Was dropped from ODI side despite scoring heavily, says Ganguly

Kolkata, July 17 (IANS) BCCI President and former India captain Sourav Ganguly still finds it hard to digest that he was dropped from the national ODI side in 2007 despite being one of the highest scorers of that calendar year.

The decorated former captain who led India to the 2003 World Cup final among many other accolades was unceremoniously axed from the Indian team after being stripped off captaincy during the Greg Chappell era in 2005. The left-hander made a laudable comeback in the South Africa series in 2006 and then went on to score a lot of runs.

Ganguly was however dropped from the ODIs along with Rahul Dravid for the Australia tour in 2007-08. A year later, Ganguly called it a day from international cricket.

"It was kind of unbelievable. I was dropped from the ODI side despite being one of the highest scorers of that calendar year. No matter how good your performance is if the stage is taken away from you then what will you prove? And to whom? The same thing happened to me," Ganguly said in an interview with Bengali daily 'Sangbad Pratidin'.

"If I was given two more series in ODIs, I would've scored more runs. If I hadn't retired in Nagpur (November 2008), I would've scored runs in the next two Test series too," said the 48-year old.

Ganguly added that he can still score runs for India if given a little bit of practice.

"In fact, even now give me six months to train, let me play three Ranji games, I'll score runs for India in Test cricket. I don't even need six months, give me three, I will score runs," said Ganguly who has played 113 Tests and 311 ODIs for India.

"You might not give me an opportunity to play but how will you break the belief inside me?" asked the former India captain.

Ganguly continued to ply his trade in domestic cricket and in the IPL till 2012.