Ganguly: Would Have Played T20s Longer, But IPL Planned To Move Out

Sourav Ganguly

Sourav Chandidas Ganguly, affectionately known as Dada, is an Indian cricket administrator, commentator and former national cricket team captain who is the 39th and current president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

Enjoyed IPL: Ganguly

Sourav Ganguly made the nation proud with his contribution in the Tests and ODIs. Known as the God of offside, Ganguly played an aggressive brand of cricket and imbibed the same in the national team. However, he admitted that, he could have changed his playing style to feature in the shortest format for a bit longer.

Ganguly played as an icon player for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) between 2008 to 2010. He later represented the Pune Warriors India between 2011 to 2012. The former KKR and India captain said that he liked playing the shortest format of the game and would have liked to play a bit longer.

Ganguly played 59 matches in the IPL. Though he was not consistent, he brought in a lot of experience to the IPL franchises. The southpaw scored 1349 runs in the tournament at an average of 25 with seven half-centuries to his name.

He figures COVID-19 be there at least till end of 2020

The BCCI president on Monday quantified the country will have to bear with the COVID-19 pandemic at least till the end of this year or the beginning of 2021, effectively ruling out India’s chances of organizing the sought-after IPL at home.

Responding to a question on how he looks at the COVID situation in India during a chat with opener Mayank Agarwal, Ganguly said, “I think the next two-three-four months will be a little tough. We will just have to bear it, and by the end of the year or beginning of next year, life should be back to normal”.

The BCCI has already closed in on the end of September -early November window for the IPL.

The board’s first choice is staging the tournament at home but that is looking increasingly unlikely with India having the largest caseload of coronavirus behind Brazil and USA.

New Zealand on Monday became the latest country after UAE and Sri Lanka to present an offer to host the IPL in case the billion-dollar league can’t be held in India due to rising cases of coronavirus.

Speaking on the show “Dada open with Mayank”, the former Indian team captain added, “I will wait for the vaccine to come out. Till then, yes we will have to be a little more careful, we know what’s happening and we don’t want to fall sick. Saliva is an issue. Maybe once the vaccine comes out, just like any other illness, everything will be fine”.

The pandemic may have changed the world forever but the cricketer in Ganguly compared the fast-evolving situations with batting tactics that help a batsman to play according to the pitches.

“It’s like a batting tactic, it’s not same on all pitches, you play differently on slower pitches, you play differently when it turns and you play differently when it is flat. So COVID is at that stage, the stage of recovery”, he said.

“Hopefully, by the end of this year we all should be fine”, Ganguly told Mayank Agarwal on the show hosted by him.

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