2001 victory was 'turning point'

Dubai: The 2001 home series win against Steve Waugh's Australia is the turning point of Indian cricket, according to Sourav Ganguly, the country's most successful Test captain who is now being credited with starting the resurgence in the team's fortunes.

Ever since Mahendra Singh Dhoni and company climbed to the top spot in Test rankings last Sunday, former greats had been lavish in their praise of the former captain, saying that he had instilled the winning habit in the team.

When contacted by Gulf News over phone, Ganguly was, however, reticent in talking about his own contribution in the rebuilding process.

"It feels good if my contribution has been recognised, but what is there for me to say? Of course, I am happy that the team has achieved the top spot but the credit for it goes to the entire team," said Ganguly, who had retired from international cricket little more than an year back.

Change in mindset

When prodded as to how he could bring about a change in the mindset, he said: "Yes, one has to admit that the 2001 series win was indeed the turning point in Indian cricket but then there were many more like our performance in Australia in the 2003-04 series or making the final of World Cup. I am happy to have played my part in some of those memorable victories.

"Actually, we have performed quite consistently in Test matches over the last six years — with the exception of the away series in South Africa. The challenge now is to hold on to the top spot," said the man who staged the most miraculous of comebacks in Indian cricket after falling out of favour for over one and-a-half years between 2005 and 2006.

When reminded that some of the current team members (Virender Sehwag and Harbhajan Singh) had given him the due credit for starting it all, Ganguly said: "All these actually nullifies Greg Chappell's theory that I was not liked by the team members."

Trust

Sehwag, incidentally, said that it was Ganguly who had extended his Test career by showing enough faith in him to be trusted with the opener's role.

It had not been exactly a smooth ride for Ganguly as a captain during his tenure of five and-a-half years, as in between he had to struggle for runs with a bad form. Asked how he managed to cope with the dual pressure, he said: "It's not easy but at some point, you have to learn to isolate the two roles of a captain and batsman. Rahul [Dravid] had a few problems with batting as the captain and I tried to help him with the same suggestion."

Talking about his future plans, Ganguly said he was now busy trying to build the Kolkata Knight Riders team for IPL 3 early next year.

Asked if he has any replacement for Umar Gul in mind (as the Pakistan players will not be available) he said: "We will have to keep the budget in mind when deciding on new targets. Hopefully, we should have a change of fortunes in the coming season."