Ganguly back in the spotlight

Eleven days after he was hit on the face by a Shahid Nazir bouncer and a day after Jagmohan Dalmiya termed him a bachcha, Sourav Ganguly is in the eye of another potential storm. Speculation is rife about his possible rehabilitation, even though partial, in the form of a place among the 30 probables for the Champions Trophy.

It all originated from a quote from an unnamed national selector who said Ganguly, who hasn't played for India after being dropped following India's tour to Pakistan last year and whose last appearance in an ODI was in last September, was very much in the frame for the long list. Since then, the story has already aquired layers of intrigue.

Giving credence to the rumours is the talk of a bargain struck between Ganguly and the Indian cricket bosses. Ganguly wrote a dramatic email to his brother, which was made public in a press conference, accusing Jagmohan Dalimya, among other things, of having played with "my career". The timing of the letter was significant: it came about a week before the Cricket Association of Bengal election, in which Dalmiya was facing a tough challenge from Prasun Mukherji, the police commissioner of Kolkata, who was being publicly backed by the West Bengal chief minister.

In return for his support to Dalmiya's rival, Ganguly, it was suggested, had been offered a passage back to the Indian team. A charitable view is that having experimented with newcomers, the selectors were now ready to finalise the squad for the World Cup. Twenty-nine year-old Dinesh Mongia, who has not played for India since been found wanting in the last World Cup, has been recalled, and Anil Kumble is back in the fray for the Champions Trophy. So why not Ganguly, who has more than 10,000 runs in one-day cricket?

Mongia of course has been recalled on the basis of solid performances in county cricket, and with Kumble, it is only a question of age and agility in the field. With Ganguly, there is a serious question of form. He managed 71 in the only one-day game he's played so far for Northamptonshire and averaged 27.5 in nine Twenty20 matches. One can point to the fact that he snapped up 11 wickets in the Twenty20 but can't discount the economy rate of 8. And from six first-class innings, he has totalled a mere 24 runs.

As expected, there has been a flurry of reactions. Niranjan Shah, the board secretary, has insisted that there is no order from "anywhere to consider or drop anybody". Kiran More, the chairman of selectors, has dismissed the report as a piece of "kite-flying". And Raj Singh Dungarpur, the former board president, termed it as "retrograde" and "disgraceful".

However, one selector, speaking to Cricinfo, felt that the whole speculation was triggered off by a section of the Indian board, "a political move rather than anything based on cricketing logic".