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Sourav Ganguly, the former captain of India’s cricket team and a hugely popular figure in his hometown Kolkata, will belatedly play in this year’s Indian Premier League after being signed by bottom-placed Sahara Pune Warriors.
- Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
- Sourav Ganguly will be vice-captain at Pune Warriors.
Ganguly replaces bowler Ashish Nehra, who has been ruled out of the 2011 IPL because of injury, Abhijit Sarkar, the team’s director and head of corporate communications at Sahara,told news channel NDTV.
He said that Ganguly will practice with the team but is unlikely to play in Wednesday’s match against top-placed Mumbai Indians, captained by his former national teammate and another cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar.
Ganguly will be vice-captain at Pune Warriors, one of two new IPL franchises this year. Pune Warriors, who are led by Yuvraj Singh, the man-of-the-World Cup, launched their campaign in style with two wins but have since lost six matches in a row and now languish at the bottom of the table with just four points. Ganguly, therefore, has very little time to influence his new team’s fortunes.
Mr. Sarkar didn’t respond to requests for comment from India Real Time.
Ganguly played for Kolkata Knight Riders in the first three installments of the IPL, captaining the team for two of those years, but the franchise didn’t retain him this year and he failed to attract a bid from any other IPL outfit at the auction in Bangalore after setting his base price at $400,000.
Shah Rukh Khan, the Bollywood actor and owner of Kolkata Knight Riders, came in for some criticism from local fans after dropping Ganguly, affectionately known as Dada, or big brother. But his decision appears to have been vindicated now that Kolkata Knight Riders sit third in the 2011 IPL table with 10 points and in a good position to progress to the next stage.
Still, news of Ganguly joining IPL4 has generated a buzz and is being broadly welcomed by cricket fans on sites such as Twitter.
@kssridhar , who goes by the name Sridhar, tweeted “Hey Ganguly back to IPL playing for Pune…my fav players Yuvi and Sourav in same team 
will see all matches of Pune without fail…”, while @10sine, or Neha, wrote “Welcome back Sourav Ganguly, IPL Missed you! and So did we.. !”
will see all matches of Pune without fail…”, while @10sine, or Neha, wrote “Welcome back Sourav Ganguly, IPL Missed you! and So did we.. !”While Dada’s arrival will generate more interest in Pune Warriors, and even win them a slew of new fans from Kolkata and West Bengal and elsewhere, it would be almost miraculous if his addition prompts a strong enough run of victories to save the team this year
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