this prem panicker is a man with a typical regional mindset. he is anti-sourav...or to be more precise anti-bengal. just tell me mr panicker, what the hell makes u feel that chappell is right and sourav, harbhajan, mahendra, all three wrong? u said if harbhajan is right, chappell is wrong and if chappell is right ganguly is wrong. well....u fat head( my iit-ian status gives me the right to call u fat-head, i guess)...if harbhajan is right chappell is definitely wrong but if chappell is right , not only ganguly is wrong but also harbhajan.so u suggest harbhajan has some reason to lie too? and chappell is mr right? no one( read players) other than chappell said anything against ganguly.but harbhajan had the guts to speak out against chappell. so i presume, mr panicker, harbhajan was lying? i sincerely hope my message will be put up. these anti-sourav people shud not be given any chance to write. they r a serious threat to national unity.
Quite hard hitting...Hope Mr. Mahendra reads it...The ultimate idiots are the cricketing fans...Who is now telling the truth? The coach or the captain? Leaves us equally puzzled if not more than the six gentlemen who supposedly "resolved" this issue. It would not have been a bad suggestion to subject the coach and the captain to poloygraph tests. . .What a bunch we have got at the cricket helm. . .
Mr Panicker I have always liked your columns, and this one once again proves your unbiased viewpoint. When most of the people who understand crikcet less and more of sublime politics, are ready to lambast Sourav, you have provided deep insight into the problem citing reasons galore. I think Sourav has done one thing quite wrong, he shoud have mailed BCCI officials about Chappell's view, instaed of giving it out in e media conference. I guess he was too emotional and hurt, and didnt think the practical side of it and the possible consequences. I dont undersyand Greg's problem. Seriously I dont. If he thinks Sourav has mental n physical problem, then who is eligible? Rahul Dravid ? Rahul wasnt in good form either in Zimbabwe. If that is explained by pressure created due to his captaincy being taken away after Sri Lanka series one should try and comprehend the amount of pressure Sourav have been taking on for the last 4 years, constantly being the cynosure of all bad things happenign in Indian cricket. He is despite all trouble, the most successful captain by stats, and recently also emerged as the most capped captain. I find him mentally very fit to carry on captaincy.
Chappel is not a lier.He is a professioanl world class cricketer.If the captain is not performing he should be sent out.This game is getting captial intensive and if players are not committed we need to take a call.we can utilise our countries resources for tsunami victims.
After a meeting of 5 hours, 6 gentlemen solved all the problems of Indian Cricket team. Now it is concluded that Dada is fit(both physically and mentally) to lead the team. Character of Mr Chappell is again very good. Our team is again very united and determined to challenge from team in the world. Clapping ... clapping ... clapping ...
Nice show. Everything is alright, only cricket has come closer to death and nobody is bothering about it .
In the absence of any productive national priority, we are over-obsessed with the game called cricket.
One thing is very clear. The Indian Cricket Team is rewriting the rule book. There is no consistency in their performance. The only concern of team 11 is how to have the best commercial endorsements and make money.
It is a matter of great shame that for a population of over 100 corers, we find it difficult to select 11 best players who can prove the merit by their performance rather than the ads they do!!!
And coming to the BCCI, the general public will never know what transpired inside the four walls and who is right and who is wrong. There is no transparency. The whole thing is full of politics and coteries.
Because of this sport which has got a very limited international popularity, we are badly loosing on other sports like hockey, football and athletics.
This is only but natural, when you have 3 very senior players - Tendulkar, Saurav and Dravid - the fight for the power will go on and on.
Make a team of 100 best players of the country based purely on performance, pool the 11 and ask them to perform. If they don't, replace them fast with new faces.
The result of BCCI meeting is as pretty much expected.My feeling is that the board fails to discuss the truth. The players should be judged on basis of performance.Everyone must agree that Ganguly has been a very good Captian and he had played tremendous innings for India.The truth is that we have not been seeing that agressive Ganguly for the last couple of years ? Do we need to retain such player in the team for such a long time ? I would appreciate the way Australian team management
Prem, We all knew the fact that there were Sunil, Ravi, Mahendra all Ganguly bashers in the review committee. And they were going to be strong against Ganguly. But everybody says that Ganguly made a stunning defense of him and even after listning to the manager, when the BCCI tell us that the fake injury is not true, then we have to beleive that Chappell had some plans, which we dont know what. Because we all thought till recently Chappell and Ganguly are in the best terms especially since his advices to Sourav in Australia.
We have to understand one thing. Chappel has never proved himselves as a coach. He was a great player, great intelligent thinker of Cricket, but will that make a good coach. He never managed to take South Australia into the top two even.
And to say Sourav used to create a rift among the team is a real lie, for the last 4/5 years we did saw the team as a single unit. If there was a feeling of rift, it appears to have come only after the arrival of Chappel.
It would have been nice if we could read his mind.
