By IANS
New Delhi : Former India captain Sourav Ganguly, who was surprisingly dropped for the ongoing tri-series in Australia, has revealed that he had told the national selectors that he wanted to play the shorter version of the game for seven to eight months more before taking a call on his future.
Ganguly, who made a fairytale comeback after being dropped from the Greg Chappell’s Team India, had a shock when the selectors overlooked his impressive ODI record since his comeback and omitted him from the side, preferring youth with fresh legs.
“They (selectors) just asked me whether I wanted to continue playing One-day cricket. I said, ‘Yes, at least for the next 7-8 months’,” Ganguly told television channel Times Now.
“Since there’s not much of One-day cricket this year, as the rest of the year is full of Test cricket, I wanted to play till September (2008), and then take a call. In any case, we had to do that at some stage as we wouldn’t have gone on to play the 2011 World Cup,” he said.
Ganguly and Rahul Dravid were not taken as the selectors said skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni preferred younger players, who can field better.
“I was a bit surprised because I didn’t expect it. The selectors will have a better idea. But All I can say for sure is that it is not on the basis of form. As in both forms of the game, be it Test or One-day, I scored nearly 2500 runs in one year.”
The decision came as a shock for Ganguly, India’s second highest run scorer in ODIs after Sachin Tendulkar, and had been the most consistent member since his dramatic return to the team.
“I need to be treated as a player and that’s every player’s right. To be honest since 2005, after I got dropped and lost my captaincy, a lot of things have been said and written on issues other than my cricket which is not required for anybody, whether it’s me (I’ve played for 12-13 years) or a newcomer. These things are not required and it doesn’t happen anywhere else in the world. I need to be judged on my cricket.