Did Sourav Ganguly date Claudia Ciesla?

A little birdie tells us that Saurav Ganguly and Claudia Ciesla - who is now locked up in the Bigg Boss house - had a roaring affair about a year ago. The two of them met while Claudia was shooting for her film 10:10 and was staying at The Park Hotel in Kolkatta.

It was a known fact among the crew members and unit walla of the film that Dada was vigorously wooing the German model. A member of the film unit confirmed that Sourav came several times to ‘take Claudia out for dinner’.

Coincidently, Saurav Ganguly’s family owns and runs a restaurant called “Souravs” just opposite The Park Hotel, located on Park Street, which was in the eye of a storm when a Bengali TV channel ran footage of a sting operation. Channel 10 alleged that a prostitution racket was run from the premises of the Restaurant which was rented out to some body else.

Sourav Ganguly was earlier romantically linked to south actress Nagma and the couple even visited a Shiva temple together in 2001. At that time media reports had even suggested that Sourav’s wife Donna had moved out of her marital home and shifted back with her parents.

Our source tells us that Sourav was extremely discreet in his dealings with Claudia Ciesla and did everything to ensure that the press didn’t get wind of the budding romance.

We tried to contact Sourav Ganguly for his comments but he was unavailable for comment. Claudia Ciesla is locked up in the Bigg Boss House for a show that airs on the Colours channel, but her publicist and spokesperson denied the link up and said that it was baseless and false.

“It may be possible that the duo must have met. As an actress Claudia, meets various other celebrities at parties and events. But to say that they were romantically linked or to read too much into a chance dinner meeting is making a mountain out of a mole hill, ” he said.

However, our source who was an eye witness is adamant. They must have met at least 10 times. Sourav played the perfect gentleman waiting for Claudia to finish her shooting and get into something appropriate for dinner.

He looked extremely possessive and his body language as well as Claudia’s didn’t look like they were having just a formal dinner. There was some chemistry. They two looked and behaved like they were ‘into’ each other.

Apparently, the relationship fizzled out when Claudia Ciesla flew back to Germany and got busy with her other assignments. Dada too wouldn’t want to jeopardize his marriage and probably gave up the chase.

Selectors have done a Good thing by picking Dravid: Ganguly

Former India captain Sourav Ganguly on Sunday said the selectors have done the right thing by bringing back Rahul Dravid in the One-day
side as the veteran batsman is an asset for the team.

"Selectors have done the right thing by getting back (Ashish) Nehra in the earlier series and now (Rahul) Dravid. That's the way to go," Ganguly said.

Dravid, a former India captain who last played an ODI two years back in October 2007, was included in the 15-member squad along with Sachin Tendulkar, who was rested for the West Indies One-dayers.

"It's a good thing for (Rahul) Dravid. Hopefully, if he can play well, he will be an asset to the Indian side. This is the right way," the 37-year-old said at Eden Gardens where the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) had organised a condolence meeting for former Sports minister Subhas Chakraborty who died on August 3.

As many as four changes were made to the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led side for the upcoming Tri-series and ICC Champions Trophy next month, with Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja getting the boot following failures in the four-match series in the West Indies, which India won 2-1.

S Badrinath, Murali Vijay and Pragyan Ojha were also shown the door. The ace left-hander said the Indian team never had senior-junior divide.

"There is nothing like junior and seniors. Whoever performs well should play well and moreover, he is just 36. It's all about performances. But I don't think senior-junior is ever an issue and should never be an issue," said Ganguly.

Asked whether he regretted his retirement, he said, "I have decided not to play anymore. I've retired some nine months ago and it's all past now."

On promising Bengal wicket-keeper Wriddhiman Saha, who was named in the 30-strong list of probables for the Champions Trophy, Ganguly said: "It's unfortunate and he has to wait for his turn. (Wicketkeeper-batsman) Mahendra Singh Dhoni is the captain of the side and (Dinesh) Kaarthick is doing well at the moment."

Asked about Shah Rukh Khan's grilling at the Newark airport in New Jersey, Ganguly said, "It's a very delicate issue but he is fine at the moment so that's more important. I don't know much about the incident so can't comment much."

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