Dalmiya requests Ganguly to play for Bengal

KOLKATA: Sourav Ganguly might have bid farewell to first-class cricket when he played for Bengal against Delhi in Plate League semi-finals, but Cricket Association of Bengal still pins its hopes on the former India captain.
CAB President Jagmohan Dalmiya, in fact, has requested the ace left-hander to play for Bengal especially when their side have now made the Super League and will now play in the Ranji Trophy quarter-final against Tamil Nadu in Bangalore from December 26-29.
"As a president, I have requested him to play for Bengal again. We have told him. But for this upcoming match (against Tamil Nadu), he is not playing. Let's see what happens if we qualify for semi-finals. We have to respect his decision," Dalmiya said.
As per the new Ranji format from 2008-09 season, the top two Plate teams join three teams each from the two groups in the Super League to play a knock-out from the quarter-final stage. The new format, thus, gives a relegated side realistic chance of winning the title.
Dalmiya also rued not getting the services of their high-profile recruitment of Muttiah Muralitharan who could not play because of his country commitments.
"Even we did not get Murali (Muttiah Muralitharan) for the first-half of the season. And we are not going to get him also as he is busy with his country assignment, which is his top priority according to the contract he has with us.
"We chose Murali over Sanath Jayasuriya, Shaun Pollock and Tatenda Taibu thinking that he would get to play matches. But then the Zimbabwe and now the Bangladesh tour came up. And now I am hearing that they might tour Pakistan. So I don't think so we will get his serivce."
Nevertheless, it was also a victory for Dalmiya who made a comeback of sort after returning to cricket administration, winning the CAB election following 18 months' of wilderness.
Dalmiya said after coming to power his top priority was to take Bengal into the Super League so it's an achievement of sorts and all were very happy.
"Qualifying into Super League was our first and last priority. The task, before the start of the season, became really difficult as most of the top players wanted to leave the side and join Super League sides like Rajasthan, Baroda, UP initially. They were fair on their part as a Plate performance is not counted to make the presence felt.
"So our first task was to make them convince. The players agreed and took a pledge by signing on a piece of paper to regain the lost glory. Everybody played with team spirit. The way we won, it's been an unparalleled success," Dalmiya said.
Hailing the new format, the former BCCI chief said: "I am happy with the new system now. Previously, the Plate sides did not have any chance, even if they had few good players. The new format gives equal chance to all the teams and the Plate side gets a chance to win the Ranji Trophy in the end. I am sure this experimentation will be successful."
Meanwhile, Bengal made two changes in their successful side, bringing batsman Arindam Das and wicketkeeper-batsman Shreevats Goswami in place of Anustup Majumdar and Soham Ghosh.
Bengal will leave for Bangalore on Wednesday. If Bengal make the last-four their opponents will be the winners of Uttar Pradesh vs Gujarat match.
Squad: Laxmi Ratan Shukla (captain), Rohan Banerjee, Manoj Tiwary, Wriddhiman Saha, Arindam Das, Avik Chowdhury, Ashok Dinda, Ritam Kundu, Saurav Sarkar, Dibyendu Chakraborty, Ranadeb Bose, Iresh Saxena, Shreevats Goswami, Avik Mallick.