It was such a stupid thing to say, Azharuddin slams Ravi Shastri over Ganguly jibe

Recently, India's former team director Ravi Shastri picked out MS Dhoni as the greatest captain of all-time, followed by Kapil Dev, Ajit Wadekar and Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi in his India's best captains list while choosing to omit Sourav Ganguly's name.

But this did not go down well with some of the other cricketers including Muttiah Muralitharan who disagreed with Shastri's list. Now former captain Mohammad Azharuddin has come out with some harsh words for the 54-year old.

“It was such a stupid thing to say,” Azharuddin told Hindustan Times, on Wednesday. 

“Can’t he see statistics? It doesn’t matter to me what he thinks of people but when Shastri refers to great Indian captains, his personal bias shouldn’t be used to insult those who have contributed more to Indian cricket,” he said.

The feud has some history - there had been a war of words between Shastri and Ganguly after the latter did not attend the presentation Shastri was giving as a part of his interview for the role of India's head coach.

Shastri had also taken a dig at Ganguly calling Indian pacer Mohammed Shami as “Prince of Kolkata” during his commentary in the India vs New Zealand while adding that Kolkata is not limited to just one prince. 

Meanwhile, Azharuddin also criticized the Hyderabad Ranji team, who failed to make it to the finals of the Ranji Trophy.

"Problem with Hyderabad was that cricket was not focus. We were second last in Ranji. My basic intention is to see that cricket in Hyderabad flourishes. I really want to do well for cricket. We cannot run the HCA on the whims and fancies of individuals," Azharuddin said.

"I want to improve cricket at the district level because lot of hardworking players come from districts. We have produced so many great players but now we don't have players in the Indian team. My intention is to work hard for the game of cricket," the former batsman added, reported HT.