Hope I don't repeat Greg Chappell mistake while selecting India coach, says Sourav Ganguly

Sourav Ganguly hopes not to “mess up” as he once did while recommending the name of India’s next chief coach. The ex-India captain, who along with former peers Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman forms the BCCI-appointed Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC), interviewed shortlisted candidates in Kolkata on Tuesday. The BCCI, after pouring over the applications, last week trimmed down the number of applicants from 57 to 21. But before that, during a news conference to announce the launch of his first-ever book - A Century Is Not Enough - to be published by Chiki Sarkar’s Juggernaut Books next year, Sourav insisted that he is unlikely to repeat the “mistake” which he once did when as the captain of Indian cricket team, his opinion was sought during the appointment of India coach in 2005 and he had recommended the name of one Greg Chappell. The rest, as they say, went into history books. [caption id=“attachment_2601464” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File photo of Sourav Ganguly. AFP[/caption] “I messed up once while selecting the coach in 2005. I have been given another chance. Hope I don’t mess it up again,” said Sourav, who will draw support from his CAC colleagues and also BCCI secretary Ajay Shirke and president Anurag Thakur while making the choice. On his own interest in taking up the job, an evasive Sourav said his job is to now sit across the table. “I have never had the chance of giving an interview (for the team India coaching job). Hopefully someday but right now I am taking the interview, not giving it.” Never one for political correctness, Sourav’s cricket career has been as successful and colourful as the man himself. A born leader, the former India captain oversaw the golden generation of Indian cricket and injected oodles of steel into the wobbly spine of a team that more often than not failed to look opposition in the eye. As a captain he was tough, intuitive, aggressive and uncompromising. One of India’s best ever batsmen in ODIs, Sourav formed a destructive opening pair with Sachin Tendulkar. In Tests, he formed part of the fabled middle-order the likes of which the world may never see again. But to look at Sourav just as a leader, a batsman or a cog in the wheel would be to miss the woods for trees. The book, to be co-written by journalist Gautam Bhattacharya, promises to offer a bird’s eye view of the career of a remarkable cricketer who rewrote the script for Indian cricket. “It isn’t an autobiography,” the former India captain was quick to add. “My life isn’t over yet. I hope to have a few more years of living and experiencing that I can pack in when I eventually write my memoir. An autobiography right now would be premature.” “I take life as a challenge,” said the former India captain who has 16 centuries in Tests and 22 in ODIs. “I don’t believe that life has ‘ups and downs’. For me, life is one big challenge and how you deal with that challenge makes or breaks you. Ganguly provided a sneak peek into the book which will majorly revolve around his career that was a roller-coaster ride. “The book will talk about the gamut of my experiences as a cricketer,” Ganguly said. “The selection anxieties, the depression over getting dropped. The run of good form which is inevitably followed by a lean patch. I have played the game in its entirety, across all levels — be it for club, state, counties, Tests, ODIs, T20s, IPL. I hope to convey what it meant for me to be a cricketer in around 30000 words,” he added. If the promise is of an inspiring account that walks us through the challenges of a cricketer, the hard times, the battles and shows us what it truly means to be a champion, it will also have some colour and frankness, mirroring the man. “I couldn’t sleep last night,” quipped Sourav during the presser. “My entire family was in deep slumber whereas I kept tossing and turning and staring at the ceiling. Then I fished out my mobile phone and browsed to YouTube and started watching the highlights of my debut Test century at Lord’s. It was a 12-minute clip. “It all came rushing back…The 20-year-old memories of the summer of 1996. How, at the press conference that followed, I had been asked whether it was ‘my answer to critics.’ (No) I was very sure what it was. That debut 131 made me believe that I belong here…I shortly fell off to sleep,” he said. The book should interest even those who are not interested in cricket.