Sourav Ganguly heaps praise on Virat Kohli

Remembering Dalmiya as a “friend” of PCB, Shaharyar said: “I have come to Kolkata for the sole goal of paying my last respect to the family of Jagmohan Dalmiya who not only was a personal friend but I believe he was a friend of India and Pakistan cricket boards”.

India’s Virat Kohli shall be defending his ICC Twenty20 worldwide quantity-one batting place in the upcoming India versus South Africa three-match series.

But Ganguly, who himself was credited with bringing an aggressive dimension to Indian captaincy back in the day, said: “I love he attitude and aggression in Kohli”.

“I don’t know how to address him, whether as Jaguda or Mr Dalmiya, so I’m addressing him as “sir” today”, an emotional Ganguly said.

Kohli leads Finch by seven points and to retain the top spot, India’s new Test captain will have to perform strongly in the series. I want Kohli to do better than me as a skipper. But his main challenge will be when India tour overseas.

Likewise, South Africa captain Faf du Plessis will also be targeting an improvement in his batting ranking.

Ganguly also praised team director Ravi Shastri for his role with the team, saying it is not mandatory that a foreign coach should take charge of the team. South Africa have a good team and India has recently played well in Sri Lanka. The 29-yr-previous from Chennai is ranked fourth and has Sri Lanka’s third-ranked Sachithra Senanayake firmly inside his sights. Better not to go into the debate of foreign coach or India coach.

The PCB chairman also said that he would give a reminder about the MOU to BCCI presidential candidate Shashank Manohar, who is likely to be elected at its SGM in Mumbai on October 4. “So we have to think about them too”, he said. “It will be a competitive series”. It is a long series. “I can not move the Government of India but my Prime Minister in New York has stated that the tour should continue despite the bitter relationship”, the PCB chief said. He has done a good job in Sri Lanka. South Africa has bowling quality to take 20 wickets. Two days before the tour was supposed to begin he rang me up and said we have convinced the players but their wives are not agreeing.

“Spinner Imran Tahir is such a bowler who has experience in him and he will come handy in these conditions”.