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As memorable a picture as it is, Sourav Ganguly waving his shirt at Lord’s in 2002 was actually the final shot in a fairly long montage of India-England acrimony that had brewed in the 10 months before that evening in Lord’s.

People who know a bit more about the incident would know of it as a reply to similar actions by English all-rounder Andrew Flintoff after England won the final ODI at Wankhede in February earlier that year to level the series 3-3.

But Flintoff’s actions themselves were a culmination of an acrimonious tour of India. In fact, had it not been for the 2001 series against Aus which overshadows much of cricketing action from that year, that series would be talked about a lot more. And probably not too fondly.

The incident that is believed to have sparked the bitterness was the dismissal of Michael Vaughan in the Bangalore Test. He was adjudged out Handled the ball when Indians appealed after he had thoughtlessly took the red cherry in his hands off the bowling off Sarandeep Singh.

The Englishmen felt the appeal wasn’t in spirit of the game. And the rumblings began. In India’s innings, Nasser Hussain resorted to tactics that many in the press box almost called Jardine-sque and many straightaway gasped ‘Bodyline 2.0’.

Negative tactics and the negative field placements resulted in 7 straight maiden overs. At one point, Sachin complained to the umpires of the tactic but it resulted in the English captain giving the Indian batsman an earful and even led to some ungainly scenes of finger pointing.

Later in the day, for the first time in his Test career, Sachin was out stumped in the match while advancing down the track to hit Ashley Giles for a biggie.

The ODI series continued in similar vein and tempers flared more over poor umpiring and trivial issues.

One of the many uglier incidents saw Hussain himself appealing for Obstructing the field against his counterpart Ganguly.
So, yeah. Ganguly at Lord’s wasn’t merely a response to Flintoff at Wankhede. It was a lot more including the incident in this photo clicked by Rebecca Naden.

Ps - Despite the incident, Sachin called Hussain the best captain in his autobiography.

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