“He wanted endorsement deal from undergarments brand," Sehwag on Ganguly’s shirtless celebration at Lord’s

Ganguly took his shirt off and started waving it at Lord’s balcony after India won NatWest 2002 final.

Sourav Ganguly took his shirt off after India's NatWest final win in 2002 | TwitterThe NatWest Trophy final between India and England in 2002 is widely regarded as one of the greatest ODI matches.

India registered a thrilling two-wicket victory in that match while chasing England’s mammoth target of 325. The game was full of epic moments and Ganguly’s shirtless celebration was one of them.

Soon after Zaheer Khan hit the winning runs, Ganguly took his shirt off and started waving it with full enthusiasm at the Lord’s balcony, much to the shock of the entire cricket fraternity.

Nearly 21 years after that incident, former India opener Virender Sehwag has given a hilarious explanation on Ganguly’s infamous celebration.

"Dada celebrated without his shirt because he wanted an endorsement deal from an undergarments brand," Sehwag quipped while speaking on the launch of Amrit Mathur's book 'Pitchside' on Wednesday (August 2).

"He wanted to give a befitting reply to Flintoff who did the same in Mumbai," he added.

Sehwag shared another hilarious incident involving Ganguly from the 2003 World Cup in South Africa.

"After a bad start to the 2003 World Cup our coach John Wright asked who should open. We all got together and wrote our suggestions. Out of the 11 chits only one had 'Saurav-Sachin' written on it. Only Saurav Ganguly only wrote his name on his chit. Everyone else wrote mine and Sachin's name. Since then Sachin and I started opening and Dada very graciously came in at no.3," he recalled.

 
 

By Salman Anjum - 03 Aug, 2023

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