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| Ricky Ponting and Anil Kumble with the Border-Gavaskar Trophy on Wednesday |
Bangalore: Anil Kumble said on Wednesday that Sourav Ganguly’s decision to retire would not be a distraction for the side in the forthcoming series. “The focus would be to do the job for the team,” the India captain told at a press conference.
The following are excerpts
If he too, like Sourav, was contemplating retirement
It certainly would be my last Test match in Bangalore because I don’t know when the next match is. I don’t want to look that far ahead. As I have always said I take one series at a time, so this would be my last Test match here.
Whether Sourav’s decision would be a distraction for the side
I don’t think it is a distraction. It is his personal choice. He has had a fantastic career and I hope that this series would be good for him… Not just for him, but Team India as well. That would be the focus because for us the team comes first, and then the individuals. Our focus would be to go out there and do the job for the team.
The preparations leading up to the first Test
The preparations have been very good. We are really satisfied with the way we have gone about it in the last three weeks we have been together. We came together just before the Irani Trophy match and have been training hard to prepare ourselves for this important series. As far as the preparation is concerned, I think we have done everything that we could. The pitch seems to be a good surface, and so hopefully we can play good cricket and get the right result. It is my home match so it would be good to start with a win.
If this could be his last series
I will let you know when my last series is… I am someone who will take a call on that. I am not someone who would like to announce it beforehand… I would like to take things as they come. I don’t like to say yes or no, I will announce when the time is there. Let’s stop talking about this for now. Let the players decide when they need to go.
Sehwag’s comments that the Australians cheated during the last series
I haven’t read what Sehwag said. That is all past. We can’t really sit and dwell on the past. I think this series will be played in the right way and we will certainly play the cricket that is expected of us. We will go out there and ensure that we play really good hard cricket to get the right result for us.
If the fallout of the Sydney Test will linger
I am sure that is something that happened on that particular day. That is past and I am sure we have all learnt what happened in that Test… not only India and Australia, but the whole cricketing world as well. Everybody saw what happened and we learn from our experiences. So it is a learning process. Both teams have played good cricket in the past and we will certainly hope to play excellent cricket in the series and I am hopeful that the cricket will be remembered.
The Australians’ spin attack
I think we would like to focus on our preparations. We have been doing really well. As for Australia’s spinners, that is something they have been trying to figure out since the retirement of Shane Warne and Stuart MacGill. They have a couple of good young spinners. We don’t want to take anyone lightly. We would like to go out there and do the job whether it is Cameron White playing or Jason (Krezja) playing. We will take it as we see it and try and get maximum runs. We would like to keep it simple and try and make sure we get the right results.
Any close catching pact
Nothing was discussed.
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