Ganguly slams toss controversy

Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly feels he is being unfairly blamed in a controversy over who won the toss in Saturday's third one-day international against Australia.

Media reports quoting Australian skipper Steve Waugh said Ganguly claimed he had won the toss before Cammie Smith, the West Indian match referee, intervened and awarded the toss to Australia.

"We were using a new coin in every game. This (coin) was a different two-rupee coin. So I asked the match referee whether it was heads or tails. That is all that I did," Ganguly said after net practice on Monday.

India and Australia go into the penultimate game of the five-match series in the eastern port city of Vizag on Tuesday with the hosts leading 2-1.

"I read in the newspaper that somebody said I said I won the toss. It is crap," Ganguly said.

"It puts me off. They (Australia) are supposed to be a good team. Complaining every time is really schoolboy stuff," he added.

The Indian skipper, who has also been criticised for turning up late for the toss throughout the series, said he is not worried about the complaints.

"I have stopped bothering about all these things. Our aim is to win this series. That is the answer to everything. We won the Test series. We're leading 2-1 (in the one-dayers)," he said.

NO RIFT

Australian team manager Steve Bernard said too much should not be made of the reports suggesting a rift between Waugh and Ganguly.

"We've got two captains who are very keen to win a series. I suppose a little niggle here and there, that might happen in any game. I don't think there are too many problems," Bernard said.

Ganguly said he would go back to opening the batting in Tuesday's game despite his recent poor form.

The left-hander scored 106 runs in six innings at an average of 17.66 in the three-Test series. He scored six and four in the first two one-dayers as opener before being dismissed for a duck in the last match at Indore, where he batted at number four.

"I will open. I tried batting down the order for a game but it didn't work. So I will go back to where I have scored all my runs," he said.

India relied upon Sachin Tendulkar's 139 to win the Indore game by 118 runs -- equalling Australia's worst defeat to India.

The tourists, looking to stay alive in the five-match series, said they will continue with their rotation policy, which may see opener Matthew Hayden return for Tuesday's match.

Hayden was rested at Indore, despite topping his side's averages in the test series and recording half-centuries in the first two one-dayers.

Teams:

Australia (from): Steve Waugh (captain), Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting, Michael Bevan, Darren Lehmann, Damien Martyn, Andrew Symonds, Ian Harvey, Shane Warne, Damien Fleming, Glenn McGrath, Nathan Bracken and Shane Lee.

India (from): Sourav Ganguly (captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Vangipurappu Laxman, Hemang Badani, Dinesh Mongia, Robin Singh, Vijay Dahiya, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan, Ajit Agarkar and Sharandeep Singh.

Mail Cricket Editor