Ganguly won most of the ODI matches at home or against minnow countries. His performance as a captain was not realy great. We lost a match against BD and lost triangular series final (NZ, Ind, zim), drew series with Pak (2-2), lost aginst Eng (2-1). Just before WC2003, team was split into 2-3 groups and we had really bad opeing matches. In fact, Sachin's good knocks against Pak, SL, Eng made sure that we reached Final of WC2003. Otherwise, we would have had same fate in WC2003. I have some detailed statistics with me. If you take out minnow countries (kenya, namibia, zim, BD), Ganguly as a captain has only won 12 of 27 matches at home (44%), 14 of 40(35%) in matches in away series and 19 of 43 matches (44%) in neutral counties. I know all DADA FANS WILL BE SHOCKED TO KNOW THIS STATISTICS.
Now Dravid's record is 20 of 35 (57%)matches at home, 6 of 17(35%) in away series and 4 of 10 (40%) in away matches. In fact, Dravid played very few matches out of India and some of them were as part time captain. So, it is too early to conclude anything about Dravid. But one of the thing, I like about Dravid is that he fights from front. (Ganguly can only throw shirt from pavellion or make tons against Namibia and kenya). Dravid looks like a natural leader. Ganguly was occupying a position. In my view, most of the mess that we see today is created by Ganguly. He would play Bangar but not Agarkar (who is apperantly fastest to reach 250 wickets and was crucial for the only win in Aus test). Ganguly dared to break the team balance by not playing good wicket keeper and by playing only 4 bowlers. The results were normally poor but he made us believe it wasn't too bad. Luckily, Indian batsman Dravid/Sachin/Sehwag/Yuvi were in form and we won few matches. But, as a captain, it neevr looked like Ganguly was even applying common sense in selecting players or in placing the field positions. Result was we couldn't win a single cup (except Natwest series due to kaif/yuvi miracle) in his captaincy.
In my opinion, Dravid needs more time to prove and will definately come out as a much better choice over Ganguly.
RE:Dravid is far better than Ganguly
by stanly desouza on Apr 02, 2007 10:35 PM Permalink
hello abhay uncle, the piont is not who can be a captain, but who will go through the next world cup as a captain so if u just think of the old horses who won the race then we have to just think 40years past when player use to play at the age of 45--50,, so now is the time get a young captain and let's the old horses support him the way south africa did...and when u r showing the statistics please check how much ganguly's contribution is there in most of the win...hope you are not bangalorian ? cheeeer man
RE:Dravid is far better than Ganguly
by sagnik dey on Apr 02, 2007 10:31 PM Permalink
If Ganguly would not play Dravid as wicketkeeper, his one day career would be weel over...It was Ganguly's captaincy when Ind drew balance with Aus...Also Dravid in the early days was a yes man to Chappel, later on he became dictator and ruined the tem from all sorts
RE:Dravid is far better than Ganguly
by Sami M on Apr 02, 2007 10:43 PM Permalink
If dravid would have gone for the your specified reason then Gan.uly would have worst cantain in indian cricket history.. Do you know ?
RE:Dravid is far better than Ganguly
by Uttamkumar on Apr 02, 2007 10:36 PM Permalink
sagnik, you are very correct. that's the way Ganguly damaged his career and INDIAN team's future too. Only Dravid was most opposing force for Ganguly to come back, Chappel and Kiron were the additional force. Dravid also exploited Sachin a lot.
RE:Dravid is far better than Ganguly
by Uttamkumar on Apr 02, 2007 10:28 PM Permalink
Most of the gentleman who were captain for the team lost in major events like WORLD cup, took the responsibility and resigned. They said, they could not lead the team in right ways. Examples are Martin Crow, Shawn Pollock, Joysuriya, Attapatu, etc.
If Dravid is a gentleman he should resign from captaincy, otherwise it means he a very CHEAP person.
He made lot of IDIOTIC mistakes resulted worst result in world cup history for INDIA.
RE:Dravid is far better than Ganguly
by aarti sharma on Apr 02, 2007 10:34 PM Permalink
Dravid is nowhere close to Ganguly in one day matches as a player and as a captain. In the match where Ganguly was throwing his shirt from Pavalion, he made 65 in some 40 odd deliveries and infact he only started the moentum and then all big names like Dravid and Tendulkar failed which happens alot. Ganguly has won matches for India but Dravid is always a supporter. I like Dravid alot but the difference between Ganguly and Dravid is just like Shahrukh Khan and Ritesh Deshmukh in Bollywood terms
RE:Dravid is far better than Ganguly
by Anirban Ghosh on Apr 02, 2007 10:31 PM Permalink
Do you study some statistics before posting. Under Ganguly's captaincy, India won series against Pakistan (2-1) in Pakistan, drew against England (1-1) in England, drew against Australia (1-1) in Australia. These are test series. India won ODIs too in abroad, like Natwest Trophy in England, ICC Championship in Sri Lanka. Where did you find the concept of winning in home soil? Also, in WC2003, it was the fast bowlers (Nehra, Srinath, Zaheer) who took India in the final. Look at the no. of wickets they have taken or the no. of "man of the matches" they won in the entire tournament. I'm not trivializing Sachin, but you know, bowlers win matches.
RE:Dravid is far better than Ganguly
by Abhay T on Apr 02, 2007 10:43 PM Permalink
I agree but that was past. Look at his recent 20 matches. They were even worst. WC2003 team was split between 4 captains batting captain(Dravid/Sachin), bowling captain (Srinath/Kumble), fielding captain (Yuvi/kaif) and Ganguly. This was done to save face after poor performance against Aus and Holland. Unluckily, Dravid didn't get enough chance to overcome initial failure. And yes well said about bowlers. It is true that last time we had little more experienced bowlers. Zaheer was the culprit to start with wide and noballs against Aus in WC2003 (though he played better in other matches). Zaheer repeated history against SL in the opeing over.
