Among the many details of the iconic 2001 Test series between India and Australia that have become part of cricketing folklore is the fact that Sourav Ganguly, still a young and new captain compared to the talismanic Steve Waugh, used to make the latter wait at the toss. It is something that Waugh has stated quite a few times since that annoyed him and Ganguly has also spoken on his side of the story recently.
Former fast bowler Javagal Srinath, who had played the first Test of that series with an injury and subsequently sat out the rest of the matches, said that had he been the referee in that series, Ganguly probably would’ve been slapped with a ban. “I would have banned Sourav for a few games,” Srinath, who has built a succesful career as an ICC match referee since retiring in 2003, said at an event in Chennai.
Srinath happened to play in the only match of the series in which India were roundly beaten by the mighty Australians, who were favourites going into the series. India then famously turned it around in the second Test in Kolkata, where a colossal partnership between VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid followed y a scintillating performance by Harbhajan Singh helped them become just the third team in the history of Test cricket to have won a match after being forced to follow on. They went on to win the series 4-1.
It was a series that established Ganguly’s status as the undisputed leader of the Indian team and is widely rated as the one that helped the country regain faith in the sport after the match-fixing scandal of the late 1990s.