It was a session of sharing unknown tales. Saurav Calling Sourav was an interesting concept at the RevSportz’s Trailblazers 2.0 Conclave on Wednesday and over half an hour of freewheeling chat between cricket icon Sourav Ganguly and squash champion Saurav Ghosal, the audience at the ITC Royal Bengal got to know many different things, including handling pressure.
Ganguly was asked about who in the Indian team that he led could have been a good squash player. The former India captain’s reply was: “I think Sachin (Tendulkar) would have excelled in racket sport because of his ball sense. He played table tennis very well.”
Ghosal was asked about who among the cricketers he could identify himself with. “Rahul Dravid,” replied the two-time Asian Games gold-medal winner. “From outside, he (Dravid) looks like a very methodical person, something that resonates with me.”
The two champions stay within a few kilometres in Kolkata, Ganguly in Behala and Ghosal in Alipore. But they haven’t met before. Busy schedules have been the reason. Little wonder then, that the two champions lapped up today’s session.
“He (Ganguly) was picked in the Indian team in 1992,” said Ghosal. “Then, after a while, he came back in 1996 and scored back-to-back Test hundreds. I wanted to know how he went through that period and kept himself ready.”
Ganguly spoke about pressure and how it is good for a sportsperson. The desire has to be to enjoy it. And the ‘God of Off Side’ offered an insight into his winning mentality. “Sport is not about participating anymore,” said Ganguly amid a thunderous round of applause.
“If you want to be treated as a champion, you have to win.”