London: Former India captain Sourav Ganguly backs under-fire skipper MS Dhoni and says the team and country should put behind the humiliation of the T20 World Championship and move on.

 

Ganguly, who is in London and will turn a new page when he sits behind the camera for ESPN, spoke to CNN-IBN's associate cricket editor Nishant arora. While he backed Team India, he also said that fatigue can never be an excuse for the young lads in the team.

 

Sourav Ganguly: Just like any other Indian supporter, you feel bad that the team didn't do well enough. These kinds of things happen in sports. This team has done very well in the last one, one and a half years. This tournament has been a bit of a poor show, but it happens in sport. I understand that. And it's T20 and we should not swayed too much up or down with it because the real test of a cricketer is Test matches and the 50-over game. India has done well in Test matches and they will always judge this team on how they have done in Test matches, not in T20.

 

Nishant Arora: You were there in Nottingham, you saw them play against South Africa. Could you make sense of what was missing in the side?

 

Sourav Ganguly: Obviously Sehwag makes a major difference to the team. Rohit was opening for the first time in his career and obviously it did not go well for him in the three important games. Sehwag, Sachin and Gambhir have been the key part of the Indian team in the shorter format of the game. Those two big players were missing so there was a weakness at that part.

 

Nishant Arora: Gary Kirsten has said that one of the reasons could be the fatigue that the players have carried from the IPL.

 

Sourav Ganguly: No, I don't agree with this. They are young boys, they are just 22-23 years old and have just started their careers. I know they have played a lot of cricket, but not all of them have played a lot of cricket. Probably, Dhoni and Yuvraj or Zaheer and Harbhajan - who were part of the consistent Test teams as well - have done a lot of travelling on the road. But as I said this is the age to play, they are 25-26. Even if you are fatigued or tired, you have to find ways out to get yourself up and going.

 

Nishant Arora: Just before the start of the tournament, the Indian team was making news for all the wrong reasons, like news about how Dhoni and Sehwag were not getting along. The other issue was about how Dhoni handled the media.

 

Sourav Ganguly: I don't want to talk much about this. What Dhoni did with the media is completely his personal thing. They are young boys, young blood, so they will learn in due course. But all I feel is that they should concentrate on their game. The media is going to do their job and their (cricketers) job is to score runs and take wickets. And to be honest they have done well before this tournament, so there is no reason to get worked up. These issues have cropped up in the past, they are cropping up now and they will crop up in the future. Even when Dhoni finishes there will be two personalities where things will be written about it. Sometimes it's true, sometimes it's not true, sometimes it's blown out of proportion. But you just have to put this behind.

 

Nishant Arora: Lot of people relate Dhoni's captaincy with your captaincy. You were aggressive, he is aggressive. You always took the team together, he also comes across as someone who can keep the boys together. This is the first time that his captaincy has come under the scanner. Do you think there were some grave strategical mistakes this time around - sending Jadeja up in the order or playing Ishant Sharma. What could you make of his captaincy in this particular tournament?

 

Sourav Ganguly: See, every time you lose, captaincy will come under the scanner, especially when you lose in a World Cup. Issues will be there, but Dhoni has done wonderfully well as a captain. He is a young captain. He has just captained India as a full-time captain for six months in all formats of the game, so we need to support him. And every captain will make wrong decisions. But the only complain I have about Dhoni is that he bats too lower down the order. And I've told him that before even when he was not a captain, when he was playing one-day cricket. He needs time to settle down, he's such a dangerous player in the shorter format of the game that he can win you games. Just like anyone else he needs some time in the middle before he starts exploding.

 

Nishant Arora: Could you relate to their defeats this time because KKR had a similar kind of a ride in the IPL. And is it true that when you hit a slide in a game like Twenty20, you jus don't know how to get up and start walking again.

 

Sourav Ganguly: No, I don't think so. I don't think that's the case. Twenty20 or 50-50 gives you the opportunity to come the next game or the day after. It's a new game every day and anybody can win. KKR, we were very disappointed with the way we played. We lost lot of close games. But I am sure with this Indian team they are going to get things together. The tour to West Indies will not be easy because West Indies in West Indies is a different team altogether. They are in the semifinals of the Twenty20 World Cup and they have the chance to get to the finals, so they will be a dangerous one-day side when they get to the West Indies. But I am sure the Indian team is good enough.

 

Nishant Arora: A lot of people are also talking about the level you play in the IPL and in the international level. Do you think there is a difference, because before coming here people were saying that if you play the IPL, it's a great thing because it gives you the edge in the format and you know how to go about in this tournament. Do you think that is the case or you become complacent?

 

Sourav Ganguly: IPL standard is very good, but international standard is even better because you get 11 quality international players. And at the end of the day it's about playing for the country. Let's not confuse IPL with T20. IPL is a wonderful thing for Indian cricket, and for world cricket and it just happens for two months in a year. So let's not take everything to IPL. It's a different tournament where these boys have not done well. Hopefully these young boys will get themselves sorted mentally, more importantly. And they will be back doing well again.

 

Nishant Arora: And you are starting a new innings new, Sourav Ganguly the commentator.

 

Sourav Ganguly: It's not a full time thing yet, just a couple of games - the semis and the finals. Let's see how it goes.

 

Nishant Arora: And how different you could be there because when you were captain, you used to listen to the pundits talking about the game and now you will be doing the same job. You've played with some of these cricketers, so how do you see this going.

 

Sourav Ganguly: Well, it'll be new. But being a cricketer, I'll hopefully be at the side of the cricketer all the time.

 

Nishant Arora: And who's your favourite commentator?

 

Sourav Ganguly: There are quite a few of them actually, Richie Benaud - he's been fantastic over the years. He's probably been the face of commentating in cricket. Bill Lawry has been outstanding. Mr Gavaskar is there from India. Few around from world cricket - David Lloyd from England, Ian Botham and Ian Chappell. They are big names in commentating.