The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : I wanted to play ODIs till September: Ganguly

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I wanted to play ODIs till September: Ganguly

Not dropped due to form

— Photo: PTI

PLAINSPEAK: Sourav Ganguly, dropped from the Indian one-day side, says he considered quitting the shorter version of the game.

New Delhi: Surprisingly sidelined for the one-day cricket tri-series against Australia, Sourav Ganguly has confessed that he was anyway considering retirement from the limited overs version in the next 7-8 months.

Ganguly said he had realised that he would not play in the 2011 World Cup, to be co-hosted by the Asian cricketing nations, but when selectors asked him he had expressed his wish to play in ODIs for a few more months as there were not many limited overs games scheduled this year.

“They (selectors) just asked me whether I wanted to continue one-day cricket. I said, yes definitely, at least for the next 7-8 months,” Ganguly said.

“There is not much of one-day cricket this year. There is this Australia series, then India goes to Sri Lanka for Test and one-dayers, and there is the Champions Trophy in September. The rest of the year is full of Test cricket.

“So I wanted to play till September then probably take a call because at some stage you would not have gone out to play 2011 World Cup,” said Ganguly.

Ganguly said although he did not discuss the issue with anyone else, he felt he was not dropped on the ground of his form.

Surprised

“I was a bit surprised because I didn’t expect it... But, all I can say for sure is that it is not on the basis of form,” Ganguly said.

The former skipper said he was “irritated” by whatever was being written about him in the media in the last couple of years, since he was dropped from the team and lost the captaincy.

“It’s very irritating. I need to be treated as a player and that is every player’s right. And, to be honest that’s the fact, for last.

“Since 2005, after I got dropped and I lost my captaincy, a lot of things have been interrogated which is not required for anybody whether it’s me or who has played for 12-13 years or a newcomer”. — PTI

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