Discharged from hospital, Saurav avoids responding to questions on “pressure”

Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Saurav Ganguly was discharged from Kolkata’s Woodlands Hospital on Thursday. Coming outside the hospital, Ganguly said he was perfectly fine now.

However, he refused to respond when asked whether there was any pressure on him. Neither did he rule out that there has been no pressure. There have been speculations on the possibility of Saurav Ganguly becoming Bharatiya Janata Party’s face for the chief minister candidate in Bengal for the coming Assembly polls, but the former skipper of the Indian cricket team has himself never commented on the matter. Ganguly was admitted to Woodlands Hospital on Saturday after he felt dizzy during a workout session at the gym in his house. Later in the day, he underwent angioplasty after being diagnosed with three blocked coronary arteries after which one stent was inserted to remove the blockage.

A young and fit person like Saurav facing such a major health hazard was attributed to severe pressure by many doctors. Ashok Bhattacharya, former Left Front government minister and senior leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), who is known to be close to Saurav Ganguly visited him at the hospital on Sunday evening and said that Ganguly was “under pressure” and was being pressurised “politically”, something that is “uncalled for”.

This has led to speculations on why Bhattacharya had made such statements on Ganguly. Right now, no more stents would be implanted, as per the decision taken by a nine-member medical board. He may have to be admitted to hospital for subsequent treatment after a few weeks. Ganguly will be able to go home but continue to be under doctors’ supervision. While that is good news, the question on a possible “pressure” on him, however, remained unanswered as of now.