My captaincy days were different says Sourav Ganguly

Sourav Ganguly was undoubtedly one of the greatest captains India has ever produced. His name itself when spelled spread positive vibes. The southpaw led India to many memorable victories and was instrumental in reigniting the hopes of a nation and made an entire team believe in their abilities. Without a doubt, his timings were completely different when compared to a Virat Kohli or an MS Dhoni.

Ganguly had to deal with many different characters in the dressing room quite carefully during a time when India was cited as an average side. Speaking in depth on that aspect alongside VVS Laxman during a media interaction at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit, Ganguly revealed that it was pretty difficult to deal with certain people in the dressing room.

“Sometimes, (VVS) Laxman would refuse to open the batting, I had to ask Anil Kumble to sit out once in a while and I had to answer him ten questions,” he said.

Ganguly felt Ashish Nehra was the player who was extremely hard to deal with. “Handling Ashish Nehra was the toughest of all the challenges. He is a dear friend of mine. Every time I would drop him out thinking about his ankle, I know my doorbell would ring at 11 pm and I had to give him an explanation why he was sitting out.”

“I always tried to explain to him that we have a long tour and I’m worried about his fitness, but still, I had to answer many questions” he added.

The southpaw also stated that it was very difficult to captain a side with so many stalwarts in the side. ” Lot of people think captaincy is an easy job, but when you got such greats in your side, you have to answer a lot of questions which makes life incredibly challenging,” the elegant left-hander concluded.