Indian skipper learns to forgive and forget his critics

“It’s a policy these days when a team tours and a captain struggles a bit, they get after the captain. Same thing has happened to Nasser Hussain in Australia. But no longer do I get impulsive and angry. I prefer to ignore such reactions,” Ganguly said.

Ganguly said he firmly believes a captain is as good as his team and anyone who suggests things worked to a plan, is lying.

“I am a firm believer in Richie Benaud’s adage — a captain is as good as his team. If everyone says it worked according to a plan, it’s a bullshit. If any captain says he has spent two days in chalking out plans to get (Sachin) Tendulkar and Ganguly out and it’s happened exactly – he’s lying.”

Ganguly said his guiding philosophy as a captain was to be honest at all times and go by instinct on a cricket field. “Nobody is a born captain. Most of the time, I’ve gone on instinct. Like against the West Indies in Chennai (Test), John (Wright) sent me a message to bowl (Anil) Kumble and have spinners from both ends. Just by instinct I brought back Zaheer Khan and he got four wickets and won us the Test.”

The Indian captain said he has two immediate ambitions — to do well at the Eden Gardens and tour New Zealand again to make up for the present debacle. “I am disappointed with my form at Eden Gardens. I’ve played all my cricket there, played five Tests and captained in two. We’ve done well as a team but not me. As for New Zealand, I want to come here again and again”.

The Indian captain believed the matches against New Zealand in the current series were far closer than the results convey. “Except for the one in Queenstown, all the games were pretty close. You could look at the Tests or one-dayers and see there wasn’t much between the two sides,” said Ganguly as he prepared to wind up the disastrous tour Down Under and look ahead at the World Cup.

The ‘Prince of Kolkata’ said he does not think things come too easy for Indian cricketers who try their best to do well on the field.

“I’ve seen it and am firm believer whoever comes at this level and plays for India, is keen to do well. None of them are lazy – you just have to look at how much weight Zaheer, Anil, Sachin or Rahul have lost in recent times to know what I’m saying.”

Ganguly was worried that Indian cricket is producing only spinner all-rounders and blamed it to the type of pitches used for Ranji Trophy matches. “Most of our all-rounders are spinner all-rounders. But that’s because of pitches. If the wickets were green and batsmen were getting out cheaply, a cricketer would realise he has to develop his bowling to stay in the team. It would have given us seamer all-rounders.”

Ganguly was also frustrated by a lack of good crop of fast bowlers and suggested Indian cricket needs people like Kapil Dev to identify bowlers and train them.

“We got to have a person to identify bowlers — I once told so to Mr (Jagmohan) Dalmiya. Bring them to one place and let someone like Kapil Dev, who is a legend, coach them. Have a fitness guy like Adrian (le Roux) and a proper gym and keep them at one place for 10 months a year.”

The Indian captain also denied that players like Murali Kartik and Ajay Ratra got a raw deal during his captaincy. “Kartik has been a bit unlucky. He has to put up with two world-class spinners in Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh. Whenever they have been injured, he’s come back and played for India. Ratra got nine Tests in all. He is a good glovesman and had a hundred in Antigua but he couldn’t score runs in any of the other games. I once told the selectors — I don’t mind if he gets me 40-50 consistently rather than score big once in a while. But where the ball has bounced and done a bit, he hasn’t been able to put bat to ball. Not that Parthiv (Patel) has done anything exceptional with the bat. So that leaves room open for Ratra. But honestly, if one was to ask me, one cricketer hard done by criticism is Deep Dasgupta,” Ganguly said.

“Deep kept wickets well in South Africa but he did poorly in two Tests at home. As criticism mounted, his keeping deteriorated. He could have allowed an extra bowler or an extra all-rounder to fit into the team.” (PTI)