The year 2005 will always be remembered as one of the lower years in the history of Indian cricket. It was the time when Australia’s Greg Chappell took over Indian cricket, more as an overbearing and not just as a coach.
The year 2005 will always be remembered as one of the lower years in the history of Indian cricket. It was the time when Australia’s Greg Chappell took over Indian cricket, more as an overbearing and not just as a coach.
He began to impose his own rules and regulations against anyone’s wishes and that ended up ruining the atmosphere in the dressing room.
Also Read: MS Dhoni is not retiring
It was then Indian Captain, Sourav Ganguly, who was the reason behind Greg’s appointment. From Jagmohan Dalmiya, the then president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), to Chappell’s own brother, Ian, thought that Greg was not the right fit for India. However, Ganguly decided to go with his instincts and ignored all the advices that came his way.
Fast forwarding a year ahead, Greg snatched away Ganguly’s captaincy and dropped him from the Indian team itself. The Videocon Tri-Nation series in Harare, including hosts Zimbabwe along with New Zealand, which India lost to New Zealand in the final, was Ganguly’s last series as India’s captain before he was axed from the side.
Ganguly recently had launched his autobiography, ‘A Century is Not Enough,’ in which the former skipper spoke about various stages of his career. Speaking about the 2005 axing saga, the legendary Southpaw wrote that it was one of the most turbulent phases of his life. He termed the move unthinkable, unacceptable and unforgivable.
“History hasn’t recorded many instances of a winning captain being dropped so unceremoniously, that too after scoring a hundred in the last Test series. In Indian cricket there are no such parallels and I doubt whether there will ever be. So Mr Gregory Stephen Chappell and the selection committee led by Kiran More have indeed put me in august company,” Ganguly wrote in his book.
For once we keep Greg’s angle as aside and just look at Ganguly’s numbers from one year prior to his dropping, Ganguly’s CV would suddenly look poor in that span of 12 months.
Ganguly’s ODI century was almost two years old and the century which he has mentioned in his above quote was scored against a lower-ranked side Zimbabwe in Tests.
His batting average in the ODIs between September 2004 and 2005 was as bad as 25.5 and for someone of his caliber, this average certainly wouldn’t have defended him, had he not been a captain and just a player in the Indian side.
Moreover, Ganguly recently slammed Dhoni saying he has not been doing enough for over a year.
“If Dhoni has got to play then he has got to get in a position where he keeps hitting. If it is 24-25 overs and he has got to build an innings, he is struggling at the moment. "He may turn it around as he has been a great player for India but at the present he is not turning it around enough and this has been going on for more than an year," said Ganguly.
With all due respect to Ganguly, we bring in numbers comparing Dhoni’s one year to Ganguly’s one year before the latter was dropped:
| |
Sourav Ganguly |
MS Dhoni |
| Time Periord |
Sept 2004 - Sept 2005 |
July 2017-July 2018 |
| No. of Matches |
22 |
27 |
| No. of Runs |
545 |
604 |
| Avgerage |
25.5 |
50.3 |
| No. of 100s |
0 |
0 |
| No. of 50s |
4 |
4 |
| No. of Not Outs |
1 |
8 |
Although Dhoni has scored 45=odd runs more here, you need to understand that while Dhoni comes in to bat later in the order, while Ganguly batted at top-order and that makes the No. of runs significant here.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "Dhoni vs Ganguly")
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}