Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly opened up on the incident in 2001 Test series.
As Sourav Ganguly celebrates his 48th birthday today, the BCCI shared the full episode of his conversation with Indian opener Mayank Agarwal on the show 'Open Nets with Mayank'. The former Indian captain reflected on his career and also talked about the future of the game during the conversation.
Mayank, during the conversation, pointed out a specific moment from 2001, when Australian Steve Waugh was left annoyed after Ganguly came late for a toss. The former Australian captain has maintained that it was against the etiquettes of the game.
In the conversation, Ganguly said that it was only an "accident." However, he admitted that it worked for the Indian team later, as Australians were left grumpy with the incident.
"It was an accident actually. In the first Test match, I left my blazer in the dressing room. They were such a good side and I was really nervous in that series because it was my first big series as captain. Last 25-30 years I haven’t seen a team as good as Australia in that generation. Initially, I forgot my blazer in the first Test but then I realized that he reacted to it. It was working on them, working on the team, and how they went about their jobs. They were a bit grumpy with all that and it worked for us as we won the series 2-1,” Ganguly told Mayank.
“Having said that, Steve Waugh is a friend and I have tremendous respect for him as a cricketer. It was all in good humour.”
Earlier, Ganguly had also talked about his opening partnership with Sachin Tendulkar. Mayank had asked Ganguly if Tendulkar forced him to take the striker's end while opening the batting. (ALSO READ: Ganguly names five players from current Indian Test team he would've loved to captain)
"Always he did (force me to take strike). I would tell him sometimes you also face the first ball," Ganguly funnily said.
"He had two answers to it. He believed when his form was good, he should continue at the non-striker's end. And when if his form wasn't good, he should remain at non-striker's end as it takes the pressure off him.
"He had an answer for both, good form and bad form, until and unless someday you walked past him and went and stood at the non-striker's end. He would already be on TV and he would be forced to be at the striker's end!"
