We don't play marbles with each other but we are buddies, says Ravi Shastri on equation with Sourav Ganguly
Former India coach Ravi Shastri has said that BCCI president and former India captain Sourav Ganguly is his "buddy" and both share a mutual respect for each other. Shastri added that his performance as India head coach is there to see for for everyone and that he don't have to prove it to anyone.
The Ganguly-Shastri relationship became a topic of discussion after the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) comprising Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman preferred Anil Kumble over him in 2016.
Earlier, in a conversation with Times Network, Shastri had opened up on reportedly not allowing Ganguly to board the bus as he was late.
"If someone comes late for the bus, the bus will go, doesn't matter who he is – it just happened to be Sourav that day," he had said.
The incident reportedly took place in 2007 when Ganguly was still an active cricketer and Shastri was the manager of the team.
When Ganguly was asked about the incident, he simply denied it saying it never happened. He even suggested that one should not interview the 59-year-old in the morning.
"You don't interview him in the morning, don't bring him on the breakfast show he wouldn't remember what he said. When I meet him, I will ask what did you say on the breakfast show, that never happened I don't know where he got that from," Ganguly had said on Breakfast With Champions.
"But don't interview him in the morning, do it in the evening he will be able to recall things better."
Quashing all the rumours of his rift with Ganguly, Shastri on Friday said that the current BCCI president is his buddy.
"We are buddies. Not that we play marbles with each other everyday but there is enough mutual respect," Shastri told India Today's Rajdeep Sardesai.
The former India all-rounder added that the differences he had with Ganguly is all in the past now.
"All that in the past. When you have a winning record of over 70 percent in all formats, I don't have to answer anyone. The records are out there and that is what matters.
"I can say whatever I did but if the scoresheet shows that is not true, you can't argue. You just have to shut up, put your tail between the legs and get lost. But in this case the facts are out there."
Shastri's tenure as India head coach came to an end on November 8 - when the Men in Blue defeated Namibia by 9 wickets in their last match of the T20 World cup 2021.
Under Shastri’s tenure, the Virat Kohli-led side won two back-to-back Test series in Australia in 2018-19 and 2020-21. They also won their first ever ODI and T20I series in South Africa, won an ODI series in New Zealand in 2019 after a gap of 10 years, won their first bilateral ODI series in Australia and also won their first T20I series in England.
In the ICC tournaments, India reached the semi-finals in the 2019 ODI World Cup in England, reached the final of the World Test Championship in 2021 but bounced back to lead the incomplete, five-match Test series against England by 2-1 and failed to make it to the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup this year.
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