Ganguly wanted to lead Team India in the ICC World Cup 2007.
Former India captain Sourav Ganguly had a bitter phase at the end of his career. Ganguly, who dreamed of leading Indian cricket to World Cup 2007 win, was dropped from the Indian team in 2005.
Ganguly was axed from both the formats, ODIs, and Tests after Greg Chappell took over as coach.
The 48-year-old said the way he was removed from the team turned out to be a major setback of his career. "That was the biggest setback of my career. It was an absolute injustice. I know you can’t get justice all the time but even then that treatment could have been avoided. I was the captain of the team which had just won in Zimbabwe and I get sacked after returning home?", Ganguly told Bengali newspaper Sangbad Pratidin.
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"I dreamt of winning the 2007 World Cup for India. We had lost in the final the previous time. I had reasons to dream too. The team had played so well under me for the last five years whether it was home or away. Then you suddenly drop me? First, you say I’m not in the ODI side, then you drop me from the Test team too," Ganguly said.
Chappell is often said to be the sole reason why Ganguly couldn't continue as captain. But the current BCCI president doesn't think the Australian should be held responsible.
"I don’t want to blame Greg Chappell alone. There is no doubt about the fact that he was the one who started it," he said. "He suddenly sends an email against me to the board which gets leaked too. Does something like this happen? A cricket team is like a family. There can differences of opinion, misunderstandings in the family but that should be sorted out with dialogue. You are the coach, if you believed that I should play in a certain manner then come and tell me. When I returned as a player he had specified the same things then why not earlier?"
Ganguly explained that an Indian captain cannot be removed only after pressure from the coach. "The others are not innocent either. A foreign coach who doesn’t have any say in the selection cannot drop an Indian captain. I had understood that this is not possible without the support of the entire system. Everyone was involved in the scheme to drop me. But I didn’t crumble under pressure. I didn’t lose confidence in me," he said.