We Will Win: Sourav Ganguly on India's campaign in major ICC tournaments

13 Jul, 2020

Editor

BCCI President Sourav Ganguly talks about the issues India cricket is facing during the COVID-19 pandemic

13 Jul, 2020 By Editor

After the historic 2011 World Cup win, India has been one of the dominant forces in world cricket. There has been one major concern for India in these major events, as they have not been able to cross the line and go one step further to claim glory.

Let us take a look at India's performance at ICC events post 2011 World Cup

2012 ICC T20 World Cup: Super Eight Stage
2013 ICC Champions Trophy: Winners
2014 ICC T20 World Cup: Runners-up
2015 ICC World Cup: Semi-finalists
2016 ICC T20 World Cup: Semi-finalists
2017 ICC Champions Trophy: Runners-up
2019 ICC World Cup: Semi-finalists

During an interview on India Today, Sourav Ganguly talked about India's run in the knockout stages of ICC events.

"We will (win). In England (last year's 50-over World Cup), we played well, we lost the important game (the semi-final to New Zealand). The World Cups are like that. We played exceptionally well in 2003 and lost the final. That’s what the World Cup is. We will have a chance every time. We have tremendous players in this team who can take away World Cups. Then the World Cups are also about winning semi-finals and finals," Ganguly told India Today.

The 48-year-old says he's constantly in touch with the skipper Virat Kohli and NCA chief Rahul Dravid. "Yeah, I am in touch with them. I have spoken to the captain a couple of times. I am in touch with the NCA head. Players are also very worried because the numbers are so high. The captain (Kohli) comes from Mumbai where it’s an absolute nightmare at the moment. So it’s quite natural that he will be a little worried. All of us are."

"You don’t want to come out on a cricket field, at the end of the day it’s a sport and you get infected. So as I said, we are looking into it and we are in touch with the players. I am in touch, Jay (Shah, board secretary) is in touch. The cricket operations people are in touch," he added.

Dada also said that the only option for the board is to keep reshuffling and plan for contingencies. "We keep preparing FTPs and keep reshuffling them with time and keep looking at every option. As I said, until we don’t decide which is the day (for return), we have to keep shuffling. It’s applicable for everything. Domestic cricket is still fine. Even if you delay it by 2 months, it doesn’t make that sort of a difference but if you’re delaying international cricket, the FTPs and the IPL, every cycle goes for a toss."

The BCCI President concluded by stating, "The World Test Championship goes for a toss, the ODI championship goes for a toss, so everything changes. FTP scheduled programmes are cancelled, a lot less for India because for India, the IPL was cancelled. So from that point of view, as I said, we have to keep assessing."