‘If you want to be treated as champion, you have to win’

Legendary Indian cricketer Sourav Ganguly on Thursday spoke about handling pressure as a sportsperson, saying that sports are no longer about merely participating and to be treated as a champion, players have to win.
Ganguly said on Wednesday, during ‘Sourav Calling Sourav’, a over half an hour of freewheeling chat with squash champion Sourav Ghosal.
Ganguly was asked about whom in the Indian team that he led could have been a good squash player. The former India captain’s reply said during this: “I think Sachin (Tendulkar) would have excelled in racket sport because of his ball sense. He played table tennis very well.”
Ghosal was asked about who among the cricketers he could identify himself with. “Rahul Dravid,” replied the two-time Asian Games gold-medal winner.
“From outside, he (Dravid) looks like a very methodical person, something that resonates with me,” added the squash star.
The two champions stay within a few kilometres in Kolkata, Ganguly in Behala and Ghosal in Alipore. But they haven’t met before. Busy schedules have been the reason. Little wonder then, that the two champions lapped up today’s session.
“He (Ganguly) was picked in the Indian team in 1992,” said Ghosal.
“Then, after a while, he came back in 1996 and scored back-to-back Test hundreds.
I wanted to know how he went through that period and kept himself ready,” he added.