Indian cricket has a great, great future: Sourav

India skipper Sourav Ganguly has hit back at critics who say he sometimes lets the game drift, saying the team's performance at Headingley and a string of earlier victories is ample proof of a successful captaincy.

Ganguly was reacting to 'Tiger' Pataudi's observation in the August 16 issue of India Abroad, the newspaper owned by rediff, that he (Ganguly) "sometimes lets the game drift away from him."

Flushed with India's success in the Headingley Test, Ganguly hit back, saying, "It is easy to say from the outside that I sometimes let the game drift away from us. Things work sometimes and sometimes they don't work. Everything looks good when it works, when you pick wickets, when you change the bowler. When they come and pick wickets it looks good,.

"At the same time when it doesn't work it looks as though the game is drifting. It is not that easy as it looks from the outside."

In an exclusive interview he said he has not been hurt by previous criticism of his leadership because his record speaks for itself.

"I think Indian cricket has a great, great future," he said. "Our performance over the last one-and-a-half years has shown it has a great, great future. We have won overseas more than any other team has won.

"We won five Tests abroad in the last one-and-a-half years, which is the maximum by any captain. So that shows we have obviously played really well. We have won 11 of our last 23 Test matches overall in this one year.

"It's the highest success rate for any team under any captain. So the team looks to have a good future.

"We did fantastically in the one days. We have not lost a one day series in the whole year.

"We won the one day series in the West Indies, we won the one day series here, obviously we beat Zimbabwe at home. So things are going well.

"Overall we have played well in England. Except for the Lords Test we played extremely well in the series, the one days as well, the Test at Nottingham (Trent Bridge) and the Test at Headingley.

"I think our performance results from the consistency overall of playing good cricket."

Asked whose performance at Headingley he would personally single out for special praise, Ganguly replied unhesitatingly, "I think Rahul Dravid played the best, but I thought everybody contributed, whether with the ball, bat or in the field. I thought we played well together."

He described England as a good side and continues, "We have to keep the intensity going of what we did in the last Test at Headingley. They bat well, they have good bowlers to exploit English conditions."

"They're equipped in both batting and bowling. (Andy) Caddick's a good bowler, (Matthew) Hoggard's a good bowler. We played them well in Headingley, which I think is the key.

"Our strength is not just our batsmen, we picked 20 wickets at Headingley to win the Test, so it is not just batting."

Ganguly says he does not want to be drawn into commenting on what Nasser Hussein said immediately after Headingley on how the psychological pressure would now be on India to perform in the fourth and final Test at the Oval, which begins Thursday, September 5.

"I don't really want to speculate on what Nasser said about the pressure being on us, or on what is happening in the England camp," Ganguly responds. "We just need to be worried about our own cricket and play to the best of our own potential.

"In this game at this level there is pressure on both sides. We want to win at home and we want to win overseas."

He has hugely enjoyed the tour of England so far. A former overseas professional for Lancashire, he says off-spinner Harbhajan Singh has also signed up for the same county next season.

"I have played for Lancashire, I was overseas professional in 2000. Farokh (Engineer) and myself have played for Lancashire, Harbhajan is playing next year. He's signed up with them.

"I love England, the facilities, the surroundings, I think for me it's the best place to tour because you don't have to be on flights every day as it is in other parts of the world.

"You're on a coach and you're travelling to all counties, the grounds are amazing, the facilities the counties provide to their players are fantastic. They play quite a lot of cricket and they're well paid, so it is all in the right direction."

Ganguly also praised India's up and coming young cricketers like teenage wicket-keeper Parthiv Patel who was injured on the knee at Headingley by a delivery from Ajit Agarkar.

Describing Patel as a "good cricketer," Ganguly adds, "But he's young and has got a long way to go. He's got to work hard at his game and at this level you'll be tested very soon. People will work on your game and you've got to keep working on it.

"It is not just how you start, it is how you carry on and how you finish. It's a long process.You've got to be fighting and improving your game very day."