Pune: The fans of Sourav Ganguly will see him leading Pune Warriors once again this IPL season with the struggling left-hander announcing that he will captain the side on Sunday against Rajasthan Royals.
Ganguly, under pressure due to his own poor form and team’s pathetic show, rested himself from Friday’s IPL match against Royal Challengers Bangalore and Steven Smith led the side in his place.
“Well, I have taken a break. It’s been a long time on the road. Just wanted to give an opportunity to the youngsters,” he said when asked why he did not play today’s game.
“I’ll be back for the next game and lead the side,” he said to clear the air if he will get to play at all in the remainder of the IPL.
The team management had said that Ganguly will mentor the side from the next season and speculation was that he has played his last game in this edition.
When quizzed on this talk of mentor’s role he said,” I don’t know. I make the headlines for good or bad things. But that’s way it is. The owners have put in a lot of money and the team has not done well. That’s way it is.”
Ganguly was also asked why young Smith was chosen as captain.
“He’s been with us the whole tournament. He’s led Sydney Sixers to the title in the Big Bash. Clarke has come in just four, five days ago,” he said.
Sourav Ganguly’s video goes
viral on YouTube
Meanwhile, a short video featuring former India cricket captain Sourav Ganguly’s life, full of controversies and glorious achievements, in a typical Bollywood potboiler style has become a rage on the Internet.
Within four days of the video going viral, the three-minute trailer of Sourav Ganguly – The Movie has had more than 250,000 hits on YouTube so far.
The vedio, which highlights Ganguly’s leadership, man management and crisis management skills, has been uploaded by a private health insurance company that wants to develop elements of this movie later on in the form of short videos for the cyberworld.
“We intend to share these films with the public at large, so that Ganguly’s fans may also enjoy them. We are very excited about creating these ‘webisodes’ over a period of time,” said Apollo Munich Health Insurance’s CEO Antony Jacob.
Interestingly, the film will also be used for internal training and motivation purposes by the company, which had recently signed Ganguly as their brand ambassador for three years.
The film salutes the never-say-die attitude of the cricketer by presenting him as a superstar. (PTI)