Champs don't finish quickly, Ganguly on Dhoni

Mumbai : Questions around former India skipper M.S. Dhoni refuses to die down and while nobody is sure if he will don the gloves again for the national team, newly elected BCCI President Sourav Ganguly has made it clear that Dhoni will be respected and what he thinks will matter.

"I don''t know what''s in his mind. India is very proud to have M.S. Dhoni. Till I am around everybody will be respected. Dhoni''s achievements make India proud," Ganguly said about his former teammate.

In fact, Ganguly also said that he is yet to speak to the former India skipper on the matter and will do so. "I am yet to talk to him. I will have a word soon with one of the greats of the Indian game.

Ganguly also brought out his own example and how he made a comeback to the team when everyone thought he was finished.

"I have always said when I was left out and the entire world said ''I will never make it.'' I came back and played for 4 years.

Champions don''t finish very quickly," he explained.

Once a leader, always a leader

From the dressing room to the board room, former India captain Sourav Ganguly's effortless transition into the highest echelons of cricket administration is a throwback to the days of his artistic offside play.

Like he would bisect a packed seven-man offside field in his heydays, leaving fans and teammates in awe and opponents clueless, Ganguly played his cards well off the field to emerge as the unanimous candidate for one of the top jobs in world cricket: BCCI presidency.

Also, the 47-year-old's ascendancy as the president of the world's richest cricket board reaffirmed the saying 'once a leader, always a leader', for leadership comes naturally to the man who was made captain of the national team when Indian cricket was going through its darkest hour in the wake of the 2000 match-fixing scandal.

Not one to shirk responsibility, Ganguly took on the challenges head on and moulded a bunch of talented, but direction-less, youngsters into world beaters while at the same time striking a fine working relationship with the heavyweights of that era.

Be it forming one of the most destructive opening partnership in one-day internationals with the iconic Sachin Tendulkar or backing greenhorns like Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag, Ganguly was always sure of himself and at ease.

However, to successfully complete his transition from a big player to a top administrator, Ganguly will need to combat a variety of challenges facing Indian cricket at the moment. He did that as a player, he will very much fancy himself to do the same as an administrator.

Ganguly, who led India to 21 Test wins and the final of the 2003 World Cup, has already been an administrator for the Cricket Association of Bengal, first as its secretary and then president.

He also knows a thing or two about the BCCI, having served as member of the technical committee and the Cricket Advisory Committee alongside Tendulkar and VVS Laxman.