Agency report

Lucknow, Jun 9: The Indian cricket selectors may have dumped Sourav Ganguly, and his fans too might have given up on him, but the former India captain's family is still optimistic about his return.

They are banking on a tantrik (practitioner of black magic), who claims Ganguly can return through his mystical powers.

The priest came all the way from Kolkata to Lucknow to perform a special puja, which he claims will see Ganguly return with a bang in the next few months.

What is interesting is that this puja was performed at the local Hindu cremation ground, Bhainsakund, on Wednesday afternoon.

"Sourav will be back in action anytime between July 15 and October 15," Kartik Chatterjee, the middle-aged priest, told rediff.com, just before returning to Kolkata on Thursday.

"I am Sourav's family priest and have been sent here by his mother, who is very keen to see her son back to the game in which he brought laurels for the country," he said.

"Sourav's mother has been really upset ever since he was pulled out of the Indian team and she strongly felt that her son's stars are not favouring him," Chatterjee added. "She therefore asked me to do something and that is what brought me here."

Asked why he chose Lucknow of all places, the dark-haired, white-robed priest shot back, "Well, it was here at the Bhainsakund cremation ground that I had acquired my siddhi (special powers); that is why I chose this place."

Chatterjee was carrying a family photograph of Sourav, clicked when he staged a comeback after being briefly dropped from the national team in 1996.

"That time also I had come here to perform puja; that brought him back to the team," Chatterjee claimed. 

He used the picture to perform various rituals at the cremation ground.