'Any day, I would give my right hand to captain India'
Judhajit
25-Feb-2013
Getty Images
Sourav Ganguly insists he's at peace, though eliciting extreme emotions across the spectrum and time zones, particularly in Australia where they both detest and respect him for getting under the skins of their cricketers. In an interview in Outlook the batsman speaks about retirement, disappointment, Greg Chappell and future plans.
When I got picked up in 1996, I realised, when I came back to India, that if I had not done well in that debut Test at the Lord's, I'd never have played cricket for India again. Luckily, I didn't know that during the series. I couldn't have played cricket like that, nobody can play like that. You need to give everybody a fair opportunity, let them play with peace in mind if they are to perform
Shades of the great Sir Don Bradman in Sourav Ganguly's last innings in Test cricket? Ayaz Memon in his column in Daily News & Analysis believes both batsman must have been overcome with emotion while going out to bat in their last match. He writes that, in an oblique sort of way, retirement is also a reminder of mortality, whatever the record or degree of greatness, and heightens the sense of loss.
Indeed, his batting prowess has been obscured by his hugely successful captaincy. In the Indian context, take away Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, Viru Sehwag and Vijay Merchant — who would rate among the top 50 batsmen in cricket history — and Ganguly’s value purely as a batsman becomes telling.
Bobili Vijay Kumar in the Times of India takes us through the final moments in Ganguly's Test career and believes India may have lost something far more important during this series: the confidence in Rahul Dravid.
In another interview in the Kolkata daily, the Telegraph, Ganguly says it was the "respect in the dressing room" that mattered the most during his years as an Indian cricketer.