Ganguly replaces Nehra in PWI!!!

Originally posted by: _Vrish_

About Dada, I don't see how Kochi gains by having him, since they already have Laxman. Dada's role would be no different from Dravid in RR and Laxman in KTK - in those 2 sides, both provide a sheet anchor role, and if a spinner is brought on early to curb Watson or McCullum, these 2 can then take a bulk of the strike and hit them out of the park, thereby shielding their big striker and enabling him to face the quicker bowlers. Sehwag is theoretically supposed to do the same for David Warner, except that he's been getting out early in every match so far.

So if it makes sense for any team to take Dada on the same grounds that Laxman & Dravid have been taken, it would make sense for DC if Michael Lum is included once Sangakara goes. Every other team already has one Indian, one foreign opener - Gilchrist/Valthalty, Watson/Dravid, Warner/Sehwag, Kallis/Bisla (or Gambhir), Jacobs/SRT, M Hussey/Vijay, McCullum/Laxman. In case of RCB, if they lose Dilshan to the SL tour, they'd probably replace him w/ Chris Gayle, whom they have signed on. But they do have a somewhat long batting line-up, so they could choose to have, say, Saurabh Tiwari opening w/ Gayle, followed by Kohli, AB, Pujara and the rest, since Mayank Agarwal is not firing. In short, RCB is pretty rich on batting and won't need Dada.

Originally posted by: _Vrish_

I however disagree w/ him and many Bongs over this issue of Dada. I understand that people are emotional - more so in Mamataesque Kolkata than anywhere else (even though none of these proud Bongs protest over Dada's ad w/ the Election Commission being hung to dry due to complaints about his affiliation w/ one of the parties: personally, I think this is a bigger insult to one of the greatest Bongs ever than his being excluded from a franchise team that rarely has many 'sons-of-the-soil' players - how many Marathis are there in either Pune Warriors or Mumbai Indians, other than SRT?)

Historically, there has been a good deal of argument about whether Dada was respected in the past, and indeed, too many Indians seemed to ignore his achievements in the late 90s b4 he became captain, when in ODIs, he was right up there w/ Sachin, and @ times during Sachin's captaincy, even exceeded him. However, he peaked in 2003 (and unlike Dhoni, he's rarely led from the front). After the world cup of 2003, he ought to have @ least stepped down as captain and concentrated on his game, so that he'd not have been the butt of jokes, such as that maggi joke. At any rate, he did make a comeback after losing the captaincy, but let's face it - while he was a great ODI player, he was a mediocre test player @ best, w/ few good innings to his name, like the one @ Brisbane.

On Dada's KKR stint, I'm glad that the management bit the bullet and decided not to bid for him, due to a number of reasons:

1. His age was clearly showing last season, when there were several dot balls other teams would get against KKR while he was @ the crease. Potential twos would be ones, and his partner opposite clearly showed his potential when Dada was dismissed and someone else came to the crease - a Manoj Tiwari, a Chris Gayle, a Pujara. It's fine when he's hitting boundaries, but it's just as important to take singles when the bowling is tight - something that didn't happen w/ Dada last season, since he's clearly slowed down.
   
2. His tendency to select players based on reputation. In IPL3, Charl Langeveld, who had just one match in IPL2, already had proven himself, had a great start, and so did Owais Shah and Angelo Matthews. However, Dada went w/ reputations rather than current performances, which meant prefering Shane Bond over Langeveldt, and Gayle & McCullum over Hodge & Hussey. That's the thing about Dada - he tends to go on reputations, which is good for a player going thru a lean patch, like Harbhajan and Irfan Pathan did w/ India, but makes the team fire on fewer cylinders. But it was frustrating to watch guys like Gayle bomb big time, while guys like Hodge & Hussey, who were doing fine for KKR, were benched. Had Valthalty been a KKR player under him, you can bet that he'd have been benched after a couple of matches in favor of a Gauti.
   

In this years auction, therefore, I'm glad that KKR didn't bid for him, and in his Bengali program 'Dadagiri', Sourav had already said that he'd only play for KKR if they bid for him, and did tell his audience that he could end up playing for another side. So would the average Kolkatan then switch loyalties from KKR to whichever team Dada was selected for? Does the average Punjabi support MI over KXIP b'cos Bhajji plays for the former? Do you expect a lot of Bangalore fans to start supporting RR over RCB b'cos Dravid has moved?

I am mildly - but just mildly - disappointed that no other franchise chose to bid for Dada. His clout, and ability to pick wrong people would have been much reduced had he been playing for, say, KXIP under Gillie, since the fans of other franchises wouldn't be put off if he was overruled, or benched for certain games. Reason I think he'd have been useful is that both Dravid and Lakshman - usually test players - are playing sheet anchor roles and negating the surprises an opposition team might try by bringing in spinners early to curb the heavy hitting of overseas openers, such as Baz McCullum and Shane Watson. I think Dada might have played a similar role for some of the other teams, like PWI (which ought to play Ryder one down) or DC or even RCB. Also, they would not have been under any pressure to play him in every, or even most matches, just the ones where he'd be useful.