Sourav Ganguly with Manabendra Mukherjee and (far right) Asok Bhattacharya on the dais at Science City. (Aranya Sen)

Sourav Ganguly on Friday looked more comfortable on a dais with ministers for company at the launch of the Parama Island elevated road project than he did in the outfield at the end of his Team India days.

The left-hander’s “camaraderie” with senior Left Front leaders and measured speech before the foundation stone of the 4.3km corridor from Park Circus to Parama Island — with a 30-month deadline — was laid, made many in the audience wonder whether he would follow his first Indian skipper Mohammad Azharuddin into politics.

“Amio apnader moto ekjon sadharon nagorik (I am a common citizen like you)” was how Sourav opened his speech. “When I get stuck at a signal, I feel just as helpless as you do.”

He continued by saying that the corridor would “surely help” decongest a road that he had found to be “a nightmare” during his “constant trips to the airport since 1996 (his Test debut)”.

The Behala boy had taken guard by patting city mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya on the back and shaking hands with urban development minister Asok Bhattacharya and tourism minister Manabendra Mukherjee.

Throughout the programme, Sourav was involved in an animated discussion with Mukherjee and Bhattacharya, sometimes gesturing with his hands as he once would to set the field for Harbhajan.

While Sourav chose to play the sheet anchor on the podium, the ministers went for the big shots, making tall claims.

Bhattacharya remarked on the improvement in Sourav’s “delivery” of Bengali. “That must be because he is watching a lot of serious Bengali cinema with me, in exchange of which he makes me see Shah Rukh Khan’s blockbusters,” he added.