> India will beat Windies : Ganguly

KOLKATA, Jan 16 : He zips up his Team India tracksuit-top, complete with the BCCI crest as well as the sponsors logo, over his spotless white kurta-pyjama as 'little' Sana comes bouncing in to show off her new pair of sports shoes that mom Dona has bought for the Annual Sports Day in her school.

As Sourav offers to lace them up for her before leaving for the airport, Sana looks up to her dad, her eyes shinning with pride. Tumi aabar khelte jaccho, tai na ? (You are going off to play again, isn’t it?) she asks. "Yes. When is yours sports day? I will hopefully come back before that," the doting father replies.

I am not in the captaincy race: Ganguly

Sourav is back and is at peace with himself and the world around him, happy to know that he was only out of sight, never out of mind. "It felt good to be back in the Indian dressing room. Representing my country has always given me a big high. I still share a great rapport with the guys. It felt like old times again."

Asked whether it was an emotional decision to that commercial ( bhoole-to-nahin ...), he shakes his head vigorously. "We do and say a lot of things in commercials, it’s not meant to be taken seriously. It was just a promo for the Champions Trophy," he said.

His mind is already on the ODI series against the West Indies. "I think we will beat them," he says so confidently as if it would be a piece of cake. "We did lose to them in the CT, but one-off losses do happen in ODI cricket. They will find it difficult to beat us in a home series."

Then, he strikes a note of caution. "The Sri Lankans will be a different kettle of fish this time," he warns. But didn’t we whip them 6-1 last time? "We did, but they are a much-improved side these days. It will be a good contest and an ideal warm-up before the World Cup.

The man under whose captaincy India made the World Cup final last time feels, once again batting will hold the key to India’s fortunes. "One-day cricket is a batsman’s game. We have very experienced batsmen who have done it before and can do it again. If everyone is fit, I feel we will have a very good chance of bring home the trophy," he concluded before leaving for the airport to catch a flight to Mumbai en route to Nagpur.