Sourav Ganguly: Sourav Ganguly’s cricket career has had several memorable chapters. Among them, an incident of the 2004 tour of Pakistan (India vs Pakistan) is still very popular. General Pervez Musharraf was the president of Pakistan at that time. There was tight security for the Indian team. But after breaking that safety net, Sourav appeared at Lahore’s famous food street with his friends one night.
Musharraf’s love of cricket
Pervez Musharraf was a big fan of cricket. He also publicly praised Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s hairstyle during the Indian team’s 2003-04 tour of Pakistan. But in that trip, one of Sourav’s actions made him very worried. Sourav later wrote about that incident in his autobiography ‘A Century is Not Enough’.
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Out of the team due to injury
The two teams first played a five-match ODI series on the tour of Pakistan. Sourav got injured while taking a catch in the last match of the series. According to the doctor’s advice, he has to rest for about three weeks. In his absence, Rahul Dravid took over the captaincy of the Indian team in the Test series.
Grandfather went out in the middle of the night
Sourav was in a hotel in Lahore at the time of the injury. For the Indian team, the hotel was virtually surrounded by fortress-like security. At that time some friends from Kolkata went to Pakistan to watch the match. One night, Saurabh learns that the friends have planned to go to the famous food street of Golmondi in Lahore for kebabs and tandoori food.
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Street food bypassing security
Although he wanted to go with his friends, Saurabh knew that if he told the security guards, he would not be allowed to go. So he decided to go out without informing the security officer. However, team manager Ratnakar Shetty informed the matter. After that, he left the back door of the hotel and covered his face with a cap and reached the food street with his friends.
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Finally recognized a person
Sourav’s plan was almost succeeding. But while eating a person came to him and asked, is he Sourav Gangopadhyay? At first the grandfather denied his identity. But the man kept insisting that he looked like Sourav. The situation becomes more complicated when an Indian journalist catches his eye.
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Dada is forced to return to the hotel
Sourav did not take any risk after the journalist recognized him. He quickly returned to the hotel from there. Sourav recounted this incident in his autobiography that shows how adventurous his nature was outside the cricket field. This story of the president going out to eat street food in the middle of the night despite the tight security on the soil of Pakistan is therefore an amusing example of ‘Dadagiri’ to cricket lovers even today.