An Open Letter of
Apology to Sourav Ganguly, His Fans & Our Critics
- CWD Management
Hindsight has been a great leveller and has given us, at
CricketWatchdogs.com, an opportunity to subscribe to the notion of regret and
offer a public apology to those who were offended by our former domain,
IhateGanguly.com, especially to Mr. Ganguly. Our intention was never to
knowingly cause any offence to anyone, but to address the quagmire of
favouritism, zonal politics and selectors’ incompetence and dilly-dallying
that is reminiscent of Indian cricket. To that end, we would like to
highlight a few facts:
• Since the beginning, we provided a level playing field to both Ganguly
critics and admirers. We enforced strict rules to prevent any regional
comments or unwarranted personal attacks and never tolerated, let alone
nurtured, any hatred. To date, our most celebrated moderator, and a part
owner, remains a die-hard Ganguly supporter. Three out of eight active CWD
owners are Ganguly supporters. And our founder has always
proactively warded off any attempt to sideline Ganguly supporters.
• We were also among the few
ones who were quick to condemn Steve Waugh, who in his autobiography compared
Ganguly’s bickering over pitches to match fixing.
• We also openly praised and highlighted Ganguly’s two vital contributions
against Sri Lanka when he managed to stay unbeaten overnight, thereby
preventing batting collapses, and we questioned why a player who had barely
defended eight balls in the two innings edged out Ganguly and won a place in
the team. To us, that was a case of
using two wrongs to correct one right.
• In spite of our opposition to his being in the team when he was obviously
struggling, we openly declared that when Ganguly retires for good, we would
be the first to put his past accomplishments ahead of his disruptive years.
Any captain who can envisage a victory on Australian and Pakistani soils is
either pompous or tremendously self-confident. We are glad Ganguly turned out
to be the latter. We always commended him for that.
• It’s fair to say that nowadays Ganguly is not a recipient of any special
treatment. However, we maintain that if he fought back and earned a place in
the team again, that would be a well-earned
feat and we would be happy for him and his supporters.
• In recent times, we have
vociferously increased our intensity in flagging the obvious double standards
employed by the Management of Team India when assessing players’ form,
which to us is one of the sole variants warranting a place in the side. It is
becoming apparent that the benchmarks used in excluding Ganguly from the side
were a prerogative reserved for Ganguly alone and are deliberately being
ignored in the case of other players. Such double standards will
continue to draw our keen attention.
The fact of the matter remains that we want to enjoy Indian cricket in its
purest and greatest form. We want to relive the 1983 magic even if it means
different domestic zones are represented disproportionately or sons of former
cricket stars fail to get opportunities or if a captain is handed over a team
that is not blessed by him or if a player endorsed by big companies is thrown
out of the team.
We are opposed to any preferential treatment meted out to individuals based
on past glory. Basking in past laurels is certainly not a fashion we style
ourselves on. No one is indispensable when it comes to a matter of choice
between a performer and a non-performer. We believe that no one is above the
Team. At CricketWatchdogs.com, we do not condone blatant incompetence and
favouritism. Rather we challenge the very doctrines that strive on such
transgressions.
With the Ihateganguly.com relegated to history, CricketWatchdogs.com has a
new outlook and a grander vision - foster healthy debates encapsulating
varied walks of life within the realms of decency and good taste, minus the
heavy-handed censorship. We encourage and include varying viewpoints from our
members even if they contradict conventional wisdom, political correctness or
our own views.
We have made mistakes, we have had triumphs, and we shall continue to
relentlessly march forward towards our grand mission, just as Ganguly did in
the World Cup 2003.
Yours truly,
Management
CricketWatchdogs.com
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