Silver bat to be presented to Ganguly

It was only on Tuesday that the CPI(M) led Government in West Bengal had taken a decision not to have another felicitation function for Indian captain Sourav Ganguly. However, things have changed with the intervention of the Chief Minister Jyoti Basu. He formally instructed the State Sports Minister Subhas Chakrabarty to felicitate Ganguly on behalf of the state. Basu went to the extent of commenting that Ganguly is a great cricketer and the state will feel proud to honour him.

In fact, plans to felicitate Ganguly were disclosed by the Sports Minister on Wednesday. He informed that the felicitation will take place either on April 2 or the next day at the Netaji Indoor Stadium. ``It will be on the same lines like the one we had to honour the Noble Laureate Amartya Sen,'' said Chakrabarty. Amongst the prizes that Ganguly will get will be a citation and a full size cricket bat made of silver. The keys of a flat will also be handed over to Ganguly on behalf of the State Government. Disclosing this at the Writers Building on Wednesday, the State Sports Minister said ``We have decided to invite Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev and Sachin Tendulkar to attend the function. All the three will be present in Calcutta during that time for another occasion. All the past cricketers from Bengal who have represented the country will also be invited to sit on the stage when we honour Ganguly.''