Ganguly's out. First, a collection of links and a tribute to Ganguly from Soulberry:

Against the very team which defined and underlined your captaincy and strong character, may you score all the runs you wish to and for us to cherish. May you, against the very team you taught the world to look upon as nothing more than equals, eye to eye, end your career in brilliant glory.

Some additional links: Samir Chopra on what Ganguly meant as captain of India; and Straight Point on his significance to Bengali cricket.

Ricky Ponting has helpfully (correctly, in my opinion) pointed out that a prolonged farewell will be distracting to his teammates:

"It (Ganguly's retirement) will certainly create distractions. And we have experienced it when Steve Waugh, Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Adam Gilchrist retired," Ponting said ahead of the first Test in Bangalore on Thursday.

"The decision takes pressure off Sourav but puts pressure on some other and the Indian players will certainly be facing that for the next four weeks. I'm sure the crowd in India will be eager to come out and see Sourav play his last Tests. And that will add to the overall spectacle of the series," said Ponting.

Here's Kartikeya's take on Ganguly and distraction:

The announcement of his departure has been characteristically ham handed. There was no reason to announce this right now. It seems to have come about as an afterthought, what with the "One last thing lads" preamble. It was an important announcement. Ganguly has had an fine career and the announcement should have been made properly and formally, not as a "oh and by the way" appendage. From the point of view of the India - Australia series, it could not have come at the worse time, two days before the series begins, virtually tying the selectors hands for the rest of the series.

The proper way for Ganguly to have announced his retirement, one worthy of a player of his stature, would have been to announce it on the eve of the Nagpur Test match, with the Chairman of Selectors by his side in a full fledged press conference. That would have been the serious, well thought out way of doing it. Ganguly leaves himself open to criticism that he made this adhoc announcement to avoid being dropped in case he doesn't perform in the first two Tests.

Meanwhile, here's Q's preview of the  20-20 final between the Karachi Dolphins and the Sialkot Stallions. And Ottayan on the on-again off-again Stanford millionaires game.