India and cricket
14th January 2006
Raj Singh Dungarpur, manager of the Indian cricket team currently touring Pakistan, has just returned from "exile" of sorts from India's cricket governing body, the BCCI, after ruling over it prior to the arrival of Jagmohan Dalmiya.
And he seems to be enjoying his return to the mainstream of Indian cricket and its governing body, looking at his (alleged) remarks regarding Saurav Ganguly during an interview in Pakistan that were shown on one of the Indian news channels.
During this interview he is supposed to have said that John Wright, who was India's coach prior to Chappell's appointment, had "huge problems" with Saurav, but he was a little mild.
I have always felt that Saurav's image as the most successful captain of India was, to a large extent, because John Wright worked behind the scenes away from the glare of publicity and built the team into a force to be reckoned with almost single-handedly.
The lion's share of the credit for the excellent showing of India in the last World Cup goes to John Wright, who for the first time thought of building the morale and inner strength of the members of the Indian team through psychotherapy. The results could be seen in South Africa when the Indian team sprang back into reckoning after a defeat against Australia, and barely winning their game against Holland in the league rounds.
Credit for India's excellent showing should have been shared between John Wright and Ganguly, but Wright preferred to remain in the background. Be it as it may, I am sure that many discerning cricket lovers will recognize and respect great contribution made by John Wright during his tenure as the Indian cricket team's coach.
His skipper's skills aside, there is no doubt that Saurav is a great batsman with his 5150 Test runs (av. 40.87) and his 10123 ODI runs (av. 40.65), and we all hope that he will get a place in final squad and will be back amongst runs to help India win both the series.
K. B. KALE, Jakarta
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