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The People’s XI sends out to a strong message to the Indian camp
Just ahead of the crucial World Cup game against Zimbabwe at
Harare, Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly and Mohammad Kaif were
delivered a strong message. Both the players were voted out of
The People’s XI for the game. The voting pattern clearly says
that the people are going by the performance factor alone.
Ganguly finished at #12, picking up 63.77% votes, while Kaif
finished a distant 13th with just 35.11 % votes. It is quite
interesting that the popular choices to fill those two slots are
Ajit Agarkar (66.58 %) and Sanjay Bangar (65.06%).
| The People's XI for the game against Zimbabwe |
| Sl.No |
Name |
Percentage |
| 1 |
Virender Sehwag |
98.57% |
| 2 |
Zaheer Khan |
97.36% |
| 3 |
Sachin Tendulkar |
95.80% |
| 4 |
Javagal Srinath |
95.54% |
| 5 |
Yuvraj Singh |
95.06% |
| 6 |
Rahul Dravid |
95.02% |
| 7 |
Harbhajan Singh |
90.52% |
| 8 |
Dinesh Mongia |
78.61% |
| 9 |
Ajit Agarkar |
66.58% |
| 10 |
Anil Kumble |
66.49% |
| 11 |
Sanjay Bangar |
65.06% |
| 12 |
Sourav Ganguly |
63.77% |
| 13 |
Mohammad Kaif |
35.11% |
| 14 |
Parthiv Patel |
28.92% |
| 15 |
Ashish Nehra |
27.58% |
View in graphic format
| The India XI against Zimbabwe at Harare |
| Sl.No |
Name |
| 1 |
Sachin Tendulkar |
| 2 |
Virender Sehwag |
| 3 |
Sourav Ganguly |
| 4 |
Rahul Dravid |
| 5 |
Yuvraj Singh |
| 6 |
Mohammad Kaif |
| 7 |
Dinesh Mongia |
| 8 |
Harbhajan Singh |
| 9 |
Ashish Nehra |
| 10 |
Javagal Srinath |
| 11 |
Zaheer Khan |
The Indian team management, though, were not in agreement with
the popular choice; Ganguly and Kaif retained their places in the
team, and there was a surprise inclusion of Ashish Nehra in the
playing XI, replacing Anil Kumble. Only 27% of the voters
believed that Nehra should be in the XI.
As for Ganguly and Kaif, their popularity has been on the wane,
following a string of dismal performances in the recent past.
Ganguly polled 82.58% for the game against the Netherlands, 76.69
for the game against Australia, and 63.77% for the game against
Zimbabwe.
Mohammad Kaif’s decline in popularity has been rather spectacular
leading to him losing more than 50% of the popular votes in the
space of two games. For someone who won the game for India in the
NatWest Final at Lord’s, it has been a worrying down-slide over
the last few months.
When it came to the real action at Harare Sports Club, a game
that India won rather comfortably, Ganguly with his three-wicket-
haul and Kaif with a little cameo of 25 runs seem to have done
just enough to retain their place in The People’s XI for the game
against Namibia on Sunday. That game incidentally also
represents a good chance for the team management to try out a few
players ahead of the crunch games against England and Pakistan.
It is, then, for the people to decide who should be in The
People’s XI. A place in The People’s XI is not just an indicator
of a player’s popularity, it also says who should be playing for
India against a certain opponent at a certain venue. Indeed, it
is that theory horses for courses that holds true in the
shorter form of the game.
Begin voting now for The People’s XI to play against Namibia
at Pietermaritzburg on Sunday.
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