Yes, you read that correctly. Ganguly does not want the Indian team to win in Australia. Flabbergasted aren’t you after reading such a line. You may not be wrong if you think this to be blasphemous. Well, I will not fault you afterall, Ganguly is the President of the BCCI. Why would he being the president would want the team to lose? Let me try to explain.
The Australian Tour
As we all know, India are supposed to tour Australia towards the end of this year for a series of 4 Tests and 3 ODIs. The first test is slated to start on the 3rd of December. The 2nd test on the 11th December. A gap of 3 days. The 3rd test on 26 December and the 4th 3 Jan. This time, the tour promises to be an extremely tough one for the Indian team. It is on par with the 4-0 drubbing under Dhoni. The Australian team are good though not great on their own wickets. They have batsmen who can score quickly and who can score daddy hundreds. They also have a good bowling attack with Cummins the top ranked test bowler for quite sometime now and also because Lyon is a much better spinner.
Why am I saying all these things?
We or rather the team and the board must understand that the Australian team is now supremely confident. Especially, after the wins and the amount of runs their batsmen scored last season. Australians are generally tough to beat. Even the poorest Australian team is tough to beat outside of their home. A supremely confident Aussie team will be virtually unbeatable in their backyard. The players need all the help that they could get. Remember, none of the team member would have played a single test before the first test in Australia.
The team will have to be exposed to the change in time as well as the Australian grounds well in advance. The team will have to play as many as 3 PROPER practice games before the first test as I had argued in my earlier post. You can read them here and here. This will not only provide the players with much needed match practice on grounds that will be the same as the ones to be used in tests but will also ensure that the players are in good frame of mind going into the first test.
What has caused a disruption in the schedule?
As you may have had noticed, the board have decided to go ahead with staging IPL between September and November. It will start on the 19th of September and complete on the 10th of November. The first test starts on 3rd December. That hardly leaves the team with 3 weeks. Remember, we are in the middle of a pandemic. For 2 weeks, the players will be in quarantine after their arrival. This essentially means that the team will have only a week to get ready for a very tough first test and that too at the Gabba. Gabba is an Australian fortress.
They have never lost a test in that ground for over 30 years. A week will allow only one practice game. As we all know, Kohli and Shastri as happened in South Africa, will think that they are better off without a practice game and go into the test with Zero first class game in about 8 months. This certainly is not the way to prepare for a series in Australia.
In the IPL, the main players will be made to play every game because the franchises may want them to play. If someone like Bumrah or Shami or Kohli gets injured, we must not travel to Australia because there is no point.
Ganguly wants the quarantine period to be reduced
Ganguly is on record stating that he will ask the Australian board to reduce the quarantine by a week. I have had high respect for Ganguly but the board President Ganguly seems to be an idiot. The 14 days is stipulated by the Australian government and not by the Australian board. This is afterall a cricket series. I am pretty sure that Australian government will not relax a rule for a small matter of a cricket series. There are bigger issues at stake. We must also remember that the Indian team will be travelling from a country that has very high number of cases compared to Australia. How the hell does Ganguly think that he can get away with a reduced quarantine period? Does he even realise that we are in the middle of a pandemic? Probably he has stopped thinking.
Without any match practice (IPL cannot substitute proper first class game) now when the team promptly loses the first and second tests, the team will be blamed. They are earning in millions and they do not care about the game or the supporters. All kinds of allegations will be made but the real culprit, the Indian cricket board, who refused to support the team with adequate practice games will escape without a blame.
Captain Ganguly vs President Ganguly
I have always had high respect for Ganguly the captain. He, the one who caused a turnaround and the team started to win outside of India. He instilled the much needed confidence and aggression that not even Sachin, Azharuddin and the rest weren’t able to instill. On the otherhand, President Ganguly is the exact opposite. I do not have any respect for him. He is not different from the previous presidents. Money seems to be the only criteria for President Ganguly. This is so disappointing.
I will not mind losing a few thousands because of IPL cancellation. Especially when it will help the team to compete against a tough opponent.
Conclusion
Bottomline is that when the team is humiliated in the series, the players deserve to be criticised but the real elephant in the room, THE BCCI, must not be allowed to go scot-free.
If you think that Ganguly does want the team to win in Australia despite the evidence to the contrary, leave your comments.