India's Test captain Anil Kumble on Thursday lashed out at the media for their speculation about an 'honourable exit' being worked out for the seniors and said such "rubbish" reports are bound to hurt the players.
Kumble bluntly told the media to be a bit more respectful to the senior cricketers and made it clear that Sourav Ganguly's inclusion in the 15-member squad is not part of any compromise formula.
"You need to be a bit more respectful. When people discuss cricketers, they need to be handled respectfully," an angry Kumble told reporters in Bangalore.
"If that's done [if scrutiny is done in a respectable fashion], we don't mind scrutiny. But, when it's done rubbishly and the way it's been quoted, then it hurts," he said.
Kumble also slammed the media for speculating over Ganguly's inclusion for the first two Tests against Australia.
"He was part of the last Test match as well. He is part of this series also. No difference. I don't see any change. Media reports say a lot of things. I can't really divulge what happened in the selection committee meeting," he added.
He defended the selection of the seniors and said their failure in Sri Lanka did not warrant their exclusion for such an important series against Australia.
"In terms of senior players' performance, they performed exceptionally well. It's just one bad series that we had in Sri Lanka, and if you go by the [overall] record that you have, I don't think these players have performed badly.
"The reason that you had these [good] results in Australia ... is thanks to the batsmen getting those runs. It's never been a problem," he said.
