VVS Laxman didn’t speak to me for three months: Sourav Ganguly

Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly has revealed an anecdote from his playing days that his colleague VVS Laxman didn’t speak with him for three months after he was excluded from Team India’s squad for the ICC ODI World Cup in 2003.

Ganguly, who was the captain of the Indian team at that time, reckoned that the decision to exclude Laxman for the all-rounder Dinesh Mongia didn’t go down well between him and Laxman. He added that it was common for anyone to get hurt when they were left out of the World Cup.

“It has happened many times when we rested players. They were unhappy. Laxman being left out of the World Cup... he never spoke to me for three months. Then I made up with him. Anybody would get upset... especially a player of Laxman's calibre. Quite natural that he would be hurt,” Ganguly told PTI.

Interestingly, Mongia went on to score only 120 runs in the six innings he had played in the World Cup, with the best score being 42. Moreover, he scalped five wickets from six innings with the best figures of 2/24.

This decision had created a major controversy at that point in time, as the former selection committee chief Kiran More disclosed that all five selectors backed Laxman to be a part of the mega event, while Ganguly and then head coach John Wright opposed it.

It’s important to note that despite scoring 2338 runs from 86 ODIs, Laxman never represented Team India in a World Cup fixture. Nevertheless, Laxman, who made a comeback post-WC, had decent returns in Pakistan and Australia.

“He was happy we did well in the World Cup. And when we came back, he returned to the ODI team. He was outstanding in Pakistan and Australia. They all knew it was never personal,” Ganguly added.

Notably, India ended the ICC ODI World Cup 2003 as runners-up after losing to Australia in the final.

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