Former India skipper and current Board of Control for Cricket in India president Sourav Ganguly who complained of chest pain and was admitted to a Kolkata hospital on Saturday has undergone angioplasty and will be observed for 24 hours.

“Sourav Ganguly has undergone angioplasty. He is stable now. He will be monitored for 24 hours. He is completely conscious. There are two blockages in his heart for which he will be treated,” Dr Aftab Khan, Woodlands Hospital, told ANI.

The 48-year-old “suffered a blackout” while exercising at his personal gym in the morning and was immediately taken to Woodlands Hospital in Kolkata, according to a senior doctor there, reported The Tribune.

BCCI Secretary Jay Shah confirmed the development on Twitter, adding that Ganguly’s condition was now stable. Shah tweeted: “I wish and pray for the speedy recovery of @SGanguly99. I’ve spoken to his family. Dada is stable and is responding well to the treatment.”

Mamata Banerjee, chief minister of West Bengal, tweeted that Ganguly “suffered a mild cardiac arrest and has been admitted to hospital”.

The chief minister also visited Ganguly in the hospital and said he was fine.

“He (Sourav Ganguly) is fine now, he even spoke to me. I thank the hospital authority and doctors here,” she told ANI.

Dr Rupali Basu, MD & CEO, Woodlands Hospital had earlier told ANI that Ganguly that Gangulu was haemodynamically stable. He has since undergone angioplasty.

Haemodynamically stable is a medical term for stable blood flow, which means a person’s heart is pumping blood at a stable rate, and there is a good circulation of blood in the body.

Basu revealed Ganguly who had a family history of IHD ØE Ischemic heart disease felt chest discomfort while doing treadmill at his home gym.

After being taken to the hospital at 1 pm, his pulse was 70/min, BP 130/80 mm of Hg and other clinical parameters were within normal limits. His ECG showed hyperacute ST-segment elevation in inferior leads and lateral leads. Echo showed mild inferior wall hypokynaesia with preserved overall left ventricular function, according to Dr Basu.

Before his surgery, Ganguly was tested for Covid-19 and his test returned negative.

On December 28, Ganguly had been in New Delhi to attend the unveiling of a statue of deceaded Union minister Arun Jaitley at the Delhi and District Cricket Association. Four days before that, on December 24, he had been in Ahmedabad to attend the BCCI’s annual general meeting.

In 2019, Ganguly was unanimously elected president of the BCCI, the sport’s most powerful body.

The left-handed opener retired from Test cricket in 2008 having accumulated 7,212 runs including 16 centuries – his first made at Lord’s on his debut. He also scored 11,363 runs in 311 one-day internationals.

Ganguly – popularly referred to as “dada”, which means elder brother in Bengali – enjoys massive popularity in the cricket-crazy nation and the news of his hospitalisation was the top trending news on Twitter on Saturday.

(With PTI inputs)