Trying times for Ganguly

Saurav Ganguly has certainly been in the thick of things recently and for all the wrong reasons. After the 6-match ban was reduced, he joined the team for the triseries in SL where he scored a scrappy half-century.

Intense speculation prevailed as to whether he would be retained captain for the tri-series and test series in Zimbabwe and I must admit that I was rather surprised when Ganguly was indeed retained skipper.

Now, a day after he painstakingly put together a century against a pedestrian Zimbabwe attack and managed to "take" the wicket of Laxman "(run out Ganguly)" in the process, he revealed that he had been asked to step down from captaincy. He claimed that this had given him the determination to make a sizeable contribution to the Indian total. But it appears that the century has done little for Ganguly's future as captain or even player of the Indian cricket team. Ganguly's detractors are now baying for his blood.

As Kannadasan put it, "Uyarntha edathil irukkumbothu, ulagam unnai madhikkum. Un nilamai konjam irangi vanthal, nizhalum kooda mithikkum". (When you are on top, the world praises you. But should you slip, even your shadow will not heed you).