New Delhi: For someone who has always believed in continuity, Sourav Ganguly says having seven India captains in as many months "isn't ideal". But things panned out that way owing to factors that were beyond anyone's control.
As he rang in his 50th birthday with friends and family in London, the BCCI president, and one of Indian cricket's most fascinating characters, spoke on a range of issues in an exclusive interview with the PTI.
The discussion included current issues like multiple captains, workload management, huge media rights valuation and heading the board. He also took a trip down memory lane, recollecting his time as a player and captain.
Excerpts from interview:
Q: We have had Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah as India captains and now Shikhar Dhawan for ODIs. Continuity has been affected. What's your take on that?
A: I fully agree that it is not ideal to have seven different captains in such a short span of time but it has happened because of unavoidable situation. Like Rohit was all set to lead in South Africa in white ball but before the tour, got injured. So we had KL (Rahul) leading in ODIs and then for this recent SA home series, KL got injured one day before the series would start.
In England, Rohit was playing the warm-up game when he had COVID-19. No one is at fault for these situations. The calender is such that we have had to give players breaks and then there have been injuries and we need to factor in workload management also. You got to feel for head coach Rahul (Dravid) as in every series, due to unavoidable circumstances, we have had new captains.
Q: Do you feel the choc-a-bloc FTP calendar is creating a situation where we are seeing players taking far too many breaks due to workload management issues?
A: Let me tell you something which I have believed all through my international career. The more you play, the better you get and fitter you become. At this level, you need game time and your body becomes stronger as you start playing more and more games.
Yes, the IPL started from 2008 but I would like you to check how much of international cricket we played through our careers. If you compare, the volume of international cricket for Indian team in a calender year hasn't increased significantly. We played a lot of ODI cricket, so if you see, the number of international match days is almost same.
Q: We now have 10 IPL teams and the BCCI is set to earn more than Rs 60,000 crore in coming years through sale of teams and media rights. Do you fear that there could be compromise in quality of players that we will produce in future as numbers would increase?
A: Not at all. On the contrary, I would say that the pool of talent in Indian cricket will only increase with passage of time and IPL has shown us the depth of talent we have in this country. You look at the two Indian teams (white and red ball) and kind of players we have been producing over the years.
Q: Let's talk a bit about your time as BCCI president for nearly three years now. How has the tenure been for you and challenges you think that you faced?
A: When I became president in 2019, it was with the consent of the members associations of BCCI, and it has been a great experience. You get a chance to work for betterment of Indian cricket and a serious opportunity to change things.
Being able to conduct events in two COVID-19 years was challenging, but BCCI as a team pulled off both IPL and domestic cricket (men and women) well.