Giving is a habit: Sourav Ganguly

Former India captain Sourav Ganguly said giving for causes and charitable purposes was a habit to inculcate to benefit those who need assistance. Ganguly was speaking at an event on the CAF World Giving Index 2015 report here in the capital.

Ganguly, Charities Aid Foundation India chairman Arun Bharat Ram, CAF India chief executive Meenakshi Batra, president of Coca Cola India and south-west Asia Venkatesh Kini, UBS India operations chief Praveen Kumar and Vikram Chandra of NDTV were the panellists on the document which is regarded as a leading comparative measure of generosity across the globe.

Said Ganguly, ‘’Giving is a habit. It’s like getting your first Test 100. It takes a lot of time to get your first one except a few who get it on debut. But then when it starts happening, it happens a lot quicker.’’

To make his point, Ganguly spoke of how Sachin Tendulkar too took a while to get to his first Test hundred but once the Master Blaster notched it up, there was no stopping him. “Sachin took 10 Test matches to get to his first Test hundred, but once that happened, he finishes with 100 hundreds.’’

The survey is a study of global charitable behaviour based on surveys in 145 countries.