Former India captain Sourav Ganguly turned 37 on Wednesday. The most successful Indian captain, Dada, retired form the Test cricket after Australia series in Nagpur. Though Ganguly still plays for Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League, has expressed interests in heading the Board of Control for Cricket in India in future.
Sourav already made his debut as a commentator in last month’s ICC World Twenty20 Championships in England. Man of many ambitions Sourav Ganguly likes to achieve his target and on many occasions have had his say….
The Prince of Kolkata made his ODI debut for India in 1992 against West Indies but failed to impress and was immediately dropped. However, after a good run in the domestic cricket, Ganguly was recalled for the Test series against England and made a memorable debut at Lord’s with 131 runs which included 20 fours. Rahul Dravid also made his debut and scored 95 runs.
Sourav smashed another century (136) in the following Test at Trent Bridge and shared a 255-run partnership with Sachin Tendulkar. From there on it was no looking back.
The Bengal Tiger was a regular feature in the One-day team from 1996 onwards but recorded his first century (113) only in 1997 against Sri Lanka at Colombo. Now, Sourav Ganguly was a prolific run-scorer for India in One-dayers and grabbed four consecutive Man of the Match awards against Pakistan in the Sahara Cup.
He was also effective with his right-arm medium bowling and took the career-best 5/16 against Pakistan. The fearless Bengal southpaw liked to attack consistently and developed a special liking for spinners
Unstoppable Sourav Ganguly was bestowed with Indian captaincy in 2000 and took India to great heights. Under Ganguly, India reached the finals of 2003 World Cup but lost to champions Australia. Ganguly-led India had a dream run between 2000-05 and won series in Australia and Pakistan. He was responsible for unearthing in talent like Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif and Harbhajan Singh among others.
It was during this period that he became the most successful Indian Test captain. However, Sourav’s personal form deteriorated and was subsequently dropped in October 2005
It was during the 2002 NatWest Series that cricket witnessed a football like celebration at Lord’s. After a heroic performance by Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif in chasing a huge 326 runs, Sourav Ganguly took off his shirt and celebrated the win in the balcony of Lord’s.
Later Ganguly clarified his behaviour saying that he was just mimicking the act performed by Andrew Flintoff during a tour of India.
Controversy and Sourav Ganguly walked all together. Ganguly was only responsible for bringing Greg Chappell as the coach for Indian team and they both made headlines for all wrong reasons. Chappell cited that Dada was unfit to lead the team in his letter to BCCI.
The dispute resulted in the removal of Ganguly as captain and even dropped from the ODI team in 2005. Ganguly said Chappell had asked him to step down and street protests followed in Kolkata; it was even discussed in the parliament
The lord of off-side made his comeback in 2006 during the ICC Champions Trophy in South Africa and performed well for India. Ganguly also reclaimed his place in the One-day team and played some useful knocks before being named in the squad for the 2007 World Cup. Sourav also scored his first double hundred against Pakistan in 2007.
Sourav Ganguly retired from international cricket with 7212 runs in Tests with 16 centuries and 11363 in ODIs with 22 tons. With all kind of records set by Ganguly on the field he is all set for off-field actions. Sourav is all set to contest against Jagmohan Dalmia in CAB elections. Reports also state that Dada may be the East Zone’s candidate for the post of BCCI president in 2014. So, get set for Dada’s another comeback.
