This week last year: Ganguly, Kumble, Dravid in England, more losses than gains?
It was this week last year that three Indian musketeers began theircampaign in England for various counties. Sourav Ganguly, the Indiancaptain, was plying his wares for Lancashire, Rahul Dravid was batting forKent and Anil Kumble was bamboozling batsmen with leg breaks forLeicestershire. The Karnataka leg spinner had previously played forNorthamptonshire but Ganguly and Dravid were making their debuts inEnglish domestic cricket.At the same time, it was not all smooth sailing for the trio. Just beforethey left for England, both Dravid and Kumble opted out of a crucial RanjiTrophy semi-final clash against Hyderabad. As it turned out, that proved tobe costly for Karnataka, who were edged out by the superior batting of aVVS Laxman-inspired Hyderabad.As a result of commitments to county cricket in England, the trio missedout on yet another important fixture of the Board of Control for Cricket inIndia. With India due to travel to Bangladesh for the Asia Cup featuringIndia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, the preparatory camp for thetourney was underway. Although it would be far fetched to say that thishad a dramatic effect on the way India prepared, it must be remembered thatIndia lost quite badly at Dhaka.The county stint too proved to be less productive than people initiallyenvisaged it for at least one of the threesome. Ganguly, playing forLancashire, found that it was no stroll in the park. High scores ofteneluded the southpaw and the going was tough. With the ball swinging andseaming around, Ganguly could not simply hit his way out of a bad patch ashe may have done in the subcontinent. Add to this the run out troubleGanguly had and there was a disaster waiting to happen. When teammatesalleged that the Indian skipper was a bit of a ‘spoilt’ cricketer, drivingon his ownto venues and not taking the team bus, and extended the assessments tosimilar infringements, thingscame to a boil. On one occasion, when Ganguly scored a ton, there wasreportedly no one at the Lancashire balcony to cheer him on.For Kumble too, the second stint at county cricket might just havebeen a counter productive one in the long run. The 630.5 overs that hebowled would certainly have hastened, if not caused, the rotator cuffshoulder injury that has kept Kumble out of international cricket for morethan one series now. The doctor’s diagnosis on the injury is that he hasclearly sustained toomuch wear and tear.So, with the benefit of hindsight, one might just be cheeky enough tosuggest that a couple of key Indian cricketers’ experiment in playingcounty cricket in 2000 was an eminently avoidable one.