'Sometimes, We Miss Ganguly'

Sourav Ganguly, in his days as Indian captain, nurtured a bunch of buddingcricketers one of whom, Virender Sehwag, voiced his gratitude and said the teammissed him.

"He supported me a lot. He backed Yuvraj (Singh), Harbhajan (Singh),Ashish (Nehra), Ajit Agarkar, Mohammad Kaif," said Sehwag, India'svice-captain who nodded in full agreement when asked if Ganguly had shaped theircareers.

The 27-year-old's thinking is as uncluttered as his batting. His feelings are transparent but he spoke cautiously on the topic of Ganguly, currently avirtual persona non-grata with coach Greg Chappell.

What happened between Ganguly and Chappell he does not know, Sehwag said inan interview, adding simply, "both of them are aggressive".

The former captain's cricketing fate was in the hands of the selectors andthe Board, Sehwag acknowledged but said that "sometimes we miss Ganguly".

Sehwag refused to believe that Ganguly's international career was over."He is still playing first class cricket and hopefully he will get a chanceagain. It will be good if he gets back because he has got 10,000 one-day runs,5,000 Test runs and 22 ODI hundreds. Most of the time India won when he got ahundred. He is a fantastic player," the vice-captain said.

Sehwag also spoke about the leadership of Rahul Dravid, Chappell's abilities as a coach and the Generation Next of the Indian team.

His favourite captain was Australia's Steve Waugh followed by Ganguly, Sehwagsaid emphasising that a skipper's mettle was tested in tough situations.Otherwise, 'everybody is a good captain if the going is good'.

Dravid "is a very good thinker", a good learner who is always cooland "someone who never panics in a pressure situation", according toSehwag who pointed out that India had hardly lost a game chasing since he becamecaptain.

"Hopefully Dravid will be the best captain by the end of his career," he said.

How does Chappell compare to his predecessor, New Zealander John Wright?Wright, Sehwag replied, was a good but not a great player. Chappell was a greatplayer with great knowledge of the game.

The difference between them is in their attitude. "Someone who has beenaggressive in his batting is also aggressive in his coaching," Sehwag said.

"Wright would be tense and unhappy if we did badly whereas Chappell is verycool and calm because he knows all players face pressure situations," he said,adding that the New Zealander, however, had been a very good motivator who knewhow to get 100 per cent from players.

Was Chappell a control freak? "That's not true. As coach he is thehead of the family. He can instruct you, guide you but he is not forcing us todo this and that. I do not think he controls the players too much."

On Generation Next, Sehwag, not surprisingly, singled out Mahendra SinghDhoni as the next superstar. "He is handling pressure very well and intough situations he adjusts his game very quickly."

Dhoni, Yuvraj, Sehwag, Irfan and Harbhajan will be match winners when greatplayers like Sachin Tendulkar, Dravid and Anil Kumble retire.

In fact, India have very good finishers now in Dhoni, Yuvraj, Suresh Rainaand Irfan Pathan. "These four are match winners. They play ball-by-ball. Ifthey play 50 balls, they will get 50 runs... They are very cool and calm,"he said.

Sehwag is high on confidence on the team's ability to win matches. "Ourconfidence is high as we are winning matches. We have won two or three seriescontinuously. We are trying to build a team for the World Cup. Hopefully we willdo well in the West Indies (tour starting this month). This series is importantfor us because of next year's World Cup there," he said.

However, the vice-captain did not agree the Indian team might peak too early ahead of the World Cup.

PTI