Ganguly to deliver Sardesai lecture

After Sunil Gavaskar, Bishan Singh Bedi and Kapil Dev; now it is Sourav Ganguly's turn to deliver the Dilip Sardesai Memorial Cricket Lecture on September 7 in Mumbai.

"Sourav has agreed to deliver the lecture and it will be a great honour for us since he has been one of Indian cricket’s most successful captains," the late Dilip Sardesai’s wife Nandini told MiD DAY yesterday. Today is the former India batting stalwart’s fifth death anniversary. He scored three hundreds in India’s historic 1971 Test series win over the West Indies in the Caribbean.

"I miss Dilip and find it hard to believe he is no more with me. I have an identity as a teacher, but more importantly for me, it was Dilip who gave my status a stature. He was a good, caring and jovial human being, full of anecdotes," added Nandini, a retired sociology professor, who did a thesis on sociology of cricket.

Dilip Sardesai scored three hundreds in historic 1971 Test series win over the West Indies in the Caribbean.

Ganguly will not be behind the microphone for a lecture for the first time. In 2009, he was invited for a lecture at England’s University of Oxford as part of International Cricket Council centenary celebrations. The Bengal man quit international cricket in 2008, but continued playing the Indian Premier League. In recent years, he has delighted cricket aficionados with his forthright views from the television commentary box. Hence, his September lecture will be nothing short of views straight from the heart.

Pakistan cricket legend Imran Khan was all set to deliver last year’s lecture but the political situation in Pakistan prevented him from making the trip.

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