More shuts the door on GangulySourav Ganguly will not be recalled into the Indian team as long as the present selection committee is in office, Kiran More, the chairman of the five-man committee, told Cricinfo in an interview last evening.
Following Ganguly's exclusion from the first Test, More had made a statement that "there is no looking back on this issue now", which had been varyingly interpreted by the media. More clarified to Cricinfo that the reference then, and now, was to the tenure of the current selection committee, rather than just the present series against England.
"We took a decision that we have to look ahead," he said. "We decided that so much has been said on this issue, that we wanted to send a message across that, `this is what we are looking at, and as far as this committee is concerned, this is what we have decided, that we will not look back at all." More further spelt out that the committee was "definitely looking beyond" Ganguly even if he were to perform well in domestic cricket.
About the public and media pressure generated by the decision, More said: "Pressure is always there in any job and it is a good thing. You have to make some strong decisions. That's why you're selecting the Indian team."
The team for the second Test against England at Mohali is to be announced this evening. Ganguly, meanwhile, is slated to play for East Zone tomorrow at Jaipur in the Deodhar Trophy, the domestic zonal one-day tournament.
More's comments were part of a wide-ranging interview, taken before Sharad Pawar held meetings with the Indian players and coach late on Saturday night. The full interview will be published soon on Cricinfo.
My Take : If India is looking ahead and playing only youngsters then drop Tendulkar, Kumble, Laxman, Dravid tooo. All of them are old. Tendulkar is performing terribly in tests. There are better players to replace him. India can depend on Irfan Pathan to make a double hundred to the save each and every match.
Kiran More has had very little international experience compared to Ganguly, of course cricket was different back then but still how he became chairman of selectors, god only knows.
Ganguly, always supported his youngsters too. Dhoni, Yuvraj, Harbajan Singh all owe Ganguly a lot.
Ganguly may not be at his best, Tendulkar has not been the same in the last 2 years too. Ganguly still averages 40+ in both forms of the game which is good enough for me to include him in both forms of the game.
This whole episode of Greg Chappel vs Ganguly with the selectors joining the bandwagon shows how pathetic the BBCI is being run today and who is calling the shots.
Match fixing almost forced me to give up on cricket then but this whole Ganguly episode has forced me to throw in the towel. I was actually waiting for India to lose today which is totally unlike me.
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