Ganguly's days as Pune captain over; to serve as mentor

Sourav Ganguly will no longer captain Pune Warriors in the Indian Premier League. He will only serve as the team's mentor.

The former India captain's future role in the team was spelt out by franchise owner Subrata Roy, who said that the veteran batsman wants to remain in the team as mentor only.

The announcement put an end to intense speculation over the struggling batsman's fate following a string of poor results by the team in the ongoing fifth edition of the IPL.

"Sourav will be the mentor next season. We rather pushed him to play in IPL 5 as he is such a fantastic captain," Roy said.

Pune Warriors are already out of the race for a berth in the play-offs and Roy said Ganguly would like to sit out the team's last three matches for the sake of youngsters.

"Sourav wants to give youngsters a chance in the last games," Roy said.

Ganguly has been under the scanner for his failure as a batsman in the current edition of IPL, while the team's below-par show has also put a question mark on his waning leadership skills.

Pune have lost nine of their 13 matches in the league so far.

"I did not want to be the captain but was asked to do so. Now I want to give chance to youngsters," Ganguly said.

Ganguly was appointed skipper after Yuvraj Singh, currently recuperating from a rare germ cell cancer, was ruled out due to health issues.

After a decent start, he went through a lean patch, both as a batsman and skipper, and his captaincy of late was subject of speculation.

Roy, however, came to the left-hander's defence.

"Ganguly is a fine captain; our team lacked good Indian talent," the owner said.