Don't judge me by one failure: Ganguly

Sourav Ganguly feels that it would be too early to judge him as a captain on the basis of the team's failure in one tournament. However, he is himself the first one to take the blame for India's disappointing show at Sharjah. Another reason he attributes to the poor showing is the failure of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and himself in four successive innings.

In an interview to a vernacular daily here, Ganguly has stated, "Rarely have all the three of us failed together. If you look at our batting you will find that Azharuddin was the only one to get a plus fifty score at Sharjah. You cannot achieve success with such a batting display."

Ganguly, in fact, has defended his bowlers saying that the team had not given them enough runs to bowl with. "We could not even score 200 in any of the four matches that we played. The bowlers really did not have a total to defend."

Inspite of the defeats at Sharjah, Ganguly is quick to point out that it would be wrong to judge his captaincy on the basis of this tournament. "I have led India in three tournaments, winning two. This has been the first failure for me." He has also stated that to do well in the Asia Cup in May (India's next international engagement) a conditioning camp is necessary. He says, "Coach Kapil Dev and myself feel that it is essential to have a camp for about 10 days to get everybody in shape. We will try and have the camp in Calcutta as the weather there is quite similar to that prevailing in Dhaka where the Asia Cup will be played."

Ganguly has also stressed the need to have a psychologist with the team. In the course of the interview, he says, "If the other teams are getting results through a psychologist and video analysis of matches and players, then we should also implement the same procedures."

However, the Indian captain feels that the lack of all rounders in the Indian side has been the main cause of worry to him. "Neither Robin Singh nor myself can be termed as real all rounders - like the South African Jaques Kallis. But then even in India there is a dearth of proper all rounders. We have to find out some talented players in this department immediately and include them in the team."

Meanwhile, Ganguly has decided to play for the Asian XI in their match against the Rest of the World XI at Dhaka next month. He has been requested by the ICC President Jagmohan Dalmiya to do so. As a result, both Ganguly and Tendulkar will fly to Dhaka on a chartered flight on the morning of the match. On April 7, both Ganguly and Tendulkar will play in a fund raising match at Siliguri. Earlier, on April 2, Indian cricketers and Indian film stars will play in a football match at the Salt Lake Stadium in Calcutta. While Rithik Roshan will lead the film stars XI, Ganguly will lead the cricketers. Besides Ganguly and Tendulkar, the others who are expected to take part in the match are Ajay Jadeja, Kapil Dev, Saba Karim, Nikhil Chopra, Venkatesh Prasad, Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble.