Former India captain shares horrifying experience in Beefy’s Cricket Tales
Internet Desk: Former India captain Sourav Ganguly was once held at gun point by a young teenager while he was travelling in a tube in London. Ganguly shared the horrifying experience in former England all-rounder Sir Ian Botham’s book “Beefy’s Cricket Tales.”
The left hander termed it as the ‘most terrifying experience’ in his life during his first tour to England in 1996.
In the chapter titled as “Troubles in England”, Ganguly describes the incident in detail. “I will almost always drive myself around when I’m in England now, after one of the most terrifying moments of my life travelling on the London Underground. We got on the tube and set off towards Pinner. In our carriage there was a group of young teenagers, two boys and three girls, and they were drinking. We were sitting opposite them and I could see that one of them was looking at us while he was drinking his beer,” wrote Ganguly.
The left hander who scored a memorable ton on his test debut at Lords was accompanied by Navjot Singh Sidhu. As Ganguly put it, the incident took a nasty turn.
“I could tell he was looking for some kind of reaction. I didn’t want to get involved at all and I said to Sidhu to leave it alone. I picked up the can and put it to one side, at which point the young lad stood up and said to me, ‘what did you say?’
“I told him I didn’t say anything, but Sidhu jumped in and confronted him. I knew then that there was going to be some trouble. I took my glasses off and threw them to the floor away from us, and got ready for whatever was to come. There were some punches thrown and, just as we got to a station, I pushed the lad and he fell over. He got up and the next thing I saw was a gun in my face. I, thought, My gosh, this is it – my life is going to be over here on this train,” recalled Ganguly.
Ganguly and Navjot Singh Sidhu though were saved after a girl, who was pretty stronger than the guy, she grabbed him and took him off the train.
“But then one of the girls, who was quite big, grabbed him and pulled him away and took him off the train. She was really quite strong and I don’t think the young boy wanted to mess with her. I was shaking and obviously very upset, but thankfully my tour and my life were able to continue,” said Ganguly, who is now the President of Cricket Association of Bengal.