Kolkata, Oct 16 (IANS) Congratulating Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee for winning the Nobel prize for Economics, former Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly on Tuesday called it a "terrific" achievement.

Ganguly, who is set to take over as president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, said Banerjee's feat was a much bigger achievement.

"It's (Nobel prize) a much bigger and terrific achievement," Ganguly said on his return to Kolkata as president-elect of the cricket board.

Ganguly said he has never met Banerjee, but hoped to meet him in future.

"I was reading about him in the flight and what he did. It's on economics related to poverty. He's a special persona From all of us, heartiest congratulations (to Banerjee)," he said.

--IANS ssp/rt