An Open Letter of Apology to Sourav Ganguly, His Fans & Our Critics
An issue of apology to Sourav Ganguly, his fans and our critics for our former domain name, IHateGanguly. com.
(PRWEB) July 19, 2006
Hindsight has been a great leveller and has given us, at CricketWatchdogs. com, an opportunity to subscribe to the notion of regret and offer a public apology to those who were offended by our former domain, IhateGanguly. com, especially to Mr. Ganguly. Our intention was never to knowingly cause any offence to anyone, but to address the quagmire of favouritism, zonal politics and selectors’ incompetence and dilly-dallying that is reminiscent of Indian cricket. To that end, we would like to highlight a few facts:
Since the beginning, we provided a level playing field to both Ganguly critics and admirers. We enforced strict rules to prevent any regional comments or unwarranted personal attacks and never tolerated, let alone nurtured, any hatred. To date, our most celebrated moderator, and a part owner, remains a die-hard Ganguly supporter. Three out of eight active CWD owners are Ganguly supporters. And our founder has always proactively warded off any attempt to sideline Ganguly supporters.
We were also among the few ones who were quick to condemn Steve Waugh, who in his autobiography compared Ganguly’s bickering over pitches to match fixing.
We also openly praised and highlighted Ganguly’s two vital contributions against Sri Lanka when he managed to stay unbeaten overnight, thereby preventing batting collapses, and we questioned why a player who had barely defended eight balls in the two innings edged out Ganguly and won a place in the team. To us, that was a case of using two wrongs to correct one right.
In spite of our opposition to his being in the team when he was obviously struggling, we openly declared that when Ganguly retires for good, we would be the first to put his past accomplishments ahead of his disruptive years. Any captain who can envisage a victory on Australian and Pakistani soils is either pompous or tremendously self-confident. We are glad Ganguly turned out to be the latter. We always commended him for that.
It’s fair to say that nowadays Ganguly is not a recipient of any special treatment. However, we maintain that if he fought back and earned a place in the team again, that would be a well-earned feat and we would be happy for him and his supporters.
In recent times, we have vociferously increased our intensity in flagging the obvious double standards employed by the Management of Team India when assessing players’ form, which to us is one of the sole variants warranting a place in the side. It is becoming apparent that the benchmarks used in excluding Ganguly from the side were a prerogative reserved for Ganguly alone and are deliberately being ignored in the case of other players. Such double standards will continue to draw our keen attention.
The fact of the matter remains that we want to enjoy Indian cricket in its purest and greatest form. We want to relive the 1983 magic even if it means different domestic zones are represented disproportionately or sons of former cricket stars fail to get opportunities or if a captain is handed over a team that is not blessed by him or if a player endorsed by big companies is thrown out of the team.
We are opposed to any preferential treatment meted out to individuals based on past glory. Basking in past laurels is certainly not a fashion we style ourselves on. No one is indispensable when it comes to a matter of choice between a performer and a non-performer. We believe that no one is above the Team. At CricketWatchdogs. com, we do not condone blatant incompetence and favouritism. Rather we challenge the very doctrines that strive on such transgressions.
With the IhateGanguly. com relegated to history, CricketWatchdogs. com has a new outlook and a grander vision - foster healthy debates encapsulating varied walks of life within the realms of decency and good taste, minus the heavy-handed censorship. We encourage and include varying viewpoints from our members even if they contradict conventional wisdom, political correctness or our own views.
We have made mistakes, we have had triumphs, and we shall continue to relentlessly march forward towards our grand mission, just as Ganguly did in the World Cup 2003.
Yours truly,
Management
CricketWatchdogs. com
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