The selectors might feel vindicated in recalling Ganguly after the one-day debacle after the innings he played that pulled India out of trouble, from 69 for 5 to 208 runs before he was out. Dileep Premchandran, one of the editors of www.cricinfo.com was quite effusive in his praise for Ganguly. Looking at the scorecard, one would be led to believe that it was potent attack capable of taking out the best of the teams, but the fact remains that this is not a test side and these are players who not quite good enough for the national side or are test discards trying to force their way back in the side. Whereas India had fielded the full strength test side sans Dravid who is injured.

Also from the way Ganguly, Pathan and later Harbhajan Singh scored runs, it was clear that there were runs to be scored against these bowlers if you were ready to apply yourselves and be positive which is what these three guys did. Keeping these things in perspective, it does seem that the minds of the other players are playing games on them with the perception of all South African bowlers being thought of as lethal. Of course, the morning dew and seam movement factor must have played a part no doubt, but it is always there even in full tests so there really is no excuse for the poor showing.

Ganguly and Pathan probably were thinking about claiming / saving their places in the side which the others don't have to do (?). But then if this kind of lethargy creeps in the minds of the players it definitely is not a good news for the side. Selectors now have to be very hard on the failures of this series and drop them regardless of their past glories. Good teams are built on current performance keeping an eye on the future not the past. To quote an example, if you are working in a private company, your job is assured as long as you keep performing at a very high level regardless of whether you were a star in the past. The moment your performance level slips down, you get a bad review with lesser rewards and if you still don't improve you are bound to lose your jobs.

Why can't the same principle applied to the Indian cricket team?