Ganguly's reinstatement

It was hard to know what to make of the headline on most cricket pages today of Ganguly's return to the helm (or to being under the cosh, if you will). Of late, I'm ashamed to admit, I've started sympathizing with him just a little - so here's something in his defence:

Not too many other Indian cricketers in this team, or indeed in past teams, have faced as much public pressure or scrutiny as Ganguly. His form from his heyday deserted him a few years ago and the only thing he had going in his favour was that he happened to be the captain of a team with three or four superstars in it who were capable of winning games singlehandedly. Yes, he was aggressive and probably the only guy in the team who stood up to pre-aussie-series mind games, but did that make him a worthy leader?

Actually, it probably did. Here was a guy taking most of the media attention away from the performing members of the team, so that they could go about and do their thing. A bit of a negative attitude to take towards captaincy, but what were the other options? Sachin proved to be too intense when he was captain and took every team defeat to heart, as a personal failing on his part. Dravid, the few times he's filled in Ganguly's boots during injury or suspension hasn't been particularly impressive. He comes across as a bit too mild (though, I have to admit, there were one or two promising signs of a tactical mind during the recent tri series in Lanka). Kumble only has a couple of years or less left, so no point trying him. Harbhajan and Sehwag don't seem to possess particularly sharp cricketing brains and everybody else is too inexperienced.

Maybe Dravid deserved more of a chance to build on this series... or maybe this is going to signal Ganguly's renaissance. I have a gut feeling it's the latter.