Ganguly's dubious distinction

By Mohandas Menon

Sourav Ganguly, for the third time in his career was missing a LOI match due to a match referee suspension. He could not play the first match of the Pepsi Cup series against Australia at Kochi on 1-4-1998 since he was suspended by South African match referee Peter Vander Merwe.

He had showed dissent when given out lbw by English umpire David Shepherd on the second day during the third Test against Australia at Bangalore on 26-3- 1998.

He was also suspended from playing the Rajkot one- dayer against Zimbabwe on 14-12-2000, when Australian match referee Barry Jarman handed over this sentence for extensive appealing in the previous match at Kanpur on 11-12-2000.

Ganguly incidentally becomes the first captain to be suspended for a match in LOI history on two occasions and also becomes the first player to be suspended on three separate occasions.

** When he claimed the wicket of Dravid, Chaminda Vaas became the third Sri Lankan after Muralitharan (246 wickets) and Jayasuriya (202) and 15th bowler in LOI history to take 200 wickets. Interestingly, Vaas who was appearing in his 163rd match, became the only third left-arm bowler to reach this milestone after Pakistani Wasim Akram (440) and Jayasuriya (202).

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