The Verbal Gymkhana

When Saurav Ganguly said recently that he was possibly the most "hated captain", he possibly had two of India's famous ex-cricketer-commentators, and at least one former star spinner-turned-loose-cannon, in mind. For Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri, commentating on espn-Star Sports, have been consistently running down Ganguly and then, when proved wrong, doing an immediate about-turn. In Delhi, Bishen Singh Bedi's fulminations have practically stopped making sense.

Leading the pack of Ganguly-baiters these days, of course, is Gavaskar. Along with Shastri, he forms the Bombay club of commentators who hog broadcast time during India's matches. No wonder, when Ganguly dropped Anil Kumble from the Test, Gavaskar flew into rage. "How can you drop a bowler with 300+ wickets on the assumption that the pitch is not conducive to him," he ranted on the channel. Then came the more pointed barb: "By that logic, should you drop a batsman who has not performed in the previous game and doesn't have a great record of playing on bouncy pitches." Shastri also mocked Ganguly's captaincy as "lacking the edge".

A couple of days later when Ganguly and V.V.S. Laxman were going great guns in a fruitful partnership, Gavaskar did an amazing flip flop. "Ganguly has his faults but there's no doubting his passion for Indian cricket and instead of looking for faults, we should be encouraging him, for captaincy is also a matter of experience and he is growing with the job," he wrote in his column. But a leopard doesn't change its spots. So, in a condescending afterthought, he wrote: "We should be asking questions about his place in the team only if his batting form totally deserts him." Which is what he's possibly waiting for. And the less said about Bedi, the better: He still believes that Kumble should have been played, and the "match would have been over earlier" if he did.