> Ganguly, Laxman should show more consistency: Vengsarkar

Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman need to show more consistency if they hope to regain their place in India's one-day squad, Chief Selector Dilip Vengsarkar said on Wednesday.

Vengsarkar also said Laxman had to also work on his fitness to be considered for selection in the shorter version of the game.

"Laxman is a fantastic player and I am a huge fan of his. But his fitness for the one-day game is not up to the mark. Laxman and Sourav Ganguly need to show more consistency, but that holds good for everyone," Vengsarkar said while reacting to a question about Ganguly's knock of 118 for East Zone against North Zone in the Duleep Trophy.

Vengsarkar, who was the chief guest at the launch of Polycom Corporate Twenty-20 Cricket Fest last night, said he was happy that players like Robin Uthappa, Yashpal Singh, Gautam Gambhir and Rohan Gavaskar were also among runs.

Asked about his recent comment that there were no talent emerging from the country, Vengsarkar said he had been misunderstood a bit.

"What I said was that there was no new talent good enough to immediately make it into the Indian team right away. I never said there was no talent," he said. Vengsarkar also felt that had India made the semi-finals of the Champions Trophy they would have won the title.

"If they had entered the semi finals, it would have been anybody's game. Their exit before this stage was a big blow."

The former Indian captain said the Twenty-20 format was crucial to the spread of cricket in countries not familiar with the game like USA and China as it encapsulates everything good about cricket in a short time of three or three and a half hours.

"20-20 is going to be the future of cricket. It is a very important for the game as the 50-over game has become a bit monotonous. This is the way to spread the game around in countries like US and China. The players need to adapt to this format of the game too," he said.