'Trouble In England': When A Girl Saved Sourav Ganguly's Life Who Was Held At Gunpoint

Former Indian captain and current BCCI president, Sourav Ganguly is widely regarded as one of the 'fearless' players to have played the game. His 'on your face' attitude is a precedent that is being followed by Indian cricket even now. However, there was a moment in life where even Ganguly had shivers down his spine. 

In Ian Botham's Beefy Cricket Tales, Sourav Ganguly revealed an incident during India's tour to England in 1996 where he and Navjot Singh Sidhu got into an argument with a few drunk teenagers. 

In a chapter named 'Troubles in England', Ganguly wrote: “We (Navjot Singh Sidhu and he) got on the tube and set off towards Pinner. In our carriage, there was a group of young teenagers, two boys, and three girls, and they were drinking. We were sitting opposite them and I could see that one of them was looking at us while he was drinking his beer."

Ganguly instantly understood that one of them wanted to get a reaction out of them so he asked Sidhu to stay calm. But, Sidhu got angry and confronted that guy after which Ganguly too had to come in and they got into a fight. 

“I told him I didn’t say anything, but Sidhu jumped in and confronted him. I knew then that there was going to be some trouble. I took my glasses off and threw them to the floor away from us, and got ready for whatever was to come. There were some punches thrown and, just as we got to a station, I pushed the lad and he fell over. He got up and the next thing I saw was a gun in my face. I thought, 'My gosh, this is it – my life is going to be over here on this train',” he said. 

At this time, like a hero in a movie, a girl, who Ganguly described as 'quite big and really strong', jumped in and pulled the guy with the gun away. 

“I was shaking and obviously very upset, but thankfully my tour and my life were able to continue.”

Since this incident, Sourav Ganguly doesn't take a bus or use tubes whenever he goes to England and only travels by own if he wants to step out.