Reports suggest Ganguly may miss last three games for Pune, Dada says he is leading the side for full season

A captain’s form alone can’t be held responsible for a team’s continuous defeat, said Sourav Ganguly, reacting to the criticism to his failure with the bat in IPL-5.  “There is no doubt that the captain has to lead from the front, but it (cricket) is a team sport. Just like any other player, a captain has to perform but he is also a human being and is likely to fail… Sometimes the team could be winning when the captain is not in form. When India won the World Cup, Dhoni was not in form until the final,” Ganguly said, according to a report in The Times Of India.

With Daniel Vettori of Bangalore and Kumar Sangakkara of Hyderabad adopting out from the playing eleven in a match or two, there has been talk in the Pune camp that the former India captain should adopt a similar approach, especially since the team is out of the race for a playoff berth.  Reacting to this argument, Ganguly said: “Itdepends.In boththesecases the captains were overseas players. Vettori made way for Muralitharan, which was not a bad choice,” he said. 

So, there is no truth in reports that he will opt out of the remaining three games? “Absolutely. I am the captain for the full season and will continue to be the captain.”

Meanwhile, according to a report in The Indian Express team sources said the management wants the former India captain to take a call on his future in the remaining three matches. "If Ganguly himself offers to step down from captaincy and decides to sit out for the remaining three games, the owners will certainly be only too happy to accomodate. The general feeling is that, they have lost with Ganguly at helm and with new players, it can't get worse," a senior IPL official in the know of things said.

In case Ganguly doesn't play, there is a possibility that Aussie Michael Clarke or find-of-the-season Steve Smith will lead the side.

A DNA report too says that Ganguly is likely to miss the remaining three games. Speaking to a leading news channel, Pune team owner Subrata Roy Sahara said, “Sourav wants to give youngsters a chance in the last games.” He also clarified that Ganguly was just interested in being the mentor of Warriors, but he pushed him to play and lead the side.

After a decent start in the tournament, Ganguly went through a torrid time both as batsman and skipper. Roy, however, came to his defence and said it was not Ganguly’s captaincy that did his side in but dearth of good Indian talent. “Ganguly is a fine captain, our team lacked good Indian talent.”