post-mortem being conducted on him when he is still alive, and that too without anaesthesia. Can any one continue to perform with such a pressure haunting him from all over. Now, the same media is showering laurels on him and are shedding crocodile tears for excluding him. Our silent inept public accepts both, without questioning. I am not against Tendulkar, but against the commercialisation or iconisation of him by the media; the ad companies which had booked his endorsements for the next decade need to keep him in view, keep him boosted to because of huge stakes. Despite continuous poor form, he would be projected as a Tiger in waiting than a lame tiger . Pathan who scores 93, an youngster with energy is being sidelined. Why? the endorsements and ad money. What would be the motive for youngsters when an ordinary performance, by the most experienced gets the Head-line while achievements by an youngster with less international experience goes unsung. ( I am gratified that Dhoni is getting his due . Not all youngsters are lucky.) I am against this, and not against any individul cricketer. ( Arjun to note- your memory w.r.t Srilanka was good, while I rememberd more the South African Safari, where the Great had only a journey as a passenger. As per my observation the Pollock and co. had repeatedly entrapped him because of his predictable game. A tiger should chase and hunt a gazel, but not lame ducks.)
I felt deceived about the Indian psyche supplicating to the white skin. After all, it was one against another. Chappel as Trainer- my memory is poor on his track record. BCCI is an Indian National body. Can an external person interfere in National affairs. Yes, it is possible when a self proclaimed President of BCCI wants to be petted by ICC Bosses. The Judas in Dalmiya was explicit, when he leaked the e-mail from Chapel to public , prefering the Thirty silver offer of a white man against an Indian Christ Ganguly. When the Lord shows up one Finger in vulgar fashion against a crowd of 70,000, erstwhile slaves, he was just showing up the injured finger. Please believe. This is the result of the thirty silvers our officials have received. Indian pride is secondary as compared to the slot machine that our players provide to the Board officials.
C Gopalakrishnan
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Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan is a copywriter, photographer and goofball from Chennai. He is also an archaeologist, historian and a city lover. He is currently a documentary film-maker and desk-monkey for a film production house.
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December 19th, 2005 - 12:18
C’mon, a trainers gotto be tough- is it so difficult? Would we rather have a incompetent but well behaved guy?But enough of this. I was actually watching our ‘champion’ boys in blue y’day as opposed to the men in white.
I merely posted to admire your spirit in keeping this blog up! Thanks. Do keep the blog alive. What all parents have to do for their kids
lol
December 19th, 2005 - 16:01
Dear Shankari,
My own blood, who is my alter ego in everything, has enough salvo to keep the Blog burning, and i needn’t kindle it. What I write is for me and not a proxy proposition. That apart, what we saw as competence was against a poor side like Sri Lanka, and not against SA or Pakistan where we failed miserably. India won its Natwest when John Wright was the tamer of the blues. Dont judge the Aussie by one-off series performance. Learn to see the invisible than the explicit words. Understance the substance of the article, than the word used. I am emotioanally driven person, and get hurt when emotions are trampled upon, not only mine but for any other. My anguish is not Ganguly, Tendulkar or Pathan but the polity of the Board and its selfish nature. Alas, the white skin is always right.
C Gopalakrishnan
December 21st, 2005 - 16:14
Very well written articles.I must consider myself lucky to stumble upon this blog.I will be waiting for more.
December 21st, 2005 - 18:51
I like your concern, particularly this sentence “Can an external person interfere in National affairs.” Can a foreigner be a part in deciding the 5 year plan for India? Can an Indian become the head of NASA? Still sab culture has not left us. In tamil they say white man with a coat is always called DURAaa. Vandemataram. A V Bhaskar-Chennai
December 21st, 2005 - 19:34
Dear CGK,
Leaving aside L’affaire Ganguly for now. About your alleged prejudice against TN cricketers, I have a few issues:
In your list, only Sharath and Badani deserve some consideration, the rest were just not good enough. TE was more of a quota guy, he definitely wasnt setting the Adayar on fire during his ‘heyday’. Honestly, do you really think he deserved a slot when the line-up had Sunny, Vishy, Amarnath, Vengsarkar, Kapil? Plus, how did his domestic record compare to heavy scorers of his time like Gaekwad, Malhotra, Parkar, Mankad? V.Siva was definitely good, but there were enough men with an equally prolific record like Rajput, Lamba, to name a few. Ramesh was okay on the international front but after Sehwag’s entry, clearly Gambhir and Jaffar had the knack for heavy scoring among the opening slot contenders.
