Pakistan India matches no more a big match: Ganguly

Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly shared his thoughts on the hype surrounding India-Pakistan matches nowadays, saying it’s no longer the big game for him and that it lacks zeal.

His comments have come on the back of a lacklustre show from the Men in Green in Colombo, as they lost this marquee match by 61 runs – the biggest margin against India in T20 World Cups.

Ganguly explains how everyone has fooled themselves into believing that the current Pakistan side is the same as that of the 1980s and late 1990s, which included match-winners like Javed Miandad, Saeed Anwar, among others.

Drawing comparison with other teams against whom both the competition and results bring excitement, Ganguly said India-Australia and India-South Africa matches are grander than the ones against Pakistan because of the quality gap between all these sides.

“A big match doesn’t really exist now; big matches used to happen earlier. We make the mistake of thinking of Pakistan as the team of Javed Miandad, Saeed Anwar but that Pakistan no longer exists.

“So, in my view, it’s not a big match for me; the real big matches are India vs Australia, India vs South Africa, and India vs England.

There’s a huge difference between the teams, so the result is expected, and the quality gap is more noticeable than the result,” Ganguly said in a chat with an Indian news agency  following India’s 61-run win against their arch rivals.

“I am actually not surprised by what I saw. I actually stopped watching after the first 15 overs and started watching Manchester United and Man City (in English Premier League),” Ganguly said at an event in Kolkata event on September 15.

Meanwhile, India has qualified for the Super 8s, becoming the second team after the West Indies to advance to the next round.

On Monday, South Africa also qualified, courtesy of Afghanistan’s maiden win (over the UAE) in this edition.