While Indian fans were ecstatic about two dominating victories over Pakistan in the recently concluded Asia Cup in the United Arab Emirates, former India skipper Sourav Ganguly had a real cricketing concern. He reckons that the downslide of teams like Pakistan and Sri Lanka is a sign of worry for the game. While Sri Lanka was thrashed by Bangladesh and Afghanistan in the league stage of the tournament, Pakistan failed to cross the hurdle in the virtual semi-final against Bangladesh to miss the final.
Bangladesh and Afghanistan, especially the latter, played some impressive cricket in the tournament. The former started with a bang, defeating Sri Lanka comprehensively and Mashrafe Mortaza’s side came back strongly towards the end to qualify for the final, and they did it without some of their key frontline players. On the other hand, the Afghan team although failed to make the finals, they lost some close games after two fantastic wins and also restricted India to tie a game.
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Ganguly was worried that teams like Sri Lanka, Pakistan and the West Indies are a pale shadow of their former self and emphasized that the issue needed to be addressed fast. In his article for Times of India, Sourav wrote, “As much as Bangladesh’s resurgence and Afghanistan’s emergence is good news for the game, the quality of cricket displayed by Pakistan and Sri Lanka – the giants of Asia – has left a massive dent in world cricket. It should be a matter of concern the way teams like Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and the West Indies have stayed below par over such a long period of time.”
Like a true cricketing administrator, Ganguly said it seemed there is no light at the end of the tunnel for these teams. He said those sides have gifted stalwarts to the cricketing world and it is time that “good heads” come together to assess what is plaguing them.
The former Indian captain himself had led India in two Asia Cups – in 2000 and 2004 – on either occasion, India fell short of lifting the trophy, closest on the second occasion as they lost the final to Sri Lanka.
