Sourav Ganguly : I retired because at some point you've had enough

11/25/2017

Sourav Ganguly, who announced his retirement from Test cricket in 2008, has revealed that he took the decision because he had had 'enough of getting selected all the time'. The former Indian skipper also added that the Greg Chappell incident was an eye-opener for him and made him a better person.

Ganguly made his international debut back in 1992 when he played against arch-rivals Pakistan on home soil. In the 16-year career that followed, he played 113 Tests and 311 ODIs donning Indian colors. During his captaincy, he created a unit from a bunch of talented players, who later helped the team reach the World Cup final in 2003. But his cricketing career was not as much smooth as his cricketing stats as he faced many up and downs during the latter part of his career.

"I retired because at some point you've had enough. The reason is not that you have had enough of playing the sport but because you've had enough of getting selected all the time. Dropped/selected that's part and parcel of sport," Ganguly said while speaking at the India Today Conclave East 2017.

Ganguly, who is considered as one of the most successful Test captains India has ever produced, was sacked from the leadership role in October 2005. He played his last Test against Australia, in Nagpur under MS Dhoni’s captaincy in 2008. India played 49 Test under his guidance in which the they won 21 matches. Ganguly faced a struggling phase during Chappell's tenure as the Indian coach and was excluded from both the Test and ODI squads. However, later his domestic performance helped him reclaim his spot in the national team's playing XI. In retrospect, Ganguly believes that the Chappell incident helped him in becoming a better individual.

"The Greg Chappell incident was an eye-opener for me. It made me a better person. Before that, from 1995-2006, the graph was only up. I never missed a series, I was captain of India for six years. The world was at my feet until 2006.

"Not many captains in the world would go from not being captain to not even being in the side," Ganguly said.

After being sacked from the side, Ganguly got a chance to play in December that year against South Africa in Johannesburg - a match in which he scored an unbeaten 51. This was followed by three centuries and a double hundred (239) against Pakistan in Bengaluru before he bid the game last goodbye in November 2008.

"All top sportspersons in the world you look at, Diego Maradona could have played more when he retired; Rahul Dravid retired in 2011, that year he got three or four hundred. In sport you have to make way for someone else," Ganguly stated.

The bonding which is seen on the ground between Dhoni and Virat Kohli has now become a major talking point. However, the current CAB President recalled an incident when Imran Khan that inspired him and helped him up the ante in the last stage of his career.

"You look at Dhoni. He is not the captain of the team but looks at the way Virat Kohli looks after him and they go about their job.

"During that period, Imran (Khan) told me in Lahore that when you fly high and you see dark clouds you find a way to fly higher. I did not know the reason, I was not being picked. I was scoring heavily. Then when I made a comeback and retired in 2009, Sachin came up to me and said this is the best I have seen you bat in your career. I worked my hardest during that period," Ganguly said.

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Sourav Ganguly : I retired because at some point you've had enough

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