Sourav Ganguly Biography: Sourav Chandidas Ganguly affectionately known as Dada is the 39th President of BCCI, commentator and former national cricket team captain. During his career, he was the world's leading batsmen and one of the most successful captains of the Indian national cricket team.
Sourav Ganguly: Personal Information
Full name: Sourav Chandidas Ganguly
Born: 8 July 1972
Place of Birth: Behala Calcutta (now Kolkata), West Bengal, India.
Nickname: Dada, Prince of Kolkata, Bengal Tiger, Maharaja, the Warrior Prince, Lord of the Off Side
Father's Name: Chandidas Ganguly
Mother's Name: Nirupa Ganguly
Brother: Snehasish Ganguly
Wife: Donna Ganguly (1997)
Daughter: Sana Ganguly
Height: 5 ft 11 in (1.8 m)
Batting style: Left-handed
Bowling style: Right-arm medium
Role: Batsman
Autobiography: A Century is Not Enough
Sourav Ganguly: Birth, Family, and Education
Sourav Ganguly (48) was born on 8 July 1972 in Calcutta (present-day Kolkata), India to Chandidas and Nirupa Ganguly. His father was among the richest men in the city and ran a flourishing print business. After a prolonged illness, his father died on 21 February 2013 at the age of 73.
Sourav Ganguly initially played football as it is the favourite sport for the people of Kolkata but was later attracted to Cricket. However, his mother was not very supportive of him taking up any sports as a career.
Sourav Ganguly's elder brother Snehasish Ganguly, who was already an established cricketer by then, supported Ganguly's dream to be a cricketer and persuaded their father to get Ganguly enrolled in a cricket coaching camp during his summer holidays. He took admission in a cricket academy where his batting talent was identified.
He learnt cricket with his brother and despite being right-handed, he learnt to bat left-handed so that he could use his brother's sporting equipment. He scored a century against Orissa Under-15 and went on becoming the captain of St. Xavier's School's cricket team.
In 1989, Sourav Ganguly was selected to play for the Bengal team. Coincidentally, his brother dropped from the side that year. After an impressive show in the Ranji Trophy in the 1990-91 season, the left-hander came into the limelight.
Sourav Ganguly: Personal Life
The marriage of Sourav Ganguly is full of drama or we can say is just like a Bollywood movie. He ran away with his childhood friend Dona Roy in 1997 as their families didn't agree. Both the families were troubled by the incident and later came to reconciliation.
In February 1997, the couple got married. The wedding proved to be another boost for him as he evolved as a wonderful cricketer in ODI's. In ODI ton against Sri Lanka, he scored his maiden and then won consecutive Man of the Match awards. He also featured in the 1999 World Cup and struck 183 against Sri Lanka. This was the highest score in ODI cricket of Sourav Ganguly. The couple has a daughter Sana Ganguly who was born in November 2001.
Sourav Ganguly: International Debut
In 1992, he made his international debut against West Indies. It was not an ideal start as he could score just 3 runs batting at No. 6 in an ODI at the Gabba, Brisbane. He was dropped immediately due to his as he was perceived to be "arrogant" and his attitude towards the game was openly questioned. It was also rumoured that Sourav Ganguly refused to carry drinks for his teammates, commenting that it was not his job to do so and later denied by him. s a result, he was removed from the team.
He then went back to domestic cricket and worked hard. In the Ranji seasons of 93, 94, and 95 consecutively, he was a spectacular run maker. In the 1995-96 Duleep Trophy, he scored 171 and was called back to the Indian side. He played to the National Team for a tour of England in 1996. For the single ODI, he played but was omitted from the team for the first Test. Later, Navjot Singh Siddhu left the England tour because of the mistreatment by the then captain Mohammad Azharuddin.
Therefore, Sourav Ganguly got a chance to make his Test debut. For the first time in the whites, in the second Test of the tour that was played at the Lord's London, he represented the national side. Let us tell you that in the same game, Rahul Dravid also made his Test debut. Sourav Ganguly scored 131 and Rahul Dravid 95. In the next Test at Trent Bridge, Sourav Ganguly scored 136 and became the third batsman in the history to score centuries in the first 2 innings after Lawrence Rowe and Alvin Kallicharran. He had the gift of an immaculate timing and was termed as the "god of the Off side".
