Amid criticism, Sourav Ganguly gives verdict on captaincy musical chairs
Shikhar Dhawan is all set to become the eighth captain in the last 10 months, joining the likes of KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik and Jasprit Bumrah
Sourav Ganguly’s heydays comprised phases when he had no choice but to take a punt on a few players, but the former skipper isn’t an advocate of musical chairs around India captaincy.
Ganguly, who remains one of the most influential and successful captains of the country, shared his views on the current team witnessing seven captains in seven different series.
Left-handed opener Shikhar Dhawan will lead India in three One-day internationals in West Indies later this month. He is all set to become the eighth captain in the last 10 months, joining the likes of KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik and Jasprit Bumrah.
Ganguly said India having seven captains in as many months “isn’t ideal” but blamed it on the “unavoidable” situation. He further underlined workload management coming into the picture when the team follows a congested schedule.
“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 an 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,” Ganguly told PTI.
“In England, Rohit was playing the warm-up game when he had Covid-19. No one is at fault for these situations. The calendar 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,” he added.
Ganguly also spoke about the BCCI’s blockbuster sale of IPL media rights. The board hit the jackpot last month as it fetched a staggering ₹48,390 crore (USD 6.20 billion) for a five-year period, starting in 2023.
“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,” said the India great.
On challenges he faced during his three-year tenure as BCCI president till date, Ganguly said, “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.”