Sharjah:Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) President and former India captain Sourav Ganguly has picked New Zealand as his favourite against Australia ahead of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup final to be played at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday.
Ganguly also hailed the spirit of the present Men in Blue, despite their debacle in the tournament, gave a thumbs up to franchise cricket, and talked about a host of other issues, from Rahul Dravid's appointment as the national coach to bilateral cricket between India and Pakistan.
He was speaking at a book-signing ceremony on the concluding day of the 40th Sharjah International Book Fair on Saturday.
"I feel it is New Zealand's time in world sport. Australia are a great nation, but they have had a tough time for a while, though they have been a great cricketing country. New Zealand has a lot more guts and character than we see on TV. They won the World Test Championship a few months ago. It's a small country but it's got a lot of steel. I have the feeling that it is indeed New Zealand's time," he said.
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Talking about the fortunes of Virat Kohli's team, Ganguly said: "India has had a great run. They beat Australia in Australia, and were ahead in England until the Test series was disrupted due to Covid-19. So they have done some wonderful things and you can expect more in the weeks and months to come."
He said this while brushing aside the recent controversy surrounding Mohammed Shami, who was targeted on social media after India's 10-wicket loss to Pakistan in their opening match in Dubai last month.
"Expectations were undoubtedly very high, but I was happy to see that a majority of the people had the heart to accept the result. They were upset, but they did not overreact. At the end of the day, (Jaspreet) Bumrah, (Mohammed) Shami, Rohit (Sharma) and (Virat) Kohli are all human beings," Ganguly said, lending his unequivocal support to the Men in Blue.
"It was just a matter of two bad games," he said, adding, "That's 40 overs of bad cricket. They will bounce back and within a year or so we will see the same boys lifting trophies."
On whether he had any influence on Rahul Dravid's recent selection as India's head coach, Ganguly jokingly said that he was just responding to an urgent plea by Dravid's son.
"I got a call from him saying his father was being too strict with him and that he needed to be taken away. That's when I called Rahul (Dravid) and told him that it was time for him to join the national team," Ganguly said.
"We grew up together, started around the same time, and spent most of the time playing together. So it was easy for some of us to make him feel welcome and wanted," Ganguly added on a more serious note, explaining how Dravid became the Indian team's coach.