Flintoff thought I was aloof coz I didn't drink with him : Ganguly

London, July 12 (UNI) Although both have shown their penchant for swirling shirts to celebrate a moment of victory, it seems a difference in taste for beverages created the strained relationship between former India captain Sourav Ganguly and Andrew Flintoff.

Flintoff, while playing with him for Lancashire, wrote sarcastically ''it was like having 'Prince Charles' on your side.'' Ganguly explained, ''See, Flintoff thought I was aloof because I didn't drink with them after the match. I never used to enjoy drinking. So I used to have my Coke and leave. Plus I had my wife at home. For a county game I had to leave at 8.30 in the morning and come back at 8 at night. Dona was alone the whole day - she knew nobody in Manchester. Girl alone at home - we've grown up in a different way.'' India drew the four-match Test series and won the Natwest ODI series under Ganguly in their the last Tour to England. India's most successful skipper returns to England one last time this time, albeit not as a master strategist, as the rival captains were put under pressure not only by his aggressive captaincy, but also by calculated 'comments' of the 'Bengal Tiger'.

''It's a strategy, It's a strategy they've learnt from the Aussies - to put the visiting captain under pressure. But the good thing is that unlike in India, they don't put newspapers under your door in hotels abroad, so you're not even aware of these things.

Anyway, I'm not captain now. Probably it'll be slightly different this time,'' Ganguly was quoted as saying by 'The Guardian'.

Another classic example was the story of him instructing Michael Atherton to run off for a sweater for him, an account so far from the actual event that Atherton himself dismissed it as apocryphal.

To Chappell's insinuation last year that Ganguly was clinging to captaincy for financial motives, he says ''Really, I did not expect it from a man of his stature.'' He adds some more but understandably requests it be left off record, adding ''The last thing I need is another controversy.'' This is the difference in Ganguly now. Always one to take an eye for an eye, he is a more soulful and much more withdrawn man. ''It was tough being out,'' he painfully recalls, ''because I always felt that me being dropped was something more than cricket. No cricketer wants to go this way.

''Today it's me, tomorrow it could be anybody else. I had to live with it every day. It's not easy switching on a television every day and seeing yourself being talked about, seeing shows that your career is over.

''Obviously, it hurt. Even my father would tell me, 'Just forget it, you don't need to do this'. I told him, 'Let's see if I'm good enough. I've seen the best part of a cricketer's life, let's see if I can get through this','' the Prince of Kolkata adds. ''It's possible that can happen. But when I came back into the side, I had huge pressure on me. I survived that. Then I survived the pressure of coming back into the one-day team. I don't think any pressure can be more than that,'' he said.

Even Nasser Hussain wrote of his own approach as captain as being one which 'made us a more difficult side to beat, almost like Sourav Ganguly is with the Indian side'. The compliment is returned tenfold in the case of Hussain, whom Ganguly rates as 'superb', 'outstanding', ''the best English captain I've seen. His strategies, his aggression, the way he handled bowlers, the way he set fields for different people.'' ''Yes, there was always needle between us. He used to position himself close to me, chat a lot. I remember in the Headingley Test match in 2002 he was really getting upset. We were 500 for three, so obviously he was giving it to Sachin [Tendulkar] and me. We told him, 'We want to hear you talking the same way when you go to the Ashes in December, don't keep quiet there'. I think Nasser gave a lot of face to English cricket,'' Ganguly said.

What about Michael Vaughan? ''His record is fabulous. I think he's reaping the benefits of what Nasser did.'' ''England are a good side,'' he says and before one thought the old Ganguly has changed beyond recognition, he says ''But we're lucky that Flintoff is not fit. I think he makes a huge difference to the English team. It's a beatable side. But Flintoff will really be missed.

''I've seen Michael Vaughan captaining the team differently without Flintoff,'' was his shrewd take.

UNI