The Hindu : Ganguly exudes confidence

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 31, 2002

Sport

Sport - Cricket

Ganguly exudes confidence

Kolkata March 30. Indian cricket captain Saurav Ganguly on Saturday expressed confidence of winning both the Test and one-day series in West Indies saying he was leading ``a perfectly balanced side ready to face any attack.''

``It is a huge opportunity before us to win both the series' since the mighty West Indies is passing through a transitional period,'' Ganguly said here on the eve of the team's departure for a two month-long Carribean tour. Speaking to newsmen here after launching the latest Pepsi product called ``Pepsi A-ha'', he agreed that though the present West Indian team was not as formidable as it was during the 1980s and 1990s, ``They could not be termed as a weak team by any yardstick with players like Brian Lara and Carl Hooper going great guns.''

On the team's prospect on seemingly fast West Indian tracks in every venue, Ganguly said though it was unfair to comment without having inspected the pitch, the Indian team was prepared to take on any attack.

``Usually the pitches at Barbados, Jamaica and Antigua are known as fast tracks. But we expect a lot of grass cover on all West Indian wickets to help both the seamers and the spinners,'' Ganguly said adding that he was looking forward to an exciting tour.

On whether he was finding it difficult to find a suitable opening partner for Sachin Tendulkar, the Indian captain said with Shiv Sunder Das, Wasim Jaffer and Deep Dasgupta hopefully remaining in fine form, there should not be any problem. ``Each team member has a perfect understanding with one another,'' he added.

Describing the long tours of West Indies and England followed by a back-to-back one of New Zealand as ``very tough and tiring'' for the team members, Ganguly said it was more so for the cricketers' families. ``As such, it was very difficult to cope with,'' he said.

To a query on recent comparisons between the cricketing excellence of Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara, who was in a devastating form in the just concluded Sri Lanka series, the Indian captain said that on the contrary he was looking for tough competition between the Indian and the West Indian teams and ``not between individuals''.

On his batting form, Ganguly said in view of the mighty West Indian batting line up, it was very important for him to score consistently in both the Test matches and in the one-dayers. ``But I am not unnecessarily concerned about my form,'' he said.

About the possibility of Virendra Sehwag's inclusion in the team if he recovered totally, Ganguly said though there was no such talk during the present team's selection, he did not rule out the possibility if the situation arose. Earlier, launching the Pepsi product here, Ganguly hailed his team's hard work in improving the fielding. ``When a man like Jhonty Rhodes can do it with sheer hard work, why we can't do it,'' he said adding that although the Indian team had presently improved its fielding, a lot more was yet to be done in every department of the game. — UNI

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