Ganguly 038; Kolkata

When Sourav Ganguly went unsold on day one of the Indian Premier League player auction,possible reasons streamed in effortlessly. That hes now been away from international cricket for too long,that hes kind of hitting 40,that Twenty20,let alone the average hyper-competitive IPL franchisee,is unforgiving to anyone out of form or past his best and that,lets accept it,there is no humiliation in a once-great player coming to terms with the reality that his turn on the big stages may well be at an end. None whatsoever.

Instead,the surprise over Kolkata Knight Riders not staking their connect to their HQ by bidding for the citys greatest cricketer is part of a larger curiosity of this auction: that teams can be so easily re-arranged. When the IPL was an idea still on the drawing board,the assumption was that a local connect would be vital for spectators to adopt the city-based teams. So there were the iconic players and a spirited bid for more local players Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble for Royal Challengers of Bangalore,for instance,Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir for Daredevils of Delhi,and Ganguly for Knight Riders of Kolkata,a city that once let loose its rage if he was out of the India side. Now,remarkably casually,they are scattered,the cities and their players.

It could be that fan loyalties are more diffused in domestic T20 leagues a scattering aided by the export of the tournament to South Africa in its second season. It could be that with matches rapidly taking place,audiences move from one good performance to the next. Or could it be that our cities are far less parochial than may have been anticipated?