Sourav Ganguly : I wish Smith, Warner and Bancroft luck and hopefully they will come back

04/05/2018

Sourav Ganguly has come out in support of the tainted Australian trio of Steven Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft as he claimed that he does not believe that they are ‘Cheaters’. The trio have accepted the sanctions and have decided not to apply for waiving off the ban that was imposed by CA.

After former Aussie skipper Steve Smith revealed that he would not appeal against the sanctions imposed on him by Cricket Australia, Cameron Bancroft, left-handed opener David Warner followed suit. The latter put up a post on Twitter that he too accepted the sanctions that were handed out by the CA. However, former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly, who has had his fair share of run-ins with the Australians throughout his long career, came out in support of the disgraced trio as he felt that it was not right to call them ‘cheaters’.

"I sympathize with Smith. He is a fantastic player and he will come back and keep scoring runs for Australia. I don't think it's cheating... actually (I) don't believe it's cheating," said Ganguly at a glittering launch of his book 'A Century is not Enough', which was attended by batting legend Sachin Tendulkar, current India star Rohit Sharma.

"I wish them (David Warner and Cameron Bancroft) luck, and hopefully they will come back and play well. It's not right to call it cheating."

The pride of Kolkata, Sourav Ganguly, had an evening filled with lighter moments amongst friends and former colleagues. When Indian opener Sharma quizzed Ganguly over his plight of having to select between spinners Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble in Test matches away from the sub-continent, Ganguly had an interesting answer.

"It was simple Rohit. The best thing was one Friday, I got fired by Kumble, and the next Friday, I got fired by Bhajji. It was as simple as that. Whoever I left out would come to my room and say: 'If you think I'm not good enough, find someone else." And I'd to tell them: 'You're good enough, and you'll play the next game,'" said Ganguly.

Rohit remembered how Ganguly's famous shirt-twirling act at the Lord's balcony to celebrate India's triumph in the Natwest Trophy final in 2002 inspired his friends to take their shirts off too while watching the match.

"I was 13 or 14. We were watching it at our friend's house. As soon as he removed his T-shirt, we all took off our T-shirts and we kept doing it until he stopped. There were some chest-bumps as well," Sharma said.

Sourav Ganguly : I wish Smith, Warner and Bancroft luck and hopefully they will come back

Comments

0 Comments