Inspired by Dada

Source: Times Now TV     Date: December 21, 2006  

A Test defeat to India and questions are being raised about whether Grame Smith deserves his place in the side. An all-too-familiar situation for Sourav Ganguly. The man who’s made a comeback into a team he helped create.

If Graeme Smith finds himself walking a troubled path he needn't look far for inspiration. On the opposite side is former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly who knows just what Smith is going through.

Ganguly was once the most successful Indian captain but his bat was not quite talking enough. A new coach and a new selection commitee in India decided that the best place for Ganguly was outside the team.

A much publicised brawl with the coach and several controversies later Ganguly decided to let his bat do the talking for him.

Dada went back to domestic cricket to play for East Zone and Bengal. And it’s here that Dada found his touch again. A hundred for the East Zone and then two decent innings for his state side forced the selectors to bring him back into a side that had started to downslide.

Back in the side Sourav was thrown in the deep end in the Johannesburg Test with India having lost the One-Day series. With India tottering in their first innings Ganguly came up with an unbeaten half century that put India in a position of strength and set up the historic win a Johannesburg.

At 25, Smith still has a long way to go in Test cricket so all the crictisim will have a positive effect on his batting. After all Smith has a record of scoring back to back double hundreds and that calls for some ability.