“I followed you like an obedient student” - Sourav Ganguly tells John Wright in commentary reunion

05/29/2019

For the first time, Sourav Ganguly and John Wright reunited in the commentary box for the World Cup and Ganguly reminisced their partnership by saying he followed Wright like an obedient student. Wright quickly disagreed and stated that it was the former Indian skipper who was firmly in charge.

History may not remember John Wright as India’s most successful coach, but Wright’s contribution to Indian cricket was beyond parallels. During his tenure with the Indian team from 2000 to 2005, Wright was in charge of the team when they were suffering from match-fixing scandal. However, the New Zealander teamed up with the then newly-appointed captain Sourav Ganguly to rebuild the fallen side and took it to great heights together.

Under the duo, India were able to break the 16-Test winning streak of Australia at the Eden Gardens and India reached the finals of the 2003 World Cup, only to be beaten by a stronger Australian side. India's thrilling victory of 2002 Natwest Final against England also saw the emergence of Mohammad Kaif and Yuvraj Singh on the big stage, making the Wright-Ganguly partnership a fond one for the Indian fans.

When the duo reunited in the commentary box, it was bound to bring back memories of the glory days. Taking his moment to appreciate, Ganguly said, “When I was captain, John Wright was making all the decisions and I followed like an obedient student.”

To this, Wright replied, “My memory must have failed then because I think you were in charge and I used to just potter around in the background.”

The duo also involved themselves in some funny moments as Ganguly asked Wright if he remembered what the scores were of India’s warm-up games before the 2003 World Cup and asked him to do the ‘floss dance’, mysteriously referring to how well Wright used to do it.