Indian parliament to debate Ganguly’s axing

NEW DELHI—Sourav Ganguly’s omission from the Indian team for the third and final Test against Sri Lanka took a political twist Saturday with parliament preparing to discus his sacking next week.
Somnath Chatterjee, speaker of the lower house of parliament, said Ganguly had suffered an “injustice” as a result of “politics in the game” and the issue would be discussed next week.
“I have allowed this to be added in the agenda and it will come up for discussion. Such incidents will affect the morale of young players and we must take corrective measures,” he was quoted as saying in Indian media Saturday. Ganguly, India’s most successful captain with 21 Test wins, was dropped from the squad on Wednesday after the second Test against Sri Lanka here.
His dumping triggered a wave of protests, particularly in his home town of Kolkata, as fans, cricketers and politicians condemned the decision of the national selectors. Ganguly has already received political backing with Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee saying the batsman deserved a place in the Test team.
“I think we should not play politics in cricket or any kind of game,” he told Press Trust of India news agency, suggesting that Ganguly was a victim of the Indian Cricket Board’s politics.
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, chief minister of Ganguly’s home state of West Bengal, described the decision as unjust as well as insulting to the player and “to all of us”.
However, Indian cricket chief Sharad Pawar said he was against raising the issue in parliament. “If people start using the parliament to say who should be in the team, it would cause irreparable damage to cricket and cricketers,” he said, adding he would not ask the selectors to review their decision.
“His exclusion was shocking, but I have no role in it. My responsibility being the cricket board president is not to interfere in the selection process and I will never have any role in the selection process,” said Pawar, who is also agriculture minister in the federal government. Ganguly has scored 5,150 runs in 86 Tests and 10,123 in 279 one-day internationals.
The left-hander is only the fourth batsman to complete 10,000 runs in one-day cricket after compatriot Sachin Tendulkar, Pakistan’s Inzamam-ul-Haq and Sri Lankan Sanath Jayasuriya. The third and final Test against Sri Lanka begins at Ahmedabad on Sunday.—Agencies