Kolkata: CAB president and former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly has invited Sri Lankan batting great Kumar Sangakkara to deliver the Jagmohan Dalmiya memorial lecture before the India-Sri Lanka Test series gets underway in November.
“I have spoken to him (Sangakkara) for the lecture and we will finalise the date soon,” said Ganguly in an interaction with reporters at the Eden Gardens.
Modelled on BCCI’s MAK Pataudi Memorial Lecture the Cricket Association of Bengal decided to pay a tribute to one of it’s longest serving presidents and a legendary cricket administrator Jagmohan Dalmiya, who had passed away on the 20th of September, 2015.
The CAB had plans of organising the lecture before the India-New Zealand test match in the city last year but things didn’t materialise into reality as it coincided with the BCCI special general meeting (SGM) as a result of which all the state cricket associations were busy.
It was then planned to be staged in the month of January this year before the third ODI between India and England but it had be cancelled at the very last moment because of the Supreme Court’s decision to relieve the then BCCI president Anurag Thakur of his duties.
As of now this year, there seems to be no burden whatsoever as the Sourav Ganguly led CAB look forward to making this idea a grand success, especially with the visit of Sangakkara, one of the best ever left-handers in the game.
This however isn’t the first time that the CAB is involved with a Sri Lankan cricketer in any capacity. Earlier they had roped in Sri Lankan spin legend Muttiah Muralitharan as a spin consultant as a part of their ‘Vision 2020’ campaign, that aims to make Bengal a regular supply line for the Indian national cricket team.
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Great initiative.