ICC to blame for split

Indian cricket is in deep crisis. This unfortunate incident has been brought about by the differences that exist between captain Sourav Ganguly and coach Greg Chappell.

Not only the captain and the coach are to blame for this, the International Cricket Council is also to blame.

For progress and development what is most important is peace and harmony. Indian cricket, or for that matter any country's cricket, cannot hit the top if differences exist and the team is not pulling together.

The initial blame must be borne by the ICC. That is because their funny rules prompted the decline of Ganguly, one of India's illustrious cricketers to sport their colours.

By being fined and suspended for slow over rates, the ICC kept Ganguly away from the team which set in motion for others to aim for his job and for some members of the team who apparently did not like his way of captaincy to gang against him.

What the ICC should have done was to have fined not only him, but the team as well and allow the team to perform. After all it is unfair to only land the blame on Ganguly for slow over rates.

Once the suspension was served and Ganguly got into the team and the captaincy the cracks in the line up began to appear. The cracks began to open up in Zimbabwe with the coach and captain slugging it out and when it became public, tremendous harm had been done to the game and country.

Now the relationship between Ganguly and Chappell have soured and if Indian cricket is to ride this crisis and come out on top again, either the captain or the coach must go. Both can't exist.

Chappell one of Australia's proud products is a no nonsense coach. He has his credentials as coach to safeguard. He would not like to see his team lose. If that continues to happen, then his standing as a coach would no doubt drop. That would be bad for him and his future.

Chappell has accused Ganguly of being physically or mentally unfit to lead and has lost the respect of the younger members of the team. He further said that Ganguly is not fit to even play as an ordinary member.

Chappell has also made it clear to the Indian Cricket Board that if Ganguly is to continue, it would be difficult for him to continue as coach.

Chappell has had his say apparently in an e-mail to the Indian Cricket Board.

Apparently there would be votes for Ganguly and votes for Chappell. What would be interesting is to watch how the Indian Board would go. Indian cricket has never ever before been crisis-ridden like it is now.

Ganguly has done a lot for Indian cricket as batsman and captain. He is their most successful captain with 21 victories. Ganguly has shown that there is a lot more cricket in him, with a century in Zimbabwe.

However it is best that he goes and allow Chappell to continue. He must go when people are asking why and not saying he should have gone a long time back.

Great honour for Jayasuriya

Sanath Jayasuriya, Sri Lanka's proud cricketing son deserves all the gifts and accolades he received for having proudly sported his country's colours in 100 Test matches.

What has kept him going is his honesty to himself and deep commitment. When he walks on to the field everything else is forgotten and his one aim is to perform for country.

He first served notice of his prowess scoring two double hundreds in Pakistan touring with a second string Sri Lankan team. Since then he has not looked back carrying on whatever the ups and downs.

He has shown no mercy to opposing attacks and the most to suffer were Indian pacemen Manoj Prabhakar and Venkatesh Prasad.

Jayasuriya helped Sri Lanka win the World Cup and if he continues in the same form would certainly do his best to help the country win the next WC that is to be held in the Caribbean in 2007.

While everyone would want to cling on to the captaincy like bats, Jayasuriya gave it up when everyone was blaming it on him and was more than happy to be a team member. More strength to Sanath Jayasuriya.