England and India produced some of the most memorable games of cricket in history, especially during the early 2000s.
Both teams were led by feisty characters in the form of Nasser Hussain and Sourav Ganguly, who would go to ends in their bid to be on the winning side.
However, there was one particular aspect of Ganguly which perturbed Hussain during his captaincy days.
It was Ganguly’s tendency to make captains of the opposition wait for the toss, which did not go down well with Hussain.
“When I played against Sourav, I hated him. He used to make me wait for the toss every single time and I’ll be like, Ganguly, it’s 10.30, we have to toss, you know,” Hussain said on Star Sports show ‘Cricket Connected’.
Moreover, in the second innings of his life, post-retirement from the game, Hussain made a name for himself in the commentary box.
It was during his stint as a commentator when Hussain went on to realise that Sourav was a ‘nice’ and ‘calm’ man. Hussain, further, tagged Ganguly as a ‘lovely bloke’.
“But now I work with him for the last decade on commentary, he’s such a nice, calm [man]; he’s still late for his commentary stints, but he is a lovely bloke. And that’s the way cricketers should be. When you play with him or against him, you don’t like him and when you meet up with him later in life, they’re nice people.” he added.
Earlier, during an interaction, the Madras-born cricketer heaped praises on Ganguly and reasoned why he rated him highly as an Indian captain.
“I have always said, and this is a generalisation, but I have always said about Ganguly, that he made India a tougher side,” Hussain said.
Also, Hussain affirmed that India was a good side earlier, but, since Ganguly took over the helms, India turned into a tough team.
“Before Ganguly, they [India] were a very talented side, but you felt they were also a nice side – very down to earth, would meet you with morning, [greet] ‘Morning Nasser’, it was a very pleasant experience. Playing against a Ganguly side, you knew you were in a battle, you knew that Ganguly understood the passion of Indian cricket fans and it wasn’t just a game of cricket. It was more important than a game of cricket,” Hussain concluded.
