Ganguly reverts to type

So much for dignity. Sourav Ganguly has kicked it in that part of the anatomy normally protected by the batsman’s box. If Ganguly made the remarks credited to him, then the BCCI has no choice but to reprimand him. Probably ban him for a Test. And that would be ironic considering the cosy arrangement the player and the board had come to just before the start of the series.

Quite the remarkable thing about Ganguly the captain was that he was both Brahma and Shiva - creator and destroyer - of team spirit. And now he has done the Shiva act again. The retirement announcement that caught everyone by surprise was made with a fair amount of decorum. Now it seems Ganguly is reverting to type.

He has spoken ill of his team-mates, charged that every Tom, Dick and Harry has played for India. “Everything is possible in Indian cricket,” he is quoted as saying. “When Greg [Chappell] dropped me, TP Singh was my replacement. Where is he now?” He took a swing at the previous selection committee too, saying, “If the present committee had come three years earlier, the situation would have been slightly better for me.”

All this during an important series which the player has said will be his last. Those who expected him to pull out the second most popular quote in sport (after “we waz robbed”): “I was misquoted”, are waiting still.

Ganguly’s silence is hardly reassuring. His nudge-nudge, wink-wink style, has already given rise to needless speculation. For example, who was he talking about when he said that some players have “changed their hairstyle more than they have scored”? About the only player it cannot refer to is Virender Sehwag who hasn’t much hair left to style.

That Ganguly has his grievances cannot be doubted. But there is a time and a place to air them.

He has presented the board with a nice problem. Do they ignore the code of conduct and condone his outburst simply because he is playing his last series? Do they appoint a committee to look into the matter? Just how far back should the governing body bend to accommodate a player apparently determined to pursue a scorched-earth policy and cause havoc before he leaves? The board must ask for an explanation, and act quickly.