Saurabh Ganguly has Joined Pune Warriors

Sourav Ganguly, the
former India captain,
has been signed by
Pune Warriors as a
replacement for Ashish
Nehra, who was ruled
out for the remainder
of the 2011 season with
a finger injury.
Ganguly's contract is
for a period of one year
and is an IPL lifeline to
the batsman after he
went unsold at the
player auction in
January, where his
base price was
$400,000.
Ganguly will be vice-
captain to Yuvraj Singh
and is likely to join the
Pune squad ahead of
their match against
Mumbai Indians at the
Wankhede Stadium on
May 4.
"We were waiting for
Ashish Nehra's fitness
report and ultimately
the report came
yesterday," Abhijit
Sarkar, Pune's team
director, told PTI. "I was
already in talks with
Ganguly and we decided
that the amount of
experience that Sourav
has in cricket will no
doubt help the team. So
we finalised Ganguly last
night.
"He is playing in IPL not
for money but to prove
a point. Our team think-
tank felt that Sourav
Ganguly is the best
possible option available
so we went for him. He
has been a fighter and
a master of
comebacks. We are
very much confident
that he will prove his
worth."
Ganguly played for
Kolkata Knight Riders in
the first three seasons
of the IPL and led the
team in two of them,
while Brendon McCullum
was captain for the
other. Kolkata fared
poorly in those years
and are the only
franchise not to make
the semi-finals. Kolkata
did not bid for Ganguly
in January despite his
name coming up for
sale twice, as they
revamped their squad
entirely, and the
batsman later refused
a mentoring role with
the franchise.
Pune Warriors are
bottom of the ten-
team league at
present, having lost six
consecutive matches
after winning their first
two. Ganguly has an
average IPL record -
1031 runs at an
average of 28 and
strike-rate of 110 - and
could strengthen an
under-performing and
short batting order.