Ganguly comes under fire from non-Kolkata journalists

Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly tried to create a split among the Indian journalists who are here to report the series. His closeness to reporters from his city of Kolkata was the reason.

It is a known fact that Ganguly provides first hand information about team formation and plans to newspapers from Kolkata, but in Rawalpindi, he agitated the rest of the Indian journalists as well as foreign scribes by misguiding them.

On Monday night, Indian vice captain Rahul Dravid addressing the pre-match press conference, announced that Nehra was ruled out for the Rawalpindi match with an ankle injury and that Ganguly himself was battling a light fever.

All reporters, excepting the Kolkata journalists, rushed out and filed their reports stating that Nehra would be out of action in Rawalpindi, except Kolkata journalists.

The Kolkata media, however, reported, quoting Ganguly, that Nehra would play the match. And he did.

Incidently, Dravid had made the statement in the presence of team manager Amrit Mathur.

In the press box on Tuesday, some journalists from North and South India lost their cool. "Is Ganguly unaware of what Dravid is saying? Or is the Indian captain providing another scoop for Kolkata journalists by misguiding Dravid?" asked a journalist.

In the post match press conference on Tuesday, Ganguly was questioned about this. He was also asked if Dravid's statement need not be considered as official hereafter.

Ganguly defended his action by stating that Dravid should not have made such a statement on an injury to a player.

"Nehra had a swelling, but it went off by morning. These are the kind of injuries which can recover fast; so he should not have announced it at the press conference," he said.

Indian journalists, though unhappy with the answer, did not go on to make a scene especially in the presence of the Pakistani scribes. However, the question remains as to whether the Indian captain and vice captain share feedback on what should, or should not, be announced to the media. Did Dravid rule out Nehra without consulting Ganguly?

Finally on Tuesday when the Indian team management announced that Nehra would be sent back home and a replacement for him be sought, an Indian journalist immediately asked: "Can we be sure about it, or will we see Nehra at Peshawar too?" Another journalist quipped in: "Should we read the Kolkata newspapers to get the correct version of the Indian team management tomorrow?"

It is understood that Dravid, being a cool andsporting cricketer, did not get worked up over the incident and refused to comment.

Had a captain remarked that his vice captain should not have made a statement and if the vice captain happened to be from Mumbai or Delhi, the incident would have been enough to split the team.