Sachin Tendulkar: I will miss Sourav Ganguly

Sachin Tendulkar said he would miss Bengali chatter with close pal Sourav Ganguly, who retired from international cricket.

Tendulkar recalled his long association with the elegant left-hander and said he owes the little Bengali he knows to his former opening partner in one-dayers.

“But the question I ask myself is who will I now speak to in Bengali? Well I have enjoyed conversing with him in that language and whatever Bengali I have picked up is thanks to him,” Tendulkar said in a newspaper column.

“Whenever we had a long partnership, I used to walk mid-pitch and speak a few Bangla words to ease the pressure of the situation,” he said.

Tendulkar went on to recount some pranks he had played on Ganguly during their days together in the Indian dressing room.

“Cricket lovers have heard about how I disturbed the watchman of the Nehru Stadium with my constant bat-hitting leather activities at night and the fact that he brought it to the attention of our coach Vasu Paranjape,” he wrote in ‘Mid-Day’.

“But not many have heard this — One day when Sourav was enjoying his rest and dozed off, I had his room flooded with water. Sourav woke up to the mini deluge surprised, shocked, staggered — in that order.

“His only solace was I made sure that his cricketing kit was not among the ruins. Imagine what a sight it would have been — his bats, pads floating in water.”

Salute Sourav Ganguly

As the curtains come down on Sourav’s illustrious 16-year international career, I salute

India’s most successful captain for all his on and off field achievements. You will forever remain a hero and an

inspiration for us, Dada. May you continue to prosper and achieve even greater heights in your life ahead.

All the best and thanks for all the memories. We will miss you a lot.

Ganguly voted Bengali No. 1: Oh Calcutta!

The Bengali No 1 poll on CNN-IBN has come to an end. Cricketer Sourav Ganguly wins the poll with 59 per cent votes.

“It is great to win. Whether number one or 100. I am proud to be a Bengali”,says the cricketer after winning the poll.

Here is a gist of the final result of the poll –.

At the bottom of the list, at number five are Ganesh Pyne and Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri. The two who draw inspiration from Bengali culture, only managed to inspire 0.1 per cent of the vote.

Sarod Maestro Ali Akbar is at number four and it may not be music to his ears to know. He got 0.3 per cent of your votes.

It’s a crowd at number three. Economist Mohammad Yunus, Sitar maestro, Ravi Shankar, Physicist Ashoke Sen, Chess Champion Dibyendu Barua and Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen come away with 0.5 per cent of the votes.

She sets the big screen on fire. But Bollywood star Rani Mukherjee doesn’t rule this chart anymore. With a 38 per cent of the votes, she’s at number two.

And at the number one spot is Cricketer Sourav Ganguly. His current cricket career notwithstanding, Dada is the winner of this poll, with a cool 59 per cent of the votes.

• Sourav Ganguly 59.154 per cent
• Rani Mukherjee 38.921 per cent
• Amartya Sen 0.612per cent
• Dibyendu Barua 0.483 per cent
• Ashoke Sen 0.183 per cent
• Ravi Shankar 0.166 per cent
• Muhammad Yunus 0.145 per cent
• Ali Akbar 0.12 per cent
• Ganesh Pyne 0.098 per cent