Anuradha SenGupta:* You have risen almost like phoenix from the ashes. Describe exactly how you are feeling today.*
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Sourav Ganguly:** I don’t think it was such a big thing.
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Anuradha SenGupta:*** It was dramatic.*
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Sourav Ganguly:** Yes, but it was because of all the issues that were going around. But it is great; it is great to be back. More importantly I am doing things that I want to do. Where success gives me the most satisfaction.
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Anuradha SenGupta:*** I am going to quote something that Mohammad Ali, the greatest of all time, said and I quote “The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses, behind the lines and the gyms out there on the roads long before I dance under those lights.” Between the time you were dropped after the Pakistan match and when you came back in South Africa in that time of almost eight months how do you relate to what Mohammad Ali said. *
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Sourav Ganguly:** It is very true. It is true what ever he said. He has been probably the greatest champion and what rightly it is what you do before a championship, it is about what you think months before a championship that’s what decides the championship. It is what you feel and not what others feel about you is important. If you start getting influenced by discussion and talks around you life can get difficult.
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Anuradha SenGupta:*** You had to play domestic cricket and you had to let your performance talk. But how do you tackle being out of form? There is a lesson here for anybody be it the cricketer, the media person or anybody who is confronting a trough.*
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Sourav Ganguly:** Trough will happen in life when you play for 11-12 years for the country. You will go through a stage where you will struggle. It has happened with everyone in the past and it will happen in the future.
Once I was dropped the only way back was through domestic cricket, which is not easy at times when you have played international cricket for 11 years and captained the team for six years. That’s the way it was. I have seen the best in 11 years; spoke to myself if I have seen that let me go through this. God has been very kind.
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Anuradha SenGupta:*** Who mended you through that time? *
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Sourav Ganguly:** Nobody
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Anuradha SenGupta:*** Nobody? *
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Sourav Ganguly:** Nobody. I just played my cricket on my own. I was very lucky to be a part of a very good Bengal team. We were winning games and we were beating teams around the country. There was a great dressing room. I was lucky to play at Eden Gardens. The atmosphere there whether you play a Ranji Trophy or an international game is superb. The ground there makes it superb. To walk in to the Eden gardens every morning is just great. It is just that. I had set a time frame for myself, given my self a certain timespan, certain number of months to see if I can make a comeback. If it happens, it happens, if it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen.
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Anuradha SenGupta:*** I want you to deconstruct this a bit. What did you do? Did you start on a fitness regime? What did you do? *
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Sourav Ganguly:** I used to train before also. It’s not that I have just started on a fitness regime. I have trained before also. Obviously when I went away from the team, I had a lot more time to myself staying at Kolkata for a long time which I hadn’t done for 11 years of my life. I had been on the road. I hadn’t missed a series in the last 11 years. Every series India played since I made my debut, I was apart of the team. It was long travel which included hotels, airports. It is never easy.
Read the full interview here
