Leander Paes is a seasoned achiever on the tennis court, but in the field of administration, he realises that he will only just be finding his feet when he formally takes over as President of the Bengal Tennis Association (BTA) in November after filing his nomination for the post at the association’s Annual General Meeting then.

The former India Davis Cup captain thus has no hesitation in admitting that he needs all the guidance he can get to be an effective administrator and there can be none better to rely on than his friend and fellow Bengal sporting icon Sourav Ganguly. The former India cricket captain will begin his second innings as President of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) next week and Paes is looking forward to learning the finer nuances of administration from the seasoned administrator, who is also a former Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) chief. “Yes, I will be picking the brains of Sourav on the finer points of administration. Each of us may have a different style, but at the end of the day, both of us are team players,” Paes, an 18-time Grand Slam-winner and the first Asian inducted into the ITF Hall of Fame, told telecomasia.net.