Not alien to comebacks, former India captain Sourav Ganguly insists he is in no mood to call it quits, for he believes he has another couple of year's cricket left in him.
Selectors snubbed Ganguly, ignoring him while picking the Rest of India squad for the Irani Trophy, thus putting a question mark over his fate. The left-hander, however, made it clear that he is not throwing in the towel.
The former captain seemed to have come to terms with his ODI exclusion but insisted he is in no mood to hang up his boots as far as Test and Twenty20 cricket are concerned.
"I would like to think I have a couple of years left," Ganguly said when asked if he would miss cricket once he quits the game.
"But I won't say I'll miss touring. I'll miss the cricket we play the satisfaction you get from scoring a century or from winning a Test," the left-hander told British daily The Sun.
Asked if he missed not being part of the one-day squad anymore, Ganguly, in London on a promotional campaign, said, "At the present moment I'm playing Test cricket and Twenty20 in the Indian Premier League.
"I miss the one-day game but the older players understand we won't be playing in the 2011 World Cup. So now it is time for the young players to get match experience," said the former captain who made a stunning comeback to the Indian side after being dropped following his soured relation with the then coach Greg Chappell.
Insisting that he is not playing the game for any financial reasons, Ganguly said age is not an issue with him and he would continue playing both the Test and Twenty20 versions of the game.
"With so much money involved in the IPL you still have to live up to the expectations. It doesn't matter what age you are you have to perform.
"So I will finish both IPL and Test cricket at the same -- at this stage of my career I am not playing for financial gain, it's all about the performance." he said.
"You want to finish with reputation in tact, not with people questioning your ability," he added.
Dwelling on the IPL, Ganguly envisaged an international league and said, "IPL is like a movie show three hours of big names and even teams owned by movie stars. My team is owned by Bollywood star Shahrukh Khan!
"But I fear the ICC will interfere with the IPL and try and control it more. With so much cricket involved, the future could be an international league."
Ganguly-led Kolkata Knight Riders could not make it to the semi-finals of the inaugural IPL and Ganguly blamed it on missing a number of key players due to their national duty.
"There is pressure on my team to do well in the IPL next year, because last year we did not get the results we wanted.
"But that in part was down to players coming and going for international duty," he said.
Ganguly also shared his view on Sri Lanka's mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis and said, "He is a very accurate bowler and at the other end we had Muttiah Muralitharan. It is too early to say how Mendis will do in the long term compared to Murali, but there is no question he will be a big player for them."
Asked to choose the highlights of his illustrious career, Ganguly said, "There are so many: Reaching the World Cup final in 2003, beating Pakistan in Pakistan. Doing well in Australia as captain in 2003 and beating them in India in 2001.
"Winning the Test series in England last year was very special," he added.
On personal memories, he said, "For me it is about the team cricket is a team sport. A hundred in a defeat is not as good as a 70 in a victory."
