IPL: Sourav Ganguly signs for Pune Warriors

Former India captain Sourav Ganguly finally realised his dreams to play in the Indian Premier League (IPL) as he was picked up by Pune Warriors India as a replacement from injured left-arm pacer Ashish Nehra.

“We were waiting for Ashish Nehra’s fitness report and ultimately the report came yesterday. I was already in talks with Ganguly and we decided that the amount of experience that Sourav has in cricket will no doubt help the team. So we finalised Ganguly last night,” Pune Warriors Team director Abhijit Sarkar said referring to the finger injury that Nehra has been nursing.

Ganguly, who played for Kolkata Knight Riders for three IPL seasons captaining them in two editions, went unsold in the January players’ auction despite a rather modest base price of $400,000.

The 38-year-old turned down a mentor’s role with Knight Riders and the Indian cricket board also turned down a request by Kochi Tuskers to have the cricketer in the team out of auction.

Ganguly signed on the dotted line for Pune Monday, giving a major fillip to the side which has lost six matches on the trot after starting promisingly with a couple of back-to-back wins.

During the auction, Ganguly was linked with Pune Warriors, but coach Geoff Marsh was not willing to take him and was reported to have sternly turned down request made by Sahara India owner Subrata Roy.