(L-R) Atul Bhalla, area manager east ITC Hotels & cluster general manager ITC Royal Bengal & ITC Sonar, Nilaanjana J Chakraborty, Toufique Hasan, deputy high commissioner of Bangladesh, Australian consul-general Andrew Ford, Sourav Ganguly and Simon Taufel at the unveiling of Simon’s book Finding the Gaps. “Sourav je kotota hero tar proman hochhey uni aamader honourable Prime Minister (Sheikh Hasina) ke invite korechhen and she has agreed. We are so happy that he has become the BCCI president. Ek ta toh aachhey je Bangali hishebey… I have also seen when Bangladesh comes to play here, Calcutta and West Bengal feels that 11 Bengalis are playing here,” said Hasan, who follows the T20 more because “it is a shorter format and easy to follow”. “I will obviously follow the Test match that Bangladesh will play here,” he said. A couple of years in Calcutta and Hasan feels the city is “home outside home”. For Bhalla, the “underlying takeaway from Simon Taufel’s book were integrity, values and great leadership”. “It is in keeping with ITC Hotels’ values in our continuing journey of excellence, deepening our association with the game of cricket, a sport we believe outlines true sportsmanship in human endeavour,” he said. Ford liked fast bowlers like Dennis Lillee when he was young. “I was sort of a fast bowler when I was young,” he said. Steve Waugh has always been one of his favourite cricketers “because of his fighting attitude”. “The thing you have to remember about Steve Waugh is that early on, he struggled to get into the Test team. Once he hit his mark, he stayed the best. This fits in with today’s talk… it’s about people persisting and reaching their abilities. His brother was naturally talented… Mark Waugh… but Steve Waugh went to higher heights because of hard work,” Ford told t2 post-launch. The evening for him combined two of his passions… sport and leadership. “He (Simon) is a man who has risen to the top of his game where his every decision receives intense scrutiny. He knows what it takes to succeed at the highest level under pressure. The books also seeks to inspire individuals to reach their potential and try something new. So, when my government rang me up about a year ago and offered my wife and me the opportunity of setting up a new Australian diplomatic post here in Calcutta, we grabbed that challenge with two hands,” added Ford.