Kolkata: Former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly has claimed that he has played countless India-Pakistan matches; however organizing Indo-Pak matches have been a tough challenge and a learning experience for him.
“I felt this challenge during the T20 World Cup when the match supposedly to be held at Dharamshalla was called off due to some political reasons. I got a call from the ICC where I was asked if we are ready to arrange the match at Kolkata and I had 45 minutes to answer them. I immediately contacted our Chief Minister who was currently busy at that moment. However within the requisite time, I received a letter from her office and I could tell the ICC that Eden Gardens was ready to hold the match. Apart from organizing the match, the West Bengal State Department was also ready to provide protection for the Pakistani team,” said Ganguly.
“Organizing the World Cup match as an administrator was a learning experience for me and I am really grateful to Mamata Banerjee and her government,” he added.
He also highly praised the state government by saying “If a state government takes this much importance in any sport then we can see the heights that the game can achieve”
“I have a request for the CAB, like the statue of Bidhan Chandra Roy, I want a bust of Jagmohan Dalmia to be installed in the ground,” said Mamata Banerjee the Chief Minister of the state.
On the above request Ganguly said “The ground officially belongs to Fort Willam. We had several meeting previously regarding installing the statue of Jagmohan Dalmia. However with the permission of the Fort Willam we can’t proceed further”
On being questioned about the recent form of Wriddhiman Saha, Sourav said “As of now, he is currently the best wicket-keeper of the country. Whether he gets selected in the ODI squad is upto the decision of Kohli and the board, but currently with due respect to MS Dhoni, he is the best wicket-keeper of the country.”