The first round match between Sri Lanka and India is concluded at the Champions Trophy 2000 Triangular Cricket Tournament in Sharjah, and Ganguly is asked the reason for the defeat of his team. He attributes the loss totally to the wet conditions that prevailed due to the dew. Had I known about the dew, he says, I would never have opted to field second. No mention though about how they were outplayed by the Sri Lankans.

Come the second round meeting with the Sri Lankans, Ganguly wins the toss again, and true to his conviction, elects to field first, lest the dew would come in the way of his team’s victory.

Disaster befalls the Indians again, and the defeat is even worse than the first one. When asked by Michael Holding at the concluding ceremony of the game, the reasons for his team’s defeat, Ganguly, unable to get cover under the dew factor, attributes this defeat to the absence of injured Vengatesh Prasad, his strike bowler in the team. Keep your fingers crossed, he says, and we will show what we are made of in the finals, Still no credit to the superiority of the Sri Lankan team.

The third time round, at the final that is, what happened is history. The deficit is the largest recorded in any one dayer and the Indian reply is the lowest recorded in the 19 year long history of cricket in Sharjah. Even before the MC, Ravi Shastri could ask, Ganguly blurts out something to the effect that they’re a superior team and outplayed us in every department of the game. Such was the effect of the bludgeon.

Does it always take such a beating to get the truth out.

Rasheed Ali
Colombo 5