And The Two Shall Live Happily Ever After

Remember how the stories in primary school English textbooks ended? "....and they lived happily ever after". It sounds so good we always wish real life was like that. We wish because we know life isn't like that. But hold on, our beloved and noble BCCI might just want us to believe that such an ending is indeed possible. I've never considered myself the most intelligent human being around and i can say i'm average or above average at best. However, that, i feel is sufficient to reason that one of them is right and the other is wrong. Or, at least, most of the things one of them said are true and most of the things the other said are false. simple. To help decide things, we have an investigating committee consisting of the mother lovers Mahendra, S.K Nair and "DadaMan" Dalmiya. It also had Ravi Shastri, Venkatraghavan and S.M Gavaskar but that is just an insignificant piece of trivia one may ask as a question in a sports quiz.

If somebody is investigating something, they would rely on witnesses' statements and some hard facts corroborating the statements, because statements of witnesses and the concerned parties seldom make hardcore evidence. Now, Chappel says his story and Ganguly says his and voila, The Committee announces that the accusations of Ganguly feigning illness "are far from truth..." and "are a result of miscommunication...". Now, after reading the following excerpt from Chappel's email, can someone explain to me like i'm a six year-old, what bloody miscommunication is The Committee talking about? I mean, there are just two parties involved and they are in the same physical place of existence.

The following day Sourav batted in the match against Zimbabwe 'A' team in the game in Mutare. I am not sure of the exact timing of events because I was in the nets with other players when Sourav went in to bat, but the new ball had either just been taken or was imminent when I saw Sourav walking from the field holding his right arm. I assumed he had been hit and made my way to the players' area where Sourav was receiving treatment from the team physiotherapist, John Gloster.
When I enquired as to what had happened Sourav said he had felt a click in his elbow as he played a ball through the leg side and that he thought he should have it investigated. Sourav had complained of pain to his elbow at various stages of the one-day series, but he had resisted having any comprehensive investigation done and, from my observation, had been spasmodic in his treatment habits, often not using ice-packs for the arm that had been prepared for him by John Gloster. I suggested, as had John Gloster, that we get some further tests done immediately. Sourav rejected these suggestions and said he would be 'fine'. When I queried what he meant by 'fine' he said he would be fit for the Test match. I then queried why then was it necessary to be off the field now. He said that he was just taking 'precautions'.
Rather than make a scene with other players and officials in the vicinity I decided to leave the matter and observe what Sourav would do from that point on. After the loss of Kaif, Yuvraj and Karthik to the new ball, Sourav returned to the crease with the ball now around 20 overs old. He struggled for runs against a modest attack and eventually threw his wicket away trying to hit one of the spinners over the leg side.
The next day I enquired with a number of the players as to what they had thought of Sourav's retirement. The universal response was that it was 'just Sourav' as they recounted a list of times when Sourav had suffered from mystery injuries that usually disappeared as quickly as they had come. This disturbed me because it confirmed for me that he was in a fragile state of mind and it was affecting the mental state of other members of the squad.
When we arrived in Bulawayo I decided I needed to ask Sourav if he had over-played the injury to avoid the danger period of the new ball as it had appeared to me and others within the touring party that he had protected himself at the expense of others. He denied the suggestion and asked why he would do that against such a modest attack. I said that he was the only one who could answer that question.

What about Saurav's paltry batting averages in both forms of the game after Jan 2004? What about the fitness report from the team physio that Ganguly's fitness falls well below the acceptible limits for any team member? Don't the viewers have a right to know what transpired in that great "investigation"? Of course, we don't!
If you say Ganguly can continue as captain, you are making Chappel eat his own words. You are implying that all Chappel had said about Ganguly was just good old bullshit. He is physically and mentally fit, he has the ability and the form to remain as a player and captain of both the test and ODI sides. The only mistake on his part is that he went public with his statement that Chappel asked him to step down. Now, coming to that statement, if the statement is true, then Chappel has lied in his report. If anyone says "the captain should be appointed/removed by the selection committe and Chappel has no say in talking about a captain's merits", i'll break that person's jaw and quickly retort with my counter question "In that case, why the fuck do you have all these reports from the coach? Are you short of toilet tissues?". If you think (maybe rightly, maybe not) that the selection committee [which, by the way allots seats like a party head allots seats to his/her candidates] has a bigger say than the coach, the captain is nowhere in the picture. Still, Ganguly has been known to pick and drop players at will on match-days without consulting the coach. It's just crazy......

A friend sugegsted that the best possible solution would be to let things cool down and wait for Ganguly to just underperform his way out of the captaincy and a place in the team in the coming series. That way, the case against him is water-tight, and it also averts any moronic public [read Bengali] backlash in the event of sacking Ganguly right now. I'm not very sure about that. As a believer of Murphy's laws, i'm tempted to think Ganguly might just strike some freak form and something radical happens and he retains his place in the team.

On the other hand, i think Chappel should now say "Fuck off!" to India and its sporting ethic (or the lack of it), put in his papers and leave with his head held high. That's not happening either.......