Sourav Ganguly is so far India's leading Test run-scorer for 2007 © AFP Enlarge

Sourav Ganguly has said that his forced exile from international cricket made him more determined to prove a point. He also said that he intends to play through 2008.

"Not better, but probably more determined," Ganguly told the Kolkata-based Telegraph. "I wish to add that the circumstances and the manner in which I got dropped just weren't right. I don't have an issue with being left out, that's part of the game, but the manner wasn't right."

Ganguly had differences with the then coach Greg Chappell and the issue snowballed after one of Chappell's email to the board was leaked in September 2005. On November 22, the selectors ended his five-year reign as Test captain when they picked Rahul Dravid to lead the side for the series against Sri Lanka. Dravid had been handed the one-day captaincy a month before. Ganguly was dropped from the one-day side in October and the Test team in December and made his comeback in to both teams a year later in December last year.

Ganguly, 35, is so far India's leading Test run-scorer for 2007 with 932 runs following his double-hundred in Bangalore, and he has been growing from strength to strength. He squashed all speculations about his retirement, saying he intends to play next year. "Call it [his age] a driving force or whatever, but I want to continue being successful... The hunger hasn't died... Form permitting, I intend playing through 2008."