Ravi Shastri omits Sourav Ganguly from top Indian captains' list, Muttiah Muralitharan disagrees

New Delhi: As MS Dhoni hung up his ODI & T20 captain, Ravi Shastri lauded him as 'Dada' captain, and further mentioning the names of Kapil Dev, Ajit Wadekar and Tiger Pataudi as the other great Indian captains.

Shastri's intentions behind calling Dhoni 'Dada' and snubbing Sourav Ganguly, who is widely considered as not just India's but one of the world's best ever captains, sparked an outrage which has now reached Sri Lankan great Muttiah Muralitharan.

Muralitharan said that Ravi Shastri may have just "missed" Sourav Ganguly's name while compiling his list of India's all-time best captains.

“Definitely Ganguly did a great job for Indian cricket after he took over. In my opinion he’s a great captain,” Murali, the spin bowling consultant of the Cricket Association of Bengal’s Vision 2020 programme, said in Kolkata.

Shastri and Ganguly share a volatile relationship and traded several blows in full public view after the legendary Anil Kumble was appointed coach of the Indian cricket team last year.

Shastri, who has been a firm backer of Dhoni in the past, added that the timing of the wicketkeeper-batsman’s decision was perfect.

Muralitharan said, “It’s all about opinions and everyone has one. Maybe he has missed Ganguly but I can’t speak for him.”

Ganguly took charge of the Indian cricket team when it was struggling with match-fixing scandals in the early 2000s and then took it to great heights.

Under Ganguly, India won Test matches abroad on a consistent basis while making the final of World Cup in 2003.

(With PTI inputs)