Deepti Sharma seeks Ganguly's advice

Bengaluru, November 20: Watching Sourav Ganguly's videos was a habit she had developed herself and later on her coach Vipin Avsasthi showed her clippings of Ganguly's batting. So it was almost like a dream come true for Deepti Sharma, when the Indian women's cricketer met Sourav Ganguly in Kolkata on Sunday.

One of the key members of the Indian team, who were the World Cup runners up and the highest scorer in the history of women's cricket with 188 runs in an one-day international match against Ireland just before the last World Cup, Deepti, will be representing Bengal this season in the BCCI organised national level cricket tournaments.

She was in Kolkata to complete registration formalities on Sunday. And, after meeting Ganguly the all-rounder was simply ecstatic as she requested Ganguly to come to the nets and watch her batting sometime and advice her as well.

Deepti while explaining her decision to play with Bengal, and not her home state Uttar Pradesh, stated, "I have decided to come to Bengal due two key reasons. One is Jhulan Goswami and another is Sourav Ganguly. Jhulan is big name in Indian women's cricket with huge experience. Practicing with her at the same nets and playing with her in matches will help me improve a lot. Along with this I will have Sourav Ganguly as an advisor. If he gets time then he will keep his word and come to nets. I will ask for his advice while practicing against spin. I have seen his batting videos over a thousand times. He was the master against spin. His timing was so accurate against the spin that he never misconnected after stepping out of the crease. I want to master the technique."

Deepti's elder brother Sumit Sharma who had sacrificed his job only to build up a cricket coaching center for her sister was also very happy. He said, "Now my dream will come true. Under the guidance of Jhulan and Sourav sometimes, my sister will be a complete cricketer."