Indian captain Sourav Ganguly on Tuesday raised Rs 7,00,000 by auctioning his cricket bats at a function in Kolkata. The auction had been organized by the Urban Development Minister of West Bengal to raise funds for a 10-year old boy Bidurin Chakrabarty. He needs the money for a bone barrow transplant.

Ganguly sold a large number of bats signed by him. However, the bat that fetched the maximum amount was the one given to him by the then West Indian captain Brian Lara in 1997. Ganguly, who had gone on that tour had asked for one of Lara's bats. Today, he sold it for a noble cause. The bat was bought by an industrialist named Ravi Todi for Rs 50,000. Other than that, Ganguly also auctioned 25 bats given to him by B. Dasgupta, a reputed sports company in Calcutta. The autographed bats fetched amounts that varied from Rs 10,000-Rs 15,000. An elated Ganguly later said that he was honoured to be involved in such a noble cause.

The Indian captain however, does not want to rest on the good work that he is carrying out. After the auction, he said that he also wanted to do something for the quake-affected people of Gujarat. However, he has not yet decided on anything. When it was pointed out to him that Steve Waugh and his team was ready to play a match to raise funds for the people of Gujarat, Ganguly said, "let me talk to all the others at the conditioning camp. I have to take the consent of my teammates." However, from his attitude, it was clear that he wanted to do something in this regard. It may be recalled that during the Kargil war, Ganguly had contributed a substantial sum to the Kargil relief fund in Calcutta.

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