Sourav should not beg for a place: Kapil

KOLKATA: Former captain Kapil Dev said that Sourav Ganguly should strive to return to the national squad not by ‘begging’ but by making runs. “I like Sourav for his arrogance ... But I wouldn’t like his begging for a place in the team ... He should stand up and come back by scoring more and more runs. That is the Sourav I know,” Kapil told newspersons here.

“There is no politics involved (in Ganguly being kept out of the team). Here, his character is important. He should be solid in his mind and has to bounce back and prove his detractors wrong.”

Kapil referred to Mohinder Amarnath, who was dropped on a number of occasions, but made comebacks every time. Saying that he understood the sentiments of Ganguly’s fans in Kolkata, who are dismayed by the local player missing out on a place in the Indian team, Kapil said, “He has served the country well. And we all miss him. But don’t you miss me, or Sunil Gavaskar?”

When a scribe reminded him that Ganguly had scored a hundred in Zimbabwe where India won the Test series under him, Kapil said, “That’s yesterday. Let us look for what is best for the country today.”

Asked whether Dravid should be made captain in Tests also, Kapil said, “My opinion is that if a player is in the team in both versions of the game, and if he is the captain in one, then he should continue in the same post in the other form also.”