For all the alleged biases, Cheeka and Venkat were given 43 and 56 “chances” respectively, when their standards were really an apology.
Anyway keep writing on cricket. I will be blogging on TN cricket soon. Good to find your post.
December 22nd, 2005 - 06:56
Dear Talkativeman,
Thank you. I was born on Dec45-do not know whether you are my Gen. I used to fret, the number of failed chances Vengsarkar used to get before he settled down. In fact he used the test matches as practice=nets, before he earned a name. It was the law of averages, that somebody had to score and thus were born the greats you named. Please believe me, I am not parochial, but I am by nature like-Indian, Ramana, Anniyan all put together. That is, I can not digest injustice being metted out- but unfortunately does not have the means or mind to resort to violence to curtail. It is inbuilt in Tamil blood, to idolise even a mediocre than recogonise a grest local hero. I used to wonder that Chennai has streets for Ambedkar, Gokhale, Patel, motilal, while no other city in India has stereets named on Bharathi, Subramanya Siva, V O Chidambaranar, Tirupur Kumaran. You ask really a well read Norther on any of these Names- you would draw a blank.In what way the Sacrifices and suffering of VOC less than that of Motilal, Jawahar or even Gandhi. They spent First Class short term jail in Yerawada-Pune etc while our man spent 21 years of hard Labour in Andaman. Born rich, he died a leper. So also Siva. Bhagath singh is a National Hero, while Vanchinathan is a Tirunelveli hero only. We,have been silent witness while Indian History and freedom fight idolised only a select Heros and we had accepted them in our magnanimity. Thus it is a bane of Tamils, that we accept any hyped maharashtrian as a great and idol, while sweeping down our own heros . Look at the history. What had been the position of Tamilnadu in the Ranji Trophy matches, while how many had represented India.
CGK
December 22nd, 2005 - 11:49
Hey,
Ganguly is too much in his misbehaviour.He thinks like politicians.He was not a team player.He was a crony of Dalmiya.
He has earned enough.All Indian successes are not due ganguly if u analyse it properly.
He was drag on the system. Now he is trying to pay tributes to his mentor,Mr.Dalmiya.by giving press notes etc
I am happy with the young indian Team without Ganguly
V.Rajagoplan
December 22nd, 2005 - 16:55
Dear CGK,
Thank you for getting back and elaborating on your points.
I am with you on most of your opinions on the tamil mentality of assimilation rather than assertion. But it is our own uniqueness in terms of language, culture, geography that is preventing us from being a part of the mainstream. These are natural limitations which cannot be easily overcome.
Going back to the specifics on cricket, TN has always produced steady than spectacular cricketers who play well as a team(just like South Africa). Granted South Zone is the most competitive of all zones, to consistently overcome Hyderabad and Karnataka and make it to the knock-outs is no mean feat. However, IMHO, TN cricketers have always lacked the cussedness and the aggression to make it big at the international level. They have only themselves to blame.
Twice, in 2003 and 2004, I had planned to watch the Ranji final at Wankhede and Chepauk but had to pull out at the last minute – if you go back in history, you will find that very rarely TN translates its league performance at the knockouts. It is only in recent years they started winning outside the MAC. Another case in point were the ‘03 and ‘04 finals – a settled and confident TN couldnt overcome a weak and depleted Mumbai packed with greenhorns – while Ramesh did a Rameez, Jaffer hit strokefilled 100s to clinch the finals.
Yes there were genuine cases like Sharath who deserved a look-in but by and large, the case for inclusion was just not strong enough. I re-looked the Ranji aggregates/averages for each season since 1983-84, the best TN player almost always fell around the 20th position on the nationwide scale. We’ve often produced the steady ones, not the jaw-droppers.
December 22nd, 2005 - 19:33
Hey, this post has been linked on CNN-IBN!
December 23rd, 2005 - 07:46
Talkative man
Tan q. I accept whle heartedly your point. However, as I had alwys been reiterating my concern is little on cricket or players, but the polity and the injustice metted to a section in the country.
CGK
March 18th, 2006 - 05:15
Hello, has straight time and looks around into English speaking Blogs in such a way. To arrange Holle me suggestions around also German Blogs. Unfortunately there is not as clasp-rich Blogs in Europe as English until soon and tschuess Manuel