Calcutta: Sourav Ganguly was up early and running on Friday. All thanks to being named captain of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) XI for the T20 match against Pakistan, at Lord’s, on June 27.
“The news came as a pleasant surprise... I got the call from John Stephenson (MCC’s head of cricket) on Thursday and decided to straightaway start preparing,” Sourav told The Telegraph, before getting down to business in his rather basic office at Sourav’s, off Park Street.
It will be the first T20 staged by the MCC at Lord’s, inarguably the home of cricket, and is part of the agreement inked between the Pakistan Cricket Board and the MCC, which is sponsoring the Pakistan-Australia fixtures (two T20 Internationals, two Tests) in England.
“Pakistan have a handy pace attack and, so, I need to be fit! I haven’t trained after the IPL, which ended in April, and there aren’t many days left,” Sourav added, grinning.
Shoaib Akhtar, Sourav’s one-time mate in the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) has made a comeback, and is one of those expected to go flat out in cricket’s shortest version.
“Yeah, Shoaib’s there for the Asia Cup, but let him survive (the upcoming tournament in Sri Lanka) first,” Sourav quipped.
Sourav, in fact, had hand-picked Shoaib to spearhead the KKR attack, in 2008, but the script didn’t unfold the way he wanted. So much so that KKR’s management released Shoaib even before the controversy over players from Pakistan gained momentum.
India’s most successful Test captain, Sourav got back the KKR captaincy in IPL III. So, he’d been in the thick of things (and among runs — 493 to be precise) pretty recently.
Sourav is excited that Brian Lara (a fellow-southpaw whom he admires a great deal) will be playing under him. “I’m definitely looking forward to catching up with Brian... The great man himself... I wonder if he’s put on weight...”
The MCC XI hasn’t yet been finalised, though Chaminda Vaas, Chris Harris and Ian Harvey have confirmed participation. As also the Middlesex ’keeper, John Simpson, Victoria’s T20 specialist Aiden Blizzard and an MCC colts’ player, Glenn Querl.
“We’ll have all the names within a week,” informed Stephenson, who is hoping for an “excellent” response.
Lord’s is, of course, dear to Sourav, who got a brilliant hundred there on Test debut, 14 summers ago.
“Indeed, yes... Lord’s is and will remain very special,” Sourav, who turns 38 next month, signed off, as yet another call came on one of his two cellphones.
Nineteen months after retiring from international cricket, Sourav remains in demand — on and off the field.
The June 27 appearance, incidentally, will be Sourav’s third for the MCC. The earlier ones were in the Diana Memorial game (versus Rest of World), in 1998, and the Tsunami Relief match, against an International XI, five years ago.
Both were 50-over fixtures and Sourav scored 14 on each occasion.
The MCC XI lost to Rest of World, but beat the International XI. The captaincy had been in the hands of Mike Atherton and Stephen Fleming, respectively.
However, unlike in 1998 and in 2005, there’s no charity connection this time.
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