Call it Sourav Ganguly’s legacy or curse. Ask the likes of Sunil Joshi of Karnataka, Nilesh Kulkarni of Mumbai and Murali Kartik of the Railways and they would admit that when Ganguly was the captain, he had no time for them. In Ganguly’s first Test as captain, which was against Bangladesh (the country’s inaugural Test) it was Joshi who was the man of the match producing a match-winning allround performance. One should never forget that Bangladesh in their first Test innings scored 400.

One of the bowling heroes of Saturday’s World Cup match triumph at Port of Spain, Mohammed Rafique made his debut in that Test like his other 10 teammates. The Bangladeshi cricketers by then had had Gordon Greenidge and the late Eddie Barlow to coach them. Then the burly Australian, Dav Whatmore took over and one must remember that he coached the Sri Lankan team to victory in the 1996 World Cup. Only he and his Australian counterpart John Buchanan have coached World Cup winning outfits among the existing coaches. This digression is necessary and relevant.

Rafique is proving evergreen and also a role model to young and aspiring left-arm spinners. John Wright, the predecessor to Greg Chappell as the Indian coach, might have had his personal view on the importance of a left-arm spinner, but did not insist on the inclusion of one against the wishes of a captain who loved to have his own way and had the ear of authority (read Jagmohan Dalmiya).

Without the main Indian batsmen participating in domestic cricket, there is not much practice playing spin bowling. At nets it is Kumble, Harbhajan and the unfortunate Romesh Powar, with the occasional spin bowlers (mainly batsmen) turning their arms over.

Has it struck Chappell and Rahul Dravid that it would be most helpful to have a left-arm spinner of quality in the squad so that the batsmen can get practice? The left-handed cricketer — be it batsman, bowler or allrounder — has been hugely outnumbered by the right-handed cricketer throughout the history of the game. Therefore, it is not a matter of surprise that one Sir Garfield Sobers is the greatest cricketer who ever drew breath. He was a left-hander. And as India gears up to play Sri Lanka in what should be a decisive encounter in the World Cup it would be up against Sanath Jayasuriya.

Dav Whatmore, never one to miss a trick, worked it out with his captain that a left-arm attack (four out of five regular bowlers were leftarm) and three of them spinners, each slightly different from the other would do the trick. India’s right-handed batsmen seemed out of depth and only two left-handed batsmen, Ganguly and Yuvraj Singh scored. Left-handed batsmen might find leftarm bowlers easier to play, but Chappell and Dravid should know that it is not the same with right-handed batsmen. Chappell would remember one Dilip Doshi, who had him stranded by a yard and stumped in Adelaide in 1980-81. Why should the legacy or curse of Ganguly continue to hound Indian cricket?Powered by The Asian Age and Deccan Chronicle