Former Indian cricket skipper Sourav Ganguly is known for his timely shots. His hallmark was the perfect timing which led India to numerous wins. The stylish left-hander’s choice of time to quit was also excellent, feels former Indian players.
According to former captain Bishan Singh Bedi, Ganguly is a ‘legend’ of the game. Remember, Bedi was a bitter critic of Dada for long time.

Bedi said that he would like to celebrate his retirement, rather than mourn over it because of his enormous contribution to Indian cricket.

Bedi finds Ganguly a great player, a legend of the game who hung up his boots. He added that he is not surprised since such a possibility was doing the rounds. It looked very much on the cards. Ganguly became a forerunner among the senior players and he went on his own terms. The former Indian spinner even has requested all to treat senior players with lot more respect.

Bishan Singh Bedi feels that the senior players including Ganguly, Anil Kumble, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman are great cricketers “and requires lot more compassion and respect. They should not be ridiculed.

The chief selector of BCCI K Srikkanth said that Ganguly had a talk with him and fellow selector Narendra Hirwani before announcing his decision to quit.

He said that in the chat, he said that he felt it is time for him to go. Every now and then, the axe was on him and he said, and Ganguly never wanted to play under any pressure. Srikkanth said that he prayed for Ganguly to score more runs as he deserved a magnificent farewell. Players like Sourav Ganguly deserve to go out on a winning note. He even added that Ganguly falls into the list of most aggressive batsmen ever Indian side had and it is very difficult to replace him.

Bookmark It

 Del.icio.us    digg  
 Facebook    Google Bookmarks    Stumble It    Technorati    Yahoo! My Web  
Hide Sites

It is the day of Jason Krejza. The young Australian off-spinner Jason Krejza who made his debut really made the hosts stunned with his bowling mesmerism. He became only the sixth bowler - third from his country - to erode eight wickets in his debut Test innings. This off spinner triggered an Indian batting collapse on the second day of the fourth and final Test.
The 25-year-old bowler, who had to sit on bench for the first three Tests in the series in which they trail 0-1, got on India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (56), Sourav Ganguly (85), Zaheer Khan (1), Amit Mishra (0) and last man Ishant Sharma (0) in the space of 26 balls and 15 runs finishing up with eight wickets for 215 runs in 43.5 overs.

The chance of grabbing a hat-trick was denied by Sharma. In the post-lunch spell of 5.5-0-20-5 he send back Zaheer and Mishra off successive balls, but Sharma prevented him from achieving a hat-trick. This Tasmanian thus became only the sixth bowler in cricket history to take eight wickets in his first Test innings.

Krejza now shares his name with his compatriots Albert Trott (8 for 43 vs England at Adelaide in 1895) and Bob Massie (8 for 53 vs England at Lord’s in 1972), West Indian Alf Valentine (vs England at Manchester in 1950), India’s Narendra Hirwani (8 for 75 at Chennai in 1988) and South Africa’s Lance Klusener (8 for 64 vs India at Kolkata in 1996). Both Massie and Hirwani have grabbed eight wickets in the second innings in their debut Tests.

Krejza had made his mark on the first day of the Test on Thursday by showing Virender Sehwag (66), Rahul Dravid (0) and VVS Laxman (64) the way back to pavilion. He also has missed two chances of getting master batsman Sachin Tendulkar (109) out. But unfortunately, Sachin was not meant for him.