Sourav must weigh himself on scales he uses for team

Interestingly, both camps can find relevant facts. Ganguly hasn’t been a top batsman for about 18 months now and the numbers support that but over a longer period of time, which is what you need to look at with fine players, you will have to classify him among the greats in the one-day game and as a pretty competent player in Test cricket.

Today he is far too loose as a batsman. When he was making his reputation, and confounding his critics who would have been quite happy to see him fail, he was a precise player. His footwork was decisive and as a result his choice of balls to play shots against was very good.

That is often a reflection of the mind. When you believe you can score runs, the foot finds itself moving towards the length of the ball; when there is a storm in the mind, the foot like a stubborn soldier, stays put. Ganguly’s batting today is a reflection of what is going on in his mind. If he were a piece of hardware, we would defragment his disk but the mind is a little more complicated. It thinks of survival, of mortality and other such worrying thoughts that are no good when the ball coming at you has been delivered at 140 kmph.

The most difficult thing in the game, indeed in management as well, is to assess yourself as honestly and as selflessly as you would a subordinate. Over the years Ganguly has shown great faith in a lot of youngsters, sticking with the likes of Yuvraj, Harbhajan and Sehwag when many believed they were not worthy of it. At times he came close to that crucial point which marks the end of empathy and belief and the beginning of ruthlessness. Only a leader can make that call, can identify that precise moment when you say ‘‘enough’’ and drop a player or sack a subordinate. He identified class and they justified his decision. Now, he must distance himself from his own performance and ask if the time has come to say ‘‘enough’’ to himself.

He has backed himself the way he would have another in his team. It is interesting that when you back a youngster you are considered generous but when a leader extends that confidence to himself, he is labelled selfish. But the tipping point is here and I just get the feeling that Ganguly is struggling to weigh himself in the right scales.

He should go to people he trusts and who have his good and the good of Indian cricket at heart and I think they will tell him that he needs a break. When he goes out to bat now he cannot be thinking about where he is going to get runs from, he is going to be worried about the ball that is going to get him out. Every professional goes through that phase and to withdraw and come back stronger is not to run away from a contest. Missing two games is notthe end of the world.

But Ganguly’s fear is whether or not he can come back stronger and that is something only his resolve can answer. Soon he will be 33. The years 33-35 are governed by experience but even more so by fitness. When you are 22 and hungry you have little to lose and Ganguly will have to compete with those that are around that age, maybe just a bit older, and very hungry.

It will be a huge test for him to come back but he must do so purely on the basis of his resolve and his performances, not on his record. He needs to bat and he needs to do so in an environment far removed from the relentless, searching examination that life now resembles. He can only do that in England, not his favourite country but one where he has scored many runs.

When he spends time in the middle, the runs will come, with that will come hungerand confidence but the key will be his resolve. I fear he will struggle but who knows, liberated from the need to think about ten, or fourteen, others he might rediscover the batsman in himself. And we must leave him alone to make that journey back.