Former Indian skipper turns beggar in Kolkata

By John Cheeran
You may be rich but still you may be worse off than beggars.
It's all about how you want to live. With a bit of self-respect, or not.
Indian cricketers are the richest of the sports lot in the country, still they angle for freebies and exemptions.
Sachin Tendulkar wanted tax exemption for his Ferrari; now Sourav Ganguly is reluctant to pay building fee to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC). Ganguly appealed for a waiver on the building fee for a commercial complex near his house.
Despite his close links with the ruling Marxists, Ganguly, it seems, will have to bow before the rule of the law. The fee for the building is Rs.1.3 million, which Ganguly wanted to be waived through a letter dated November 13. It is likely that former Indian skipper will not have his way.
KMC mayor Bikash Bhattacharya said: "There are two types of fees. One is the land fee and another is the fee for building. The land fee was waived as the plot was gifted. Now the fee for the building is legally binding on Sourav Ganguly. It's the rule of the corporation and we can do nothing about it."
The fee story has a first innings to it.
During a civic reception at the historic Town Hall two years ago the KMC, then controlled by the Bharatiya Janata Party-Trinamool combine and led by Mayor Subrata Mukherjee, had gifted a plot of land to Ganguly to build a sports facility.
Says Subrata Mukherjee: "The land was given as a gift to Ganguly during a civic reception. If the fees are not waived the gift is incomplete. If the KMC gives tax sops to him, it will increase their stature only. It was an abandoned land near Ganguly's house and we decided to give it to him to make a facility to encourage youngsters to take up sports."
The building, which will have five storeys, will have a multi-gym, health parlour, restaurant and a swimming pool.
I find it highly deplorable that an extra-ordinarily rich man such as Ganguly refuses to pay what he is bound to give to the state. In the first place, he was given the land free. Now he is spending energy on getting the fee waived.
Does Ganguly know that there are millions in India without even a few cents of land to claim of their own, not even a place in the graveyard?
Did I hear this guy used to set an example for young cricketers in India not so long ago?Everything has a price and it is time cricketers accepted the facts of life.
After all, there are no free tickets for us to one-dayers or Tests!