Be Afraid...

Ashish Shukla, Manu Joseph January 20, 2003 00:00 IST Be Afraid... -0001-11-30T00:00:00+05:53

After losing the fourth one-day international in New Zealand, where cattle pasture is called pitch, there was a telephone call waiting for Saurav Ganguly. He may have had half-a-mind not to take it because it was from board president Jagmohan Dalmiya who is capable of screaming "give my money back". But it turned out to be a very pleasant call. Dalmiya reportedly told Ganguly: "It doesn't matter if you are blanked 0-7 in the one-dayers. Keep your chin up and if you have to, go down fighting. The board is right behind you."

After he put the phone down, Dalmiya must have chuckled. The International Cricket Council (ICC) has said that it doesn't care if he has to walk on a legal minefield but he better send the "best team" to the World Cup. It now seems that the only team India has is a B-team. In New Zealand, on wickets that Navjot Singh Sidhu would say "are like wives, you never know which way they will turn", Indian men showed that they have little understanding of such fickle things. The 'best batting line-up in the world' prodded, missed and looked stupid. In the end, they...