Sourav Ganguly's decision to not enforce the follow-on in the Sydney Test despite being in a position to do so has started a debate in cricketing circles. Some experts have already questioned Ganguly's wisdom and the debate will surely fire up if India fail to win the Test on the final day.

But Ganguly is not the first captain to not enforce a follow-on. He, in fact, provided the thirtieth such instance in Test cricket and statistics reveal that though this decision may seem strange to some, it has brought laurels for the captains concerned on most occasions.

Out of the 29 such instances in the past, the teams not enforcing the follow-on have won on as many as 22 occasions, drawn the match on six occasions, and lost just once.

The only team to have lost a Test after not enforcing the follow-on is South Africa. Captain Dudley Nourse's decision backfired in the Test against Australia at Durban in 1949-50.

Ganguly is only the second Indian captain to not impose a follow-on upon his opponent. Sachin Tendulkar was the first to do so when he decided to give his bowlers a rest rather than the opportunity to have another go at the New Zealanders in the Ahmedabad Test of 1999-00. Tendulkar was later ridiculed by all and sundry for his decision.

Let's wait and watch how Ganguly's decision will be seen: as a masterstroke or an act of stupidity.

Details of instances where Test captains did not enforce the follow-on:

Lead	For	Inns1	Inns2	Opponent	Inns1	Inns2	Result (Winner)	Venue	Season	Captain
399	England	521	342-8d	Australia	122	66	England	Brisbane	1928-29	A P F Chapman
326	West Indies	471	290	England	145	327	West Indies	Georgetown	1929-30	M P Fernandes
563	England	849	279-9d	West Indies	286	408-5	Drawn	Kingston	1929-30	F S G Calthorpe
380	Australia	701	327	England	321	145	Australia	The Oval	1934	W M Woodfull
214	South Africa	530	481	England	316	654-5	Drawn	Durban	1938-39	A Melville
236	South Africa	311	99	Australia	75	336-5	Australia	Durban	1949-50	A D Nourse
247	West Indies	417	209-6d	England	170	316	West Indies	Kingston	1953-54	J B Stollmeyer
202	West Indies	383	181	England	181	313	West Indies	Bridgetown	1953-54	J B Stollmeyer
278	West Indies	500	168-5d	India	222	151	West Indies	Madras	1958-59	F C M Alexander
282	England	490	265-8d	India	208	376	England	Manchester	1959	P B H May
270	England	382	230-9d	West Indies	112	44	England	Port-of-Spain	1959-60	F M M Worrell
223	West Indies	397	229	England	174	231	West Indies	Leeds	1963	F M M Worrell
206	England	298	203	India	92	277	England	Birmingham	1967	D B Close
340	Australia	619	394-8d	West Indies	279	352	Australia	Sydney	1968-69	W M Lawry
218	South Africa	382	232	Australia	164	280	South Africa	Cape Town	1969-70	A Bacher
235	England	470	233-4d	Australia	235	328-3	Drawn	Adelaide	1970-71	R Illingworth
206	West Indies	368-9d	194	New Zealand	162	253-7	Drawn	Port-of-Spain	1971-72	G S Sobers
252	West Indies	687-8d	182-0	England	435	203	West Indies	The Oval	1976	C H Lloyd
236	Australia	505	256	India	269	445	Australia	Adelaide	1977-78	R B Simpson
213	England	420	297	New Zealand	207	345	England	Nottingham	1983	R G D Willis
259	Australia	426	248-8d	England	167	323	Australia	Brisbane	1994-95	M A Taylor
230	South Africa	460	259-7d	Pakistan	230	165	South Africa	Jo'burg	1994-95	W J Cronje
202	Australia	479	217-6d	West Indies	277	296	Australia	Brisbane	1996-97	M A Taylor
275	India	583-7d	148-5d	New Zealand	308	252-2	Drawn	Ahmedabad	1999-00	S R Tendulkar
204	South Africa	420	140-7d	Sri Lanka	216	149-6	Drawn	Durban	2000-01	S M Pollock
208	Pakistan	472	225-5d	West Indies	264	189	Pakistan	Sharjah	2001-02	Waqar Younis
230	New Zealand	337	243	West Indies	107	269	New Zealand	Bridgetown	2002	S P Fleming
266	England	487	301-6d	India	221	397	England	Lord's	2002	N Hussain
209	Sri Lanka	373	263-2d	Bangladesh	164	184	Sri Lanka	Colombo SSC	2002-03	S T Jayasuriya
231	India	705-7d	211-2d	Australia	474	???	???	Sydney	2003-04	S C Ganguly

Summary of instances of captains not enforcing the follow-on:

Country	Instances	Won	Lost	Drawn
England	8	6	-	2
West Indies	7	6	-	1
Australia	5	5	-	-
South Africa	5	2	1	2
India	2*	-	-	1
New Zealand	1	1	-	-
Pakistan	1	1	-	-
Vvv Sri Lanka	1	1	-	-
Total	30*	22	1	6