Ganguly opts out of IPL 2013

Sourav Ganguly will not be available as a player for the Pune Warriors franchise during next year's IPL, a decision which was agreed upon mutually between Ganguly and the franchise. Ganguly, who was the captain of Pune Warriors last season, spoke to Subroto Roy, the owner of the Pune franchise, on Saturday night in this regard ahead of the October 31 deadline for the submission of the list of players for the next IPL. The decision marks an end to Ganguly's competitive cricket career which spanned 22 years starting from his first-class debut in 1989-90.

Ganguly also opted out of the Bengal Ranji Trophy squad for the upcoming season. Despite retiring from international cricket in 2008, Ganguly, 40, had continued to play the Ranji Trophy, captaining Bengal in most of their first-class matches last season. In Ganguly's absence, Manoj Tiwary has been named Bengal captain for the 2012-13 season.

One of the Bengal board's joint secretaries, though, said that Ganguly could return later in the season. "He would not play the first two matches, but depending on our team's position we may get his services later on," Sujan Mukherjee said. "It's a youthful side but we have players with international experience, looking forward to a positive season."

Ganguly had a difficult time last IPL season as the Pune team finished bottom of the table with just four wins in 16 matches. His personal form was similarly poor, as he managed only 268 runs in 15 innings at less than a run-a-ball and also looked slow in the field. Roy, the Pune team owner, had said during the IPL that Ganguly would not play next season, and be a team mentor instead, but no decision was taken then.

Bengal squad: Manoj Tiwary (capt), Parthasarathi Bhattacharjee, Rohan Banerjee, Jayojit Basu, Writam Porel, Anustup Majumdar, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Iresh Saxena, Ashok Dinda, Sourav Sarkar, Arnab Nandy, Veer Pratap Singh, Subhomoy Das and Aritra Chatterjee