The Hindu : Ganguly may bat at No. 4

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 19, 2003

Sport

Sport - World Cup

Ganguly may bat at No. 4

HARARE FEB. 18. Sourav Ganguly will bat at number four even though he side-stepped the question on the batting order for the match against Zimbabwe at the Harare Sports Club here.

``We'll find it out tomorrow'' he remarked, moving on to the next question.

The team, according to Ganguly, has some options open on the bowling front. As for himself, he was clear, "I have to fire. I've done well as an opener but it's time for all of us to come together. It's just the beginning of the tournament and we still have four games to go. We lost to a pretty good side (Australia) but our aim is to qualify (for the Super Six). There's no reason for heads to be down.''

Ganguly welcomed the criticism saying, "there'll be criticism when you fail. We've to take the criticism in our stride but the incidents back home are unwanted and very sad. We've to get the focus right and get our act together. We need to cut out the reckless shots we played against Australia. We've discussed it and realised we need to show more application.''

The India skipper conceded, "it was not the best time for the team but we expect to go through. We need to judge the strength of each individual. There's no need to panic. I want to tell the people of India that we've disappointed them but there'll be lot of opportunities for us to qualify. The incidents back home have been most disappointing. I assure them we'll have something for them to smile about.''

The team, meanwhile, has been dejected at the comments of some of the former players and television commentators, who have rarely given credit to the team when it has done well in the past. This comical commentator, known for his ridiculously extreme comments, has caused much disappointment and anger within the team with his absurd statements.

The team would do well to embarrass this juvenile expert with some sterling deeds on the field than brood over his inane remarks.

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