Ganguly retained skipper

By Our Sports Reporter

CHENNAI, SEPT. 6. The suspense is over. Sourav Ganguly will lead India during the coming cricket tour of South Africa. The decision, taken at a meeting of the national selection panel in Mumbai on Thursday, was unanimous.

However, Ganguly, who hurt his pelvic muscle during the third Test of the recent series in Sri Lanka, has been given three weeks to prove his fitness by Andrew Leipus, Indian team physiotherapist. The team is scheduled to fly to Johannesburg on September 24.

There had been considerable speculation recently regarding Ganguly retaining his job, and a strong lobby was clearly in favour of vice-captain Rahul Dravid being made captain.

Ganguly, who still has a reasonable captaincy record in Tests with six victories and four defeats, three of the wins achieved abroad, came under scrutiny for his on-field behaviour. He was said to be taking his aggressive instincts too far on occasions.

This got him into trouble with the match referee, and he was suspended twice in the last 12 months, forcing him to miss two ODIs.

During this turbulent phase, Ganguly's form with the bat in Test cricket dropped sharply, further weakening his position.

In the final analysis, the left-hander's counter- attacking unbeaten 98 during the successful run-chase in the Kandy Test might have saved the day for him.

Now, the man affectionately called `Dada' by his friends, will continue to call the shots, fitness permitting.

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