Ganguly denies controversial comments in Bengali daily

Sourav Ganguly has denied comments attributed to him in a Bengali daily. While several Bengali papers have carried interviews with Ganguly, some controversial comments attributed to him in the Kolkata daily Aajkal deal with his omission from the Indian team and the inclusion of several team-mates.

"The reports of an interview from a Bengali daily published in other newspapers are false," Ganguly's statement, read out in the press box by an Indian team official, said. "I have not given such an interview to anyone. I request you to clarify with me before publishing views from other sources."

"I have played badly in only one series (in Sri Lanka)," the Aajkal interview said. "Yet every Tom, Dick and Harry is playing in the team. There are players who haven't scored in the last three series for India, even for the last one year. There are some who have changed their hairstyle more than they have scored for India."

He was reported to have said that being dropped for the Irani Cup prompted him to call it a day, and that he was tired of constantly being made the scapegoat in India's failures. "If there is a gun to your head all the time, how long can you bear this? After all, I have played 400 matches for India," the interview quoted him as saying.

The "interview" has evoked some sharp criticism. Dilip Vengsarkar, the former chairman of the selection committee, which dropped Ganguly for the recent Irani Cup, said Ganguly would get "more than what he asked for", after the series is over. Sunil Gavaskar said Ganguly should not have made these comments ahead of a crucial Test series.