It is not unusual to find out that married cricketers had affairs with Bollywood actresses. Former India captain Mohammed Azharuddin is the first one that comes to mind as his affair with Bollywood startlet Sangeeta Bijlani eventually broke up his first marriage.

But Azhar was not the only Indian skipper who had an affair with a Bollywood actress while he was married. We are talking about Sourav Ganguly, who had a high-profile affaire with Bollywood actress Nagma which almost put his marriage to Dona Ganguly at risk.

Nagma was born as Nandita Arvind Morarji and was a popular lead actress in the 1990s. After divorcing her father Arvind Moraji, Nagma’s mother married Chander Sadanah, a film producer with whom she had three children including two daughters, actresses Jyothika and Roshini

She made her Bollywood debut along side Salman Khan in the movie ‘Baaghi’. She also starred in popular Hindi movies like ‘Lal Badshah’ and ‘King Uncle’. Nagma has acted in a range of Bollywood movies from Telegu to Tamil to Bhojpuri.

Nagma first met for the former India captain Sourav Ganguly during the ICC ODI World Cup 1999 in United Kingdom. A few years later, Nagma and Ganguly hit the headlines after being spotted outside a temple, presumably to get married.

At that time, Ganguly was already married to Dona and they had a daughter together as well. It was believed that Ganguly was the one to call it quits, and Nagma, in an interview with the ‘Telegraph’ newspaper, said that, “in this case, there was no fight, of course.”

Sourav Ganguly, who went on to become BCCI president, has never opened up about this chapter of his life. In 2020, however, Nagma took to Twitter to wish him on his birthday, which had netizens talking about their alleged relationship in the comments section.

The interview mentions that the actor did not take any names, but had “clearly not forgotten the episode.” Nagma called the episode ‘strange’, and said, “One person among millions becomes special. Our field gives us a platform to meet different sorts of people. Of course, when two people from different backgrounds who are well-known in their fields meet and like each other, people try to make too much of it. The world does not like to see two famous people come together. So much so that it gets into an area of destruction and you let go.”

Nagma then corrected herself and added, “I wouldn’t want to say ‘let go’. You cannot let go of anyone, especially if that person has brought meaning to your life. If you have shared two nice moments with that person, the relationship, the feeling or that moment can never go. I think friends always remain friends. I think if a relationship is genuine, it doesn’t go away. People fight even in their own families. In this case, there was no fight, of course.”