Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Ignorance is blasted

A few days ago, I was talking to a friend who was adamant that Chris Gayle should make way for Darren Ganga as the captain of the West Indies squad. Calling him the "best captain West Indies never had", my friend convinced me that taking a Trinidad and Tobago team to the final of a T20 Champions League was just the proof of the pudding.

He then told me about Shane Warne and repeated the myth that the leg-spinner never captained Australia. I convinced him otherwise, pointing out that Warne did indeed captain Australia, contrary to popular belief. At this point, some doubts set in. I thought I remembered Darren Ganga captaining West Indies, too. Surely, I could not be wrong about that, could I?

Well, well, what do you know - Ganga played as many as 48 Tests for the Windies and even captained the Test team in two Test matches in England, both of which were lost by the visitors. The last Test Ganga captained was one in which Shivnaraine Chanderpaul was finally dismissed by England after occupying the crease for almost 18 hours spread over three Tests!

2 comments:

Buck said...

still do not believe in Warne as a captain - but I agree with your friend about Ganga!

Of course one series he was partly interested in and Gayle is pardoned I guess

Jaunty Quicksand said...

Not in my book. I don't think that one episode ruins a reputation or one stellar one makes it. So Gayle still has some 'splainin' to do.