It happens only in India, a cricket series Down Under named after an upcoming Bollywood movie which Star Cricket merrily uses as its motif without revealing to viewers that it’s a paid-for advertisement.
Meanwhile, the incomparable M.J. Akbar explains the difference between ridiculous and ludricrous, in India Today:
“Nothing I have heard in the deathbed year of 2011 was more ridiculous than Sourav Ganguly‘s command to our cricket team in Australia on the “Agneepath Series”: Be Fearless! After which he added a paean to his own fearlessness. That was both cheeky and thick.
“Long before he retired, Ganguly began to play cricket with his neck: his neck was far more agile than his bat against the rising ball. On more than one occasion Ganguly developed mysterious back aches at the sight of a green pitch on the first morning. Whenever the world’s quickies were short of a laugh all they had to do was watch a video of Ganguly trying to get out of the way, and the party could begin.”
Read the full article: The year of ludicre
Also read: One question I’m dying to ask M.S. Dhoni
churumuri 
Make no mistake, indian cricket is in a longterm downtrend, world cup victory was just a well managed circus. Fact is india has not found a suitable replacement for ganguly. Though ganguly was not a great test batsman, he could scratch around,play some overs . Now u dont see batsmen batting out time, play defensive batting. Test cricket batting is more about dogged determined batting than flashy strokeplay. In that way jacques kallis is way way ahead of all contemporary batsmen. Rahul dravid comes a close second.
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Alll the hoopla, all that bragging has not taken us anywhere, I saw a fairly knowledgable man in a TV audience, 2hy cann’t Dhoni be replaced by somebody else. The answer by a team of ex cricketers on the panel was that it takes a long time to get somebody trained. But, more than the answer,the all knowing smiles on the faces of the panelists was a giveaway. BCCI does not want any change. At least let us not brag any more.
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Having read the article, I think both of MJ Akbar’s points are plainly absurd.
MJ Akbar’s definition of fear is the basest kind; the kind children feel when confronted with scary stories. So for him, Ganguly not attempting suicidal hooks and pulls (and an alleged “injury” on a green pitch, which is unrelated to the point) is a sign of “cowardice”. This only means that MJ Akbar’s idea of bravery is essentially foolhardiness – throw your wicket away to prove a point apparently.
There’s another kind of courage that sportsmen (and good journalists as well) should know of; standing up to a bully. Especially a bully who you know can bruise you. Ganguly stood up against the Australians and the English. He wasn’t willing to be cowed down with repeated attacks were made on his batting and captaincy. His brilliant century in Brisbane set the tone for India’s best performance in Australia.
It also takes courage (and not to mention a lot of humility) to make a comeback. To put your body and mind to the task knowing that failure only leads to more rebuke and humiliation. Ganguly could have gone quietly and ranted and raved about selectors and the “system”. But he chose to fight back and yes, successfully made a comeback.
If that doesn’t take courage, I don’t know what does.
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MJ Akbar also ridicules Katju for his choice of Ghalib and Saratchandra in an argument that goes something like this “X and Y cannot possibly be good for A reasons, because Z is good for B reasons.”
It’s an argument as silly as saying that Tendulkar can’t be all that in cricket because Dhyan Chand was better than him at hockey.
The absurdity speaks for itself.
The Bharat Ratna is an award for excellence in a given field. We don’t care how good Mandela was at Carnatic music or what MS Subbulaxmi’s political views on the Apartheid really were. When someone is held up as a potential candidate for the Bharat Ratna they don’t have to meet a “holds/held beliefs we generally agree with”.
In fact, the Government of India does hand out awards for those who hold generally agreeable political beliefs; they’re called the Padma Awards.
It is this sort of stupidity among journalists that Katju lamented.
Not only is MJ Akbar a self-confessed ignoramus when it comes to Persian and Urdu poetry, he adds a false conceit to his ignorance by professing to hold “liberal” political beliefs thereby automatically marking himself out as a superior human being than anyone who’s reached the ultimate endeavour in his or her field, but has not received the stamp of being suitably “liberal” while doing so.
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Irrespective of whether the team wins or loses, it is expected to at least go down with a fight or try hard to save matches. Throughout India’s cricketing history it is not as if Indian Test teams conquered conditions overseas, but for most part since the seventies they were worthy opponents to the best of teams. In the past decade they also managed some memorable wins. If the team learns to play for all the five days and take the battle to the opposition, that in itself would be a victory of sorts.
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Not a huge fan of Sourav. But calling his clumsiness fear is taking it too far. His century in Brisbane was peerless. Yes, he had awkward ways of getting out of the way. But end of the day all that matters is how many runs you score and you can’t score much if you are scared.
As for the green pitch, it’s well known that it had to do with internal politics between the Pawar and Dalmiya factions more than anything else. At that time I had laughed at the way he had wriggled out of the match. But given the circumstances he probably did a wise thing by not getting embroiled in those faction wars.
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