If you're late, the bus will leave no matter who you are: Ravi Shastri on infamous Sourav Ganguly incident
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
• Sourav Ganguly and Ravi Shastri have had a number of altercations over the years
• At present, while Ganguly is the BCCI president, Shastri is the head coach of the Indian cricket team
• In a chat with Times Now, Shastri spoke of the infamous bus incident with Ganguly
Sourav Ganguly and Ravi Shastri, two of the most famous names in Indian cricket, have often been in the news over their bitter-sweet relationship. From publicly speaking against each other to being part of some confrontational events, Ganguly and Shastri have often been in the news.
In an exclusive chat with Times Network's Group Editor Navika Kumar, Ravi Shastri opened up about his equation for Ganguly who is now the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). During the chat, an infamous bus incident came up where Shastri had reportedly not allowed Ganguly to board the bus as he was late.
On being asked about the incident, Shastri said: "If someone comes late for the bus, the bus will go, doesn't matter who he is – it just happened to be Sourav that day".
Shastri was also asked if Ganguly holds it against him as the president of the BCCI. The Indian cricket team head coach's response was, "Absolutely not. I just had a chat with him when he was here (in England). I have watched a lot of his cricket. In fact, he played in the same team as I did (Tata Steel). I played for Tata steel as captain and he played under me. We go a long way.
"The media love these stories. They love this bhel puri & chat, and will make nice masala out of it. I also enjoy these stories a lot," he added.
The incident took place in 2007 when Ganguly was still an active cricketer and Shastri was the manager of the team. When Dada was asked about the incident, he simply denied it saying it never happened. He even stressed that one should not interview Shastri in the morning.
"You don't interview him [Shastri] in the morning, don't bring him on the breakfast show he wouldn't remember what he said. When I meet him, I will ask what did you say on the breakfast show, that never happened I don't know where he got that from," Ganguly had said on Breakfast With Champions.
"But don't interview him in the morning, do it in the evening he will be able to recall things better."