Ganguly accuses Indian team manager of fabricating story to malign him

“I think they (media) had information from the manager we had on that tour. …I think it was all nonsense because he had problems with a person in my state association. So he had taken the off-the-field problem onto the field which I think was stupid,” Ganguly has said in an interview to Karan Thapar in BBC’s Face to Face programme to be telecast on Saturday.

The finger of accusation points at Ranbir Singh, the present Haryana Cricket Association secretary and the team manager on the tour which comprised five Tests, a triseries with England as the third team and the World Cup where India were eliminated in the league stage.

Ganguly got to play only in one or two games Down Under and was in the wilderness for four years before making a grand comeback with two successive hundreds on his Test debut during the 1996 England tour to silence his critics.

Ganguly said he was determined after his shabby treatment in Australia. “…I hardly played one or two games, in which I did fairly well. On that merit, they selected me in one game in the tour of four months and then after the tour they complained he is not good enough,” he recalled.

The Indian skipper, bitter over losing four years of international cricket, said the captain and the Cricket Board (BCCI) should back a player for a while and not decide on the basis of one game. “I have gone through that. It’s not fair.”

On the make-or-break, comeback tour of England, Ganguly said he did not suffer from pressures as he walked out to bat to make his Test debut Test at Lord’s. “But I knew it was the first or the last Test match. If I had failed I would never had played Test cricket after that for India,” said the Indian skipper who was crazy about football as a boy before his parents persuaded him to give it up, tired of his spate injuries that forced him to miss classes regularly.

“Football is still my first love. I rather enjoy watching a game of football than cricket,” he said, adding that his entry into cricket was more to please his parents and to keep himself busy during vacation after his 10th standard exams.

Ganguly narrated how he had to make do with the gear of his elder brother — former Bengal Ranji Trophy player Snehasish Ganguly — and how he struck his first century in an unofficial game between Bengal and Orissa under-15 sides wearing oversized gear.

Ganguly, whose first stint of proper coaching was at the Dukhiram centre, which was under the club run by his father, said playing for India was the last thing on his mind till he became a regular in the Ranji side.

Explaining his philosophy to life and the game, Ganguly said: “I believe there is something waiting for you. You got to keep working hard. You can’t wait for something to happen.”

Asked whether winning four consecutive man-of-the-match awards in the 1997 Toronto one-day series against Pakistan was his greatest moment yet, he said his debut century at Lord’s was the best day in his life.

“It was such an important game I would not have been playing for India after. But after four years I am leading the country,” he added.

Ganguly felt the captain should neither be given all credit for a win nor held solely responsible for a defeat. “It’s the team that contributes…,” he said.

Asked how big a factor luck was in batting, Ganguly, who has scored 12 One-Day International (ODI) centuries — the second highest after Sachin Tendulkar’s world record 24 — commented: “…If you have a good day you nick one and it goes between the fielders and if you have a bad day it goes into their hands.”

On India’s disastrous Australia tour, where the team was routed 0-3 in the Test series and lost all but one of the eight ODIs in the Tri-series, he said, “…I thought there were a few guys who were weak in their mind.”

Ganguly said in Australia some players were rattled oncoming across the hard and quick wickets. “Seventy per cent of cricket at this level is played in the mind. You have the ability, that’s the reason you are here (in the team), but you have to be mentally strong enough to do consistently (well),” he said.

Echoing his predecessor Tendulkar’s view, Ganguly called for preparing hard and bouncy pitches for domestic competition to help India improve their overseas record.

“The board should send a strict note to all associations. We have to prepare green, hard wickets. We can’t straightaway do that at international level. We have to look at the under-19 level onwards,” he added.