Former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly and former England skipper Nasser Hussain have had a few epic cricketing encounters on the pitch and while they continue to be good friends off the ground, Nasser has admitted that he hated Ganguly for making him wait at the toss. However, with time Nasser has realised that the current BCCI boss is in fact a lovely person.

“I have always said, and this is a generalisation, but I have always said about Ganguly, that he made India a tougher side. So, before Ganguly, there were very talented side, but you felt they were also a nice side – very down to earth, would meet you with morning greetings, morning Nasser, it was a very pleasant experience,” Nasser said while speaking on Star Sports show Cricket Connected.

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“Playing against a Ganguly side, you knew you were in a battle, you knew that Ganguly understood the passion of Indian cricket fans and it wasn’t just a game of cricket. It was more important than a game of cricket. He was feisty and he picked feisty cricketers whether it would be Harbhajan or Yuvraj or whoever – feisty in your face cricketers – that when you met him away from the game, were lovely, nice. Sourav’s like that.

“When I played against Sourav, I hated him, he used to make me wait for the toss every single time and I’ll be like, Ganguly, its 10.30, we have to toss. But now I work with him for the last decade on commentary, he’s such a nice, calm, he’s still late for his commentary stints, but he is a lovely bloke. And that’s the way cricketers should be. When you play with him or against him, you don’t like him and when you meet up with him later in life, they’re nice people.”