India captain Sourav Ganguly offers no excuses for his team's poor showing in New Zealand, but says he prefers to ignore calls for his removal as captain.

The 30-year-old stylish left-hander, arguably the most combative captain to have led India, said on Thursday he is no longer "impulsive and angry" when faced with demands that he be sacked from the job.

"It's a policy these days when a team tours and a captain struggles a bit, they get after the captain. Same thing has happened to Nasser Hussain in Australia. But no longer do I get impulsive and angry. I prefer to ignore such reactions," Ganguly said in an exclusive interview.

"Records and statistics can't always be wrong. It is not always right but are correct at least to the extent of 80 per cent."

Ganguly said he firmly believes a captain is as good as his team and anyone who suggests things worked to a plan, is lying.

"I am a firm believer in Richie Benaud's adage that a captain is as good as his team. If everyone says it worked according to a plan, it's all bullshit.

"If any captain says he spent two days in chalking out plans to get (Sachin) Tendulkar and Ganguly out and it's happened exactly, he's lying."

Ganguly said his guiding philosophy as a captain is to be honest at all times and go by instinct on the cricket field.

"Nobody is a born captain. Most of the time I've gone on instinct. Like against the West Indies in Chennai (Test), John(Wright) sent me a message to bowl (Anil) Kumble and have spinners from both ends. Just by instinct I brought back Zaheer Khan and he got three wickets and won us the Test.

"It wasn't a plan. With the ball spinning and West Indies struggling against slow bowlers, anyone would've got spinners from both ends.

"I have tried in my tenure as captain to be honest. If somebody is good he should play. I try to do what is good for the team and the country."

Ganguly considers captaincy as a huge honour but confessed that the constant spotlight at times could be exasperating.

"It's a huge honour. When I played Ranji Trophy at 17, I didn't think I would be representing my country. After being dropped in 1992, I never thought I would come back again. When I returned, I couldn't have dreamt I would be leading the country in four years.

"There is pleasure and pressure to go with the job. But sometimes there is too much attention, not off the field but on it. Every move, every shot evokes opinion and sometimes you get fed up with it."

The India captain said he has two immediate ambitions: to do well at Eden Gardens and tour New Zealand again and again to make up for the present debacle.

"I am disappointed with my form at Eden Gardens. I've played all my cricket there; played five Tests and captained in two. We've done well as a team but not me. As for New Zealand, I want to come here again and again."

He believes the matches against New Zealand in the current series were far closer than results convey.

"Except for the one in Queenstown, all the games were pretty close. You could look at the Tests or one-dayers and see there wasn't much between the two sides," he said, as he prepared to wind up the disastrous tour Down Under and look ahead at the World Cup, where he and his men would be carrying the hopes of a billion people.

Ganguly's team carried glamour and reputation coming to New Zealand but were set up on hostile pitches and meticulous home planning, leading to a 0-2 blanking in the Tests. The team now trails 1-4 in the seven-match one-day series.

"In Hamilton (Test), 20-30 runs would have made a big difference. The first one-dayer in Auckland we should have won. In Napier, (Virender) Sehwag and (Rahul) Dravid were in control before we lost the game."

The batters fared miserably and none looked more out of touch than Ganguly himself, who made only 29 from four Test innings, and just 20 runs from five one-day innings in New Zealand.

"When I returned from England I was averaging nearly 60, with nearly 900 runs under my belt. I really wanted to polish off a big year in the remaining five Tests."

However, he could make only 49 runs at 12.25 against the West Indies and flopped miserably against New Zealand.

He admitted poor umpiring decisions that went against him affected his performance to a great extent.

"Umpires do make mistakes but I have been at the wrong end many times. It doesn't help a batsman at all. Obviously,it plays in my mind."

The 'Prince of Kolkata' said he does not think things come easy for Indian cricketers.

"I've seen it and am a firm believer that whoever comes at this level and plays for India is keen to do well. None of them are lazy; you just have to look at how much weight Zaheer, Anil, Sachin or Rahul (Dravid) have lost in recent times to know what I'm saying."

Ganguly appeared worried that Indian cricket is producing only spinner all-rounders and blamed it to the type of pitches used for Ranji Trophy matches.

"Most of our all-rounders are spinner all-rounders. But that's because of pitches. If the wickets were green and batsmen were getting out cheaply, a cricketer would realise he has to develop his bowling to stay in the team. It would have given us seamer all-rounders.

"In a lot of Ranji Trophy games the pitches are prepared to suit the home team. If Bengal was to play Rajasthan in Jodhpur, everyone knows it would be a square turner.

Naturally, the hosts would have more spinners in the team."

Ganguly was also frustrated by a lack of good crop of fast bowlers and suggested Indian cricket needs people like Kapil Dev to identify bowlers and train them.

"We got to have a person to identify bowlers. I once said so to Mr (Jagmohan) Dalmiya. Bring them to one place and let someone like Kapil Dev, who is a legend, coach them. Have a fitness guy like Adrian (Le Roux) and a proper gym and keep them at one place for 10 months a year.

"Even guys like Zaheer, Ashish (Nehra) and Ajit (Agarkar) ... when they're not playing for the country could go back and work on their skills and body.

"As a captain it becomes difficult if the crop of good fast bowlers is missing. But fast bowlers are thoroughbreds. It doesn't happen overnight."

The Indian captain also denied that players like Murali Kartik and Ajay Ratra got a raw deal during his captaincy.

"Kartik has been a bit unlucky. He has to put up with two world class spinners in Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh.

Whenever they have been injured, he's come back and played for India.