Hope BCCI, Sahara sign truce, says Ganguly

NEW DELHI: With the fate of Pune Warriors hanging in uncertainty, those associated with the IPL franchise are keeping their fingers crossed.

Sourav Ganguly, former India captain and mentor of the team, hopes BCCI and Sahara, who owned the team before withdrawing in a huff earlier this month, will sort out their differences and things will be back on track. Ganguly spoke to TOI on the issue on Wednesday. Excerpts from the chat:

Do you think the current crisis between Sahara and BCCI will be sorted out? 

Hopefully, it will be sorted out and we will get to play cricket. I am looking forward to this year's IPL and I hope the bosses of Sahara and BCCI settle this one out. Remember, there are quite a lot of players who are waiting to take the field.

Subrata Roy has said that you are the one who is going to take a call... 

The main decision lies with the big bosses as I have said earlier. We have to wait and see till the time a BCCI-Sahara meeting happens.

Even if you play, you will be without Yuvraj Singh... 

Everyone knows it'll be difficult to field the side without Yuvraj, especially when every team has a top Indian cricketer. He is our main player and I am sure he is going to come back with a bang.

Can Pune Warriors be a genuine title contender without players like Yuvraj? 

It all depends on how well we play. This format is really unpredictable and I am sure if we have a good team, we are going to fight till the end. It's important to stay positive all the time.

Who are the key players in your side? 

There are quite a few of them - Robin Uthappa, Manish Pandey, Graeme Smith, Angelo Mathews and Mitchell Marsh are some of the important players. And if we are able to put to use all our resources well, I don't see why we can't produce results.

You had a fairly good Ranji season. How do you keep yourself fit? 

I played around 6 to 7 Ranji games this season and there was no problem with my fitness. While I was doing commentary during the India-Australia Test series for a month, I kept doing my fitness training.

Suggestions for improve Test record... 

We are going to do well for sure. It was a bad phase and I am sure the team will start doing well once again. I haven't seen the board's agenda. Once I've studied it, I will give my suggestions.