Although every way of getting out in cricket is an interesting sight for the cricket watcher, but if we talk about international cricket, there is one way in which no one has been out for years despite it being a law. It is not that there was never a possibility of it, but I don't know why the captain of the fielding team kept avoiding it. This is time out.

Now take an example of Team India. This is about the 2006-07 tour of South Africa and Sourav Ganguly was very close to becoming the first batsman to be out in this special way in international cricket. Even then, the South African team did not let this record be made by showing a unique sportsman spirit. What happened then? This is a very interesting incident which also forces one to think that how sometimes big teams make such mistakes in international cricket? All this happened in the Cape Town Test of the series and this was the third day (4 January) of the third Test of that series. In reply to India's 414 in the first innings, the host team scored 373 runs. After South Africa's score of 260-3, the mood of the pitch started changing suddenly. Now India's second innings started. Wasim Jaffer and Virender Sehwag were the openers. Now you note-

Virender Sehwag was out when the score was 6 in the second over

Rahul Dravid came to bat at number 3

In the third over, the score was 6 and Wasim Jaffer was out and the stadium clock was showing 10.43.

Now Sachin Tendulkar had to come for batting but he did not come out of the dressing room

The next name in the batting order was VVS Laxman and interestingly, he too did not come out

No one could understand what was happening

Sourav Ganguly was the next name in the batting order and he finally came out but by then it had been 6 minutes since Jaffer was out

In this case, the law is that the new batsman gets 3 minutes to start his batting but here it was already 6 minutes

This meant that Ganguly was out without playing a single ball but he was not 'timed out' because the South African team did not appeal for the dismissal

In this way, Ganguly was saved from getting out but the question is what was happening in the dressing room of Team India in those 6 minutes that it reached the point where someone got out unnecessarily? For the first time in Test history, a record of a new batsman being 'timed out' almost came to an end.

Now let us answer these questions:

Why Tendulkar did not come to bat – Actually he was ready to bat at number 4 with his pads on but was told that he cannot go to bat right now because he was not on the ground for 18 minutes during South Africa's innings. This means that he could bat only after that much time had passed in India's innings. India's first 2 wickets fell in just 12 minutes. This caused a mess for which Team India was not prepared.

It was the team management's fault that they did not think about this, meaning there was no arrangement as to who would bat if needed? And see – it was later revealed that on-field umpire Daryl Harper had sent a message to TV umpire Marias Erasmus to send a reminder to the Indian dressing room as soon as the first wicket fell because he had an idea that the team might not have thought about this.

Erasmus also forgot and did not send a reminder. Later, when the fourth umpire (Murray Brown) informed, the team woke up. It was not the duty of the umpires to inform – the responsibility was of the think tank and management of Team India.

So where was Laxman: The answer to this question is that he did not even think that he would need to go for batting so soon. He comfortably went to take a bath. When there was a knock on the door in need, he could not come out immediately.

So Ganguly's turn came but being number 5 he was comfortably in a track suit. In these circumstances there was chaos in the dressing room. Sourav Ganguly was not in the mood to bat – everyone started dressing him up. Someone was giving Dada a shirt, someone a trouser and someone a bat and two players started tying the pads. When Ganguly came out to bat, the stadium clock read 10.49.

It is not that the South African team was unaware of this delay – they talked to the umpires about giving the batsman 'time out' but did not appeal even after 6 minutes had passed. Actually the umpires told them that the delay was not happening intentionally – the circumstances were such that such a situation had arisen. Captain Graeme Smith understood and did not appeal. In this way Sourav Ganguly was saved from becoming the first Test cricketer to be 'timed out'.