It was this week last year that three Indian musketeers began their campaign in England for various counties. Sourav Ganguly, the Indian captain, was plying his wares for Lancashire, Rahul Dravid was batting for Kent and Anil Kumble was bamboozling batsmen with leg breaks for Leicestershire. The Karnataka leg spinner had previously played for Northamptonshire but Ganguly and Dravid were making their debuts in English domestic cricket.

At the same time, it was not all smooth sailing for the trio. Just before they left for England, both Dravid and Kumble opted out of a crucial Ranji Trophy semi-final clash against Hyderabad. As it turned out, that proved to be costly for Karnataka, who were edged out by the superior batting of a VVS Laxman-inspired Hyderabad.

As a result of commitments to county cricket in England, the trio missed out on yet another important fixture of the Board of Control for Cricket in India. With India due to travel to Bangladesh for the Asia Cup featuring India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, the preparatory camp for the tourney was underway. Although it would be far fetched to say that this had a dramatic effect on the way India prepared, it must be remembered that India lost quite badly at Dhaka.

The county stint too proved to be less productive than people initially envisaged it for at least one of the threesome. Ganguly, playing for Lancashire, found that it was no stroll in the park. High scores often eluded the southpaw and the going was tough. With the ball swinging and seaming around, Ganguly could not simply hit his way out of a bad patch as he may have done in the subcontinent. Add to this the run out trouble Ganguly had and there was a disaster waiting to happen. When teammates alleged that the Indian skipper was a bit of a 'spoilt' cricketer, driving on his own to venues and not taking the team bus, and extended the assessments to similar infringements, things came to a boil. On one occasion, when Ganguly scored a ton, there was reportedly no one at the Lancashire balcony to cheer him on.

For Kumble too, the second stint at county cricket might just have been a counter productive one in the long run. The 630.5 overs that he bowled would certainly have hastened, if not caused, the rotator cuff shoulder injury that has kept Kumble out of international cricket for more than one series now. The doctor's diagnosis on the injury is that he has clearly sustained too much wear and tear.

So, with the benefit of hindsight, one might just be cheeky enough to suggest that a couple of key Indian cricketers' experiment in playing county cricket in 2000 was an eminently avoidable one.

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