Former Pakistan captain compares Sourav Ganguly to leaders and freedom fighters from Bengal

Sourav Ganguly achieved a lot of success as captain of the Indian cricket team. From guiding the team to the 2003 ICC World finals to beating Steve Waugh’s Australia at home, Ganguly gave a new direction to Indian cricket. Of all his victories, one that must have given Indian cricket fans a lot of joy was the first ever Test series win on Pakistani soil.

Ganguly was a fierce competitor and that showed when he locked horns with the arch-rivals. He was well respected by the Pakistani cricketers who saw in him an aggressive leader, just like Imran Khan. Ever since the news came out about Ganguly taking over as the next president of the BCCI, the cricketing fraternity all over the world has congratulated the former India captain.

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The news is a matter of big discussion across the border as well and recently two former Pakistani cricketers, Shoaib Akhtar and Rashid Latif, spoke about how this could affect Indian cricket as a whole in the days to come. Akhtar introduced the subject of discussion by stating that Ganguly was the captain who transformed the Indian cricket team into a fighting unit. He then asked Latif, a former captain of the Pakistan team, to express his views on Ganguly’s new role as BCCI chief. 

“I look at it a little differently that others. Bengal is a place that has given a lot of leaders, even during the freedom movement before partition. Sourav belongs to the same land. He has been handling the administration of a big organisation like the Crickat Association of Bengal. Among all big players who have entered administration Ganguly perhaps is at the top of the list,” Latif said while describing Ganguly’s expected election as BCCI chief.

He also praised Ganguly’s stand about giving importance to domestic cricket.

“So far what I have read and heard, I think his focus is on further improving domestic cricket...He has also spoken in the past about changes but could not get it done. He also wants to reduce the monetary gap between international cricket and first class cricket, he wants to make India’s first-class structure as good as that of England and Australia and I think he is the right man for the job, about whom no one will have any reservations,” the former Pakistan wicket-keeper said.

“I have been requesting that to the CoA for three years. That’s the first thing I will do, look after the financial health of our first-class cricketers,” Ganguly had said to the media after filing his nomination for the post.