SEE: Ex-West Indies captain searches for Indian roots

'We are proud of our Indian heritage and our Indian culture.'

Former West Indies captain Daren Ganga says he is proud of his Indian heritage and has started the process of tracing his family's roots in the country.

Ganga, whose ancestors were from India before migrating to Trinidad, reveals he has already visited a few places around the country as he seeks to get more information about his ancestors.

"We have started that process as a family back in Trinidad. I have had the chance to going to Kolkata, to the actual ghats, where the people would have left in ships way back in 1845 and beyond, it was more than 100 years back when people from India migrated to our part of the world," Ganga tells Rediff.com's Harish Kotian.

"We are proud of our Indian heritage and our Indian culture."

Ganga is in India as part of the West Indies Legends team which will take part in the Unacademy Road Safety World Series.

The tournament kicks off at the Wankhede stadium on Saturday, March 7, when the Brian Lara-led West Indies team take on the Sachin Tendulkar-led India Legends.

Australia Legends, Sri Lanka Legends, South Africa are the other teams taking part in the T20 tournament.

Speaking about his Indian connection, Ganga says they were brought up on a steady diet of Bollywood and he still adores some of the big stars of Indian cinema.

"It was a favourite pastime of mine, and for my entire family to sit and watch the movies. So I grew up with Amitabh Bachchan in his hey day, Mithun, Rishi Kapoor, all these guys were guys that we tried to emulate as a young man because they were the stars on TV and you look at the actresses as well... Hema Malini, Zeenat Aman," he said.

"The food as well because of our great grandfather and then my grandparents, we continued in that tradition. So roti was very much a part of our staple diet. And then when it came to Indian delicacies like Jalebi, Burfi, Gulab Jamun, all these things were things we were very familiar with."

"So to come to India and to experience the same, it's like being home."

SEE the DAREN GANGA Interview!

VIDEO: Hitesh Harisinghani/Rediff.com