Street fight for Ganguly's inclusion

Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly on Thursday blocked main roads and burnedeffigies of Indian cricket officials in the eastern city of Calcutta, a dayafter the allrounder was dropped from the national team.Around 300 peopleblocked a busy highway near Ganguly's house and shouted slogans demanding he bereinstated for the third and final test against Sri Lanka starting Dec. 18 inAhmadabad.Protesters burned effigies of India cricket coach, Greg Chappell, andteam selector, Kiran More, holding the two responsible for Ganguly's exclusionfrom the team."A great injustice has been done to Ganguly and we are burningthe effigies of Chappell and More to protest against this injustice," said AnjanNag, secretary of the Maidan Sports Welfare Association, which organized theprotest.In the Kankinara suburb of Calcutta, irate Ganguly fans conductedfuneral rituals for former Australian test captain Chappell and More.Nag said apetition calling for Ganguly's inclusion would be sent to Prime MinisterManmohan Singh.Indian selectors on Wednesday retained Rahul Dravid as captainfor the tour of Pakistan in January and the home series against England inMarch.Rahul replaced Ganguly as captain of the Indian team after the latter'spublic spat with Chappell during a tour of Zimbabwe earlier this year.Ganguly,whose reign as national skipper lasted five years, holds the Indian record forthe most victories in tests and one-dayers.Under Ganguly's captaincy, India won21 tests and 76 limited-overs internationals, but his leadership came under acloud due to poor batting form and the public dispute with the new coach. Thesituation worsened after Chappell's critical report regarding Ganguly to theIndian cricket board was leaked to the media .