Is Ganguly paying the price for defiance?

Faisalabad: Sourav Ganguly's omission from the playing 11 stunned one and all at the Iqbal Stadium yesterday. None thought that Ganguly would be dropped when Rahul Dravid had remarked that Ganguly would not open in this Test.

Ganguly was seen sitting on a chair, expressionless, in the dressing room. A few reporters from Kolkata hovered around him.

"I am now waiting to go out and bat," Ganguly had remarked soon after the practice session on Friday when journalists asked him about his brilliant catch to dismiss Naveed-ul-Rana in the Lahore Test.

It must have been quite a humiliating experience for Ganguly, especially when his wife Dona and daughterSana had flown in.

"How can you drop him after not trying him as a batsman? asked an agitated journalist from Kolkata. "The fans in our city will burn Chappell's effigy again," he added.

According to information, Ganguly has paid the prize for refusing to open at Lahore. It seems Dravid and coach Greg Chappell had asked him to open, but Ganguly insisted that he wanted to bat down the order.

That apparently was the big argument on-field, which was even picked up by the television.

Word is also going around that an agitated Dravid agreed to open after remarking that every batsman should be willing to play at any spot and that one cannot afford to protect players who are not confident.

When Indian team selector V.B. Chandrasekhar arrived here, Ganguly and Chappell presented this issue. Chandrasekhar, after consultation with other selectors, left it to Chappell and Dravid to finalise the 11.

At the end of the day's play, skipper Dravid, said: "It was a very hard decision to drop an experienced player like Ganguly. However, we wanted to have the right combination to win a Test match. We need to take 20 wickets to win the Test match and hence we opted to go in for five bowlers."

As if to humiliate Ganguly further, another Indian selector Bhupinder Singh, who was here for the Lahore Test, said that Ganguly has a chance to play in the World Cup 2007.

"Just because he was dropped against Sri Lanka and South Africa did not mean it was the end of the road for him," he said.

When asked as to why Dravid had opened the innings, he confirmed that "initially it was decided that Ganguly would open, but then Dravid took the onus and decided to open."

Singh went on to add that for the next series against England, India will go in with specialist openers. It only goes to say that if Ganguly is not willing to open for India, it could be the end of the road for him.