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The People’s XI sends out to a strong message to the Indian camp
Just ahead of the crucial World Cup game against Zimbabwe at Harare, Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly and Mohammad Kaif were delivered a strong message. Both the players were voted out of The People’s XI for the game. The voting pattern clearly says that the people are going by the performance factor alone. Ganguly finished at #12, picking up 63.77% votes, while Kaif finished a distant 13th with just 35.11 % votes. It is quite interesting that the popular choices to fill those two slots are Ajit Agarkar (66.58 %) and Sanjay Bangar (65.06%).
The Indian team management, though, were not in agreement with the popular choice; Ganguly and Kaif retained their places in the team, and there was a surprise inclusion of Ashish Nehra in the playing XI, replacing Anil Kumble. Only 27% of the voters believed that Nehra should be in the XI. As for Ganguly and Kaif, their popularity has been on the wane, following a string of dismal performances in the recent past. Ganguly polled 82.58% for the game against the Netherlands, 76.69 for the game against Australia, and 63.77% for the game against Zimbabwe.
 Mohammad Kaif’s decline in popularity has been rather spectacular leading to him losing more than 50% of the popular votes in the space of two games. For someone who won the game for India in the NatWest Final at Lord’s, it has been a worrying down-slide over the last few months. When it came to the real action at Harare Sports Club, a game that India won rather comfortably, Ganguly with his three-wicket- haul and Kaif with a little cameo of 25 runs seem to have done just enough to retain their place in The People’s XI for the game against Namibia on Sunday. That game incidentally also represents a good chance for the team management to try out a few players ahead of the crunch games against England and Pakistan. It is, then, for the people to decide who should be in The People’s XI. A place in The People’s XI is not just an indicator of a player’s popularity, it also says who should be playing for India against a certain opponent at a certain venue. Indeed, it is that theory horses for courses that holds true in the shorter form of the game. Begin voting now for The People’s XI to play against Namibia at Pietermaritzburg on Sunday. |
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