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Indian team management came under lot of fire for humiliating Saurav Ganguly first in the test series and then dropping him from the One Day Internationals. A general feeling was created by the media that Rahul Dravid also felt threatened by the presence of Ganguly.

However, Indian team manager Raj Singh Dungarpur has recently stated that Rahul Dravid overruled the selection committee and opened the innings in the Test series against Pakistan to shield predecessor Sourav Ganguly from strong Pakistani pace attack.

“A captain must be able to set an example of sacrifice. He did not want to expose Ganguly as an opener. He overruled the selection committee of which I was a part,” Dungarpur said. “We said ‘No, you can’t open the innings’. He (Dravid) said that let not somebody say that we made him (Ganguly) a sacrificial goat. So he opened the innings and got a hundred (128 not out),” he said.

Recalling the events that led to intense discussion among Dravid, Ganguly and coach Greg Chappell minutes before the start of Lahore Test, Dungarpur revealed: “He (Dravid) got up early on morning of the match and went to Chappell’s room and said ‘I will open the innings’.”

This disclosure clears what transpired during the discussion that was shown on television and sparked much speculation. It also means that the decision on who would open the innings with Virender Sehwag was not taken at the team meeting on eve of the Test.

So Dravid partnered vice-captain Sehwag, who scored 254, and put up 410 runs, missing the world record by a mere three runs.

Dungarpur, who had been critical of Ganguly both as a batsman and captain before the series started, gave full marks to him for his “impeccable” behaviour in Pakistan.

Technorati Tags: Saurav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Greg Chappell, Sehwag