Sourav Ganguly Narrates How A Prank Played On Him Almost Made Him Vacate The Leadership Spot

Sourav Ganguly was one of the best things to happen to Indian cricket. At a time when the side was struggling to recover from the 2000 match-fixing fiasco, the Prince of Kolkata took charge and transformed them into a confident outfit. The years between 2000 and 2005, Sourav Ganguly handpicked players and backed them judiciously.

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During his captaincy tenure, Ganguly also revealed that the dressing room atmosphere was quite friendly. Nevertheless, in a conversation, as reported by Times Now, the BCCI President vocalised about an incident where his teammates pranked him. The duo of Sachin Tendulkar and Harbhajan Singh headlined a comical yet a dark prank.

It was a time when the runs weren’t coming off the captain’s bat due to which he felt disheartened. Sourav Ganguly’s men picked this very time to play an April Fool’s prank on him. They came up with fake newspaper printings, which suggested that the skipper was unhappy with the team’s performance and bludgeoned them at the media. The 47-year-old said that as soon as he stepped foot in the dressing, everyone began asking him what he said to the press.

“I was a little disappointed because I wasn’t scoring runs. As I entered the dressing room, the team members got together led by Sachin (Tendulkar) and Harbhajan Singh and were saying that they are very disappointed with what I said about the team in the media. I said, what did I say — I was very sensitive at the time. They said that there were reports in the newspapers that you were not happy with the way the team has played,” he said.

I am ready to resign today, and I am ready for somebody else to take the captaincy: Sourav Ganguly

On hearing this, the left-handed batsman was ready to vacate the leadership position and went and sat in his chair. A couple of minutes later, everybody howled with laughter post which Harbhajan made him understand that it all was merely a prank. Sourav Ganguly went on to admit that he was thankful that the team had his back during a tough phase and that incident was a morale booster.

“I said if you guys feel that I will get upset about (the team not playing well) and I did something wrong, I am ready to resign today and I am ready for somebody else to take the captaincy. I said that and went and sat on my chair. A couple of minutes went away and I saw everybody jumping with laughter. I was really upset then and a little bit shocked at what I had just heard from the team. And then Harbhajan jumped up and said April Fool,” he remarked.

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