Performance matters, not age: Sourav Ganguly

Mumbai: Sourav Ganguly's explosive batting style - which he rediscovered in the Nagpur ODI against Australia - would have made him a successful batsman in Twenty20 cricket, but the former Indian captain says he doesn't miss the newest and fastest version of the game.

"I don't think I miss Twenty20 cricket. I don't know what it would have been if this kind of cricket was introduced during my younger days. But now I don't think I would have really missed it," Ganguly told IANS in an interview.

The big three

Ganguly along with Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid - known as the 'Big 3' of Team India - made themselves unavailable for the Twenty20 World Cup. Their non-availability put wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni on the hot seat of captaincy. Dhoni led a bunch of young players to victory at the inaugural world championship of the newest form of cricket in South Africa.

That win gave India some of its future stars, who rose to the occasion when it mattered the most. They beat Pakistan in a nerve biting finish at the final, and the squad is now tipped to be the future of Indian cricket.

"I think this team has all the ingredients to be the world champions. The new guys are really good and they all are talented and will do the country proud in the coming days," said Ganguly, who won the best captain in 75 years of Indian Test cricket award.

Ganguly beat some of the biggest names of Indian cricket like Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, Sunil Gavsakar and the late C.K. Nayudu and late Vinoo Mankad for the prestigious award.

"It is a great honour to be adjudged as the best captain of 75 years of Indian Test cricket. My best success as a captain, I think, will always remain beating Pakistan in their home in 2004," said Ganguly.

India defeated Pakistan for the first time on their soil to win a Test series in March 2004. The series was also memorable because Virender Sehwag became the first Indian to score a triple century with a solid knock of 309.

Ganguly had words of praise for Dhoni and said the 26-year-old should be given more time to click.

"I am sure he will take India to new cricketing heights. The only thing he lacks is experience and he should be given more time to gain it," said Ganguly.

On his role in the Indian team as a senior player, Ganguly said: "The only thing I have to do is to keep on performing. I have to keep on scoring runs.

"Performance and not age should be the criteria for selection in the team," he said.

sourav ganguly

Sourav Ganguly

India

Player profile

Full name Sourav Chandidas Ganguly
Born July 8, 1972, Calcutta (now Kolkata), Bengal
Current age 35 years 92 days
Major teams India, ACC Asian XI, Asia XI, Bengal, Glamorgan, Lancashire
Batting style Left-hand bat
Bowling style Right-arm medium
Height 5 ft 11 in
Education St Xavier's College
Relations Brother - Snehasish C Ganguly

Batting and fielding averages Mat Inns NO Runs HS Ave BF SR 100 50 4s 6s Ct St
Tests 96 155 14 5812 173 41.21 11702 49.66 13 29 744 47 64 0
ODIs 304 293 23 11188 183 41.43 15185 73.67 22 71 1103 186 100 0
First-class 222 346 40 13385 200* 43.74 28 77 158 0
List A 413 397 42 14950 183 42.11 31 92 128 0
Twenty20 18 17 1 377 73 23.56 350 107.71 0 1 47 9 6 0

Bowling averages Mat Inns Balls Runs Wkts BBI BBM Ave Econ SR 4w 5w 10
Tests 96 86 2708 1506 28 3/28 3/37 53.78 3.33 96.7 0 0 0
ODIs 304 168 4465 3741 99 5/16 5/16 37.78 5.02 45.1 1 2 0
First-class 222 10499 5829 160 6/46 36.43 3.33 65.6 4 0
List A 413 7745 6265 166 5/16 5/16 37.74 4.85 46.6 4 2 0
Twenty20 18 17 297 393 19 3/27 3/27 20.68 7.93 15.6 0 0 0

Career statistics Statistics Statsguru Tests | Statsguru ODIs
Test debut England v India at Lord's, Jun 20-24, 1996 scorecard
Last Test England v India at The Oval, Aug 9-13, 2007 scorecard
ODI debut India v West Indies at Brisbane, Jan 11, 1992 scorecard
Last ODI India v Australia at Chandigarh, Oct 8, 2007 scorecard
First-class debut 1989/90
Last First-class England v India at The Oval, Aug 9-13, 2007 scorecard
List A debut 1989/90
Last List A India v Australia at Chandigarh, Oct 8, 2007 scorecard
Twenty20 debut Glamorgan v Somerset at Cardiff, Jun 22, 2005 scorecard
Last Twenty20 Bengal v Mumbai at Ahmedabad, Apr 19, 2007 scorecard

Profile

Some felt he couldn't play the bouncer, others swore that he was God on the off-side; some laughed at his lack of athleticism, others took immense pride in his ability to galvanise a side. Sourav Ganguly's ability to polarise opinion led to one of the most fascinating dramas in Indian cricket. Yet, nobody can dispute that he was India's most successful Test captain - forging a winning unit from a bunch of talented, but directionless, individuals - and nobody can argue about him being one of the greatest one-day batsmen of all time. Despite being a batsman who combined grace with surgical precision in his strokeplay, his career had spluttered to a standstill before being resurrected by a scintillating hundred on debut at Lord's in 1996. Later that year, he was promoted to the top of the order in ODIs and, along with Sachin Tendulkar, formed one of the most destructive opening pairs in history.

When he took over the captaincy after the match-fixing exposes in 2000, he quickly proved to be a tough, intuitive and uncompromising leader. Under his stewardship India started winning Test matches away, and put together a splendid streak that took them all the way to the World Cup final in 2003. Later that year, in Australia, an unexpected and incandescent hundred at Brisbane set the tone for the series - Steve Waugh's last - where India fought the world's best team to a standstill. Victory in Pakistan turned him into a cult figure but instead of being a springboard for greater things, it was the peak of a slippery slope.

The beginning of the end came in 2004 at Nagpur - when his last-minute withdrawal played a part in Australia clinching the series - and things went pear shaped when his loss of personal form coincided with India's insipid ODI performances. Breaking point was reached when his differences with Greg Chappell leaked into public domain and his career was in jeopardy when India began their remarkable revival under Rahul Dravid. His gritty 30s at Karachi, when India succumbed to a humiliating defeat in early 2006, weren't enough for him to retain his spot and some felt he would never get another chance. Others, as always, thought otherwise and they were proved right when he was included in the Test squad for the away series in South Africa in 2006-2007. He ended as the highest Indian run-scorer in that series and capped his fairytale comeback with four half-centuries on his return to ODIs. He managed two fifties in three World Cup games, in what was a forgettable campaign for India, and was rested for the folowing tour to Bangladesh.
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan May 2007