London, July 21: As Sachin Tendulkar stands on the threshold of his hundredth century in international cricket, former opening partner Sourav Ganguly believes the batting maestro should go on till he feels he can keep up his high standards for the country.
Ganguly, who is part of the commentary team for the England-India series, has been part of some wonderful sporting moments at Lord’s himself. Here he talks about the maestro, the memorable NatWest series and the atmosphere are the home of cricket.
Excerpts from a pre-match interaction:
On whether Sachin Tendulkar was ever likely retire
Why do we want him to retire? He should play till he performs, he seems fantastic. Honestly, in the last two years I think he has batted the best ever and I saw the hundreds in South Africa on those wickets - he was brilliant. And he is going to make a hundred before he leaves this country- four Test matches to go and he will probably get his hundredth hundred here. He should keep playing till he performs.
On his debut in 1996
When I saw the sunshine early morning when I came out of the dressing room I was the first person to get in. We stayed bang opposite so we would just walk into the ground, I came in here at nine o’clock and saw the bright sunshine. I could still hear the words of [the buzz] which is on here right now and it was great. A good wicket to bat on - probably the best batting pitch on Day 3, Day 4 and I was lucky to be on the right side of it.
On the other fond memories at Lord’s like the NatWest final (India chased down 325 runs)
We won both the one-day games that year here at Lord’s. We beat England the first game and then [in] the final here. It was a good wicket here, both good days, bright sunshine […] a good Saturday afternoon and at one stage I thought we won’t win that game - we were 150 for [the loss of] five [wickets]. Then Yuvraj [Singh] and [Mohammad] Kaif were brilliant.
On the new media centre and the atmosphere at Lord’s
On the morning of the Test match there are words around, people are excited. They want the game to start, so many people on the ground from the ICC, the television people, the crew, terrific atmosphere. It’s a beautiful ground, right in the heart of London and it’s fabulous. You just need to shut yourself out of all of this and I’m sure all these guys do it. At the end of the day what is going to matter is what you do in the middle.
On whether he feels the same buzz coming back as a commentator
I do get the same buzz, to be honest and yes, it was a great atmosphere in the morning although there’s a bit of rain around - but that’s what England is all about. That’s why you come here - to get used to different conditions, sunshine, rain, seaming wickets and it’s a great atmosphere. Great test for young players - [Suresh] Raina will probably play his first Test match at Lord’s and so will Praveen Kumar and even Ishant Sharma. So it’s going to be a big [game] for them.
