Eventually, the Dadagiri cost him

Over the past few weeks Ganguly himself had shown, on the field and off it, that he doesn’t really fit in with the Chappell school of cricket.

A reluctance to play domestic matches and a conspicuous tendency to stay aloof from the Bengal team eventually gave his critics enough ammunition against him.

Since his return from Pakistan, the CAB has had to face several uncomfortable questions over Ganguly’s ‘‘attitude towards the Bengal team’’ during the Ranji Trophy one-dayers.

First, he said he wouldn’t travel with Deep Dasgupta and the team to Jamadoba, near Dhanbad. Then, despite repeated ‘‘requests’’ from the CAB, he dodged Bengal’s opener against Tripura on February 11. He eventually agreed to play the remaining one-dayers but the CAB cringed when he was seen travelling to and from Kolkata every day instead of staying with the team.

Not that he had a good time with the bat there: The left-hander managed just 92 runs in three matches, averaging a modest 30.66. And his 72 against Jharkhand came only after he was dropped twice, on 11 and 16. His two other knocks, of 12 and 8, would not have inspired the national selectors.

There are many in the CAB itself who reckon that the 32-year-old, despite not having done much wrong after the Pakistan series, is paying for his attitude ahead of the season-opening Challenger series and the now-famous Bengal-Tamil Nadu Ranji match on an Eden greentop.

When asked to play the Challengers, Ganguly dropped out citing ‘‘tennis elbow’’. Then followed the reluctance to play the Tamil Nadu match after being picked for the Pakistan tour. It even forced the BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah to shoot him a letter, ‘‘directing’’ him to play.

He played — and, as if to prepare him for Pakistan, the Eden Gardens ground staff prepared an unusually green wicket on which Bengal hurtled to a 222-run defeat.