Sri Lankan media comes down heavily on Ganguly

Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly has come in for scathing criticism in the Sri Lankan media for violating the ICC Code of Conduct twice within a week during the triangular one-day series in Colombo inviting the wrath of the match referee.

"Ganguly's actions are sullying the good name of Indian cricket," state-owned 'Daily News' said in a coloumn by its cricket writer.

"Ganguly will certainly not go down as a captain who upheld the spirit of the game after getting on the wrong side of the International Cricket Council match referee Cammie Smith twice inside a week," it said.

The Indian captain was suspended for a match for showing dissent at the umpire after being adjudged leg before wicket in a match against New Zealand. Ganguly got into trouble once again in the penultimate league match against Sri Lanka when he gave a verbal send-off to Russel Arnold. He was "severly reprimanded" by Smith and fined 75 per cent of his match fees.

"To be the captain of a country is a matter of national pride. Along with it comes greater responsibility and accountability. By his actions, Ganguly had become a marked man and he should restrain himself on the field," the daily said.

"It's unbecoming of the captain of India," said another daily 'The Island' which also commented that Smith seemed to have adopted double standards in penalising Ganguly while letting off Michael Slater for a much graver show of dissent during Australia's tour of India earlier this year.

The paper said the match referees might be forced to take harsh decisions against players who crossed the line once too often. "One can only think of such an explanation to justify Ganguly's suspension in this instance," it said.

It also criticised former Indian opener Navjot Singh Sidhu, now a television commentator, for "jumping to Ganguly's defence".