Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly recalls one of his memorable moments in ODI cricket when he gave a fitting reply in Natwest 2002 finals to England’s Andrew Flintoff. The latter had celebrated by taking his shirt off after saving the series by making it 3-3 in India.
“The idea came to my mind just at the moment. I remembered how Andrew Flintoff took off his shirt at Wankhede to celebrate a 3-3 series draw before, and I just thought why not do the same at Lord’s,” Sourav Ganguly said.
Mohammad Kaif and Yuvraj Singh provided Prince of Kolkata with a chance to avenge Andrew Flintoff’s act as India chased down a mammoth total of 325 runs. Dada said that VVS Laxman stopped him from taking off the shirt but there was no second thought in his mind. Meanwhile, Harbhajan Singh was puzzled and asked “What should I do?”, Dada replied,”Tu bhi kholde (you also take off your shirt)”
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“But I am also embarrassed about the incident. My daughter once asked, ‘Why did you do that? Is it necessary to do that in cricket?’ And I had to tell her that ‘No, I did it once by mistake’. Somethings things happen in life in which you do not have any control,” he said.
He also praised the new Indian skipper Virat Kohli backing him to produce positive results for team India in the five match series against England.
“I have a lot of expectations from Virat. I hope he can win the Test series against England. The country has faith in him,” he added.
The first of the five Test match series between India and England will begin at Birmingham from August 1.