Hilsa & training, Sourav laps up Tripura menu

Posted by Sinlung
Bengal southpaw notices great improvement in state’s cricket, vows to help promising youths
Sourav Ganguly interacts with young cricketers in Agartala on Sunday. Picture by Eastern Projections
Agartala, Sept. 14: Hilsa — fried and steamed — and egg curry kept gourmet Sourav Ganguly busy at Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar’s residence yesterday before the Bengal southpaw could get down to the usual business of cricket.
Ganguly was specially invited by the chief minister’s wife, Panchali Bhattacharya, for lunch through Arindam Ganguly, the secretary of the Tripura Cricket Association.
As Panchali took up the ladle to serve the guest herself, Ganguly thought it fit not to disappoint her.
“There were duck eggs and Sourav had four of them. He did not have much rice though,” an aide close to the chief minister said.
Of course, there was dal to accompany the rice — a meal the cricketer later described as “very homely food”.
The “homely” touch was only natural. The Tripura chief minister is a known cricket lover and a big fan of Ganguly.
Digging into the hilsa, Ganguly could not help lamenting the unavailability of such “tasty fish” in the Calcutta markets.
“Sourav absolutely relished the hilsa,” the aide said.
Sources in the chief minister’s office said the hilsa was specially ordered from one of the biggest fish exporters of Agartala.
Unlike in other parts of the country, people in Agartala get to savour fresh hilsa as the place in Bangladesh where the fish is loaded for export is only around two-and-a-half hours’ drive from the Tripura capital.
Before leaving for Calcutta this morning, Sourav lauded the progress made by Tripura in building cricket infrastructure since 1995 when he had come to the state to play a Ranji Trophy match.
“There has been 60 per cent improvement since then as more or less all the facilities are there. Tripura will make rapid strides in cricket,” Ganguly said.
He also offered to train promising cricketers from the state for free in his Calcutta academy.
Earlier yesterday, Ganguly was accorded a rousing welcome by the Tripura Cricket Association and was given a reception in Nazrul Kalakshetra where he also distributed prizes during the association’s annual prize giving ceremony.
He also interacted with budding players at the Maharaja Vir Vikram Stadium where he gave tips and instructions to cricketers, impressing on the pace bowlers the importance of landing the ball in the right areas.