He also shared a 255 run stand with Sachin Tendulkar, which became at that time the highest partnership for India against any country for any wicket outside India. The Test ended in a draw, handing England at 1-0 series victory, Sourav Ganguly scored 48 in the second innings.
Sourav Ganguly: Era of Captaincy
After some match-fixing scandal by some of the players of the team in 2000. Sourav Ganguly was named as the Captain of the Indian Cricket Team. The decision was taken due to Tendulkar stepping down from the position for his health and at that time Sourav Ganguly was the vice-captain. His start as a captain was well and lead India to a series win over South Africa in the five-match one-day series and led the Indian team to the finals of the 2000 ICC KnockOut Trophy where New Zealand defeated the Men in Blue.
Then a series arrived that proved to be the game-changer for Sourav Ganguly as well as for Indian cricket. At that time Australia was a champion and defeating them would like a distant dream for any team. Under the captaincy of Sourav Ganguly, India broke Australia's streak of winning 16 consecutive test matches in 2001.
During the Natwest Series, another highlight of Sourav Ganguly's career where India beat England in an ODI at Lord's and he swayed his T-shirt from the balcony of the Lord's. It was the response to Andrew Flintoff who swayed his T-shirt at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai.
India reached the final of the World Cup in 2003 for the first time since 1983 but lost to the Australians. Personally, Sourav Ganguly had a successful tournament, he scored 465 runs at an average of 58.12, including three centuries.
As a captain by 2004, he had achieved significant success and was deemed as India's most successful captain by sections of the media. During his captaincy reign, his individual performance deteriorated especially after the World Cup, the tour of Australia in 2003, and in 2004 the Pakistan series. For the first time since 1969, Australia won a Test series in India.
Due to indifferent form in 2004 and poor form in 2005, Sourav Ganguly was dropped from the team in October 2005. The cap[taincy was passed to Rahul Dravid, his former deputy. Sourav Ganguly was awarded the Padma Shri in 2004, India's fourth-highest civilian award, in recognition of his distinguished contribution in the field of sports. The award was presented on 30 June, 2004 by then President of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.
Sourav Ganguly: The Chappel Saga
In September 2005, the former Australian cricketer Greg Chappell became the head coach of India. The dispute of Greg Chappel with Sourav Ganguly resulted in several headlines. Greg Chappel had emailed the Board of Control for Cricket in India, that Ganguly was "physically and mentally" unfit to lead India and that his "divide and rule" behaviour was damaging the Indian team. As a result, the Board tried to intervene and attempted to bring both of them together to work as a team. But due to poor performance and disputes with the coach, Sourav Ganguly was removed from the captaincy and also dropped from the side. Therefore, to lead the team, Rahul Dravid was chosen as a captain.
Kapil Dev Biography: Birth, Age, Career, Records, Awards, Books and more
Sourav Ganguly: Comeback
In domestic cricket, he performed well. Ten months later during India's tour to South Africa, Sourav Ganguly was recalled after his middle-order replacements Suresh Raina and Mohammad Kaif suffered poor form.
He scored 51 in the first Test against South Africa. In Johannesburg, India won the match and Ganguly did well. He was recalled to the ODI side also and some impressive performances gave him a place in the 2007 ODI World Cup.
In the latter stages, he performed well across formats and scored maiden Test double hundred against Pakistan in 2007. Consistently, he was doing well and decided to bid adieu to international cricket after being in a form. He retired from international cricket in a Test series against Australia at home in 2008 after scoring 324 runs from 4 Tests at an average of 54.
Sourav Ganguly: IPL and life after post-retirement
In 2008, he was one of the icon players in the inaugural edition of the Indian Premier League. He was the captain of the Kolkata Night Riders the franchise owned by Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan. Zee Bangla the television channel also appointed him as the host of the reality quiz show titled Dadagiri Unlimited. It represented the participants from the 19 districts of West Bengal, who had to answer the questions posed by Sourav Ganguly. He was also appointed the chairman of CAB's Cricket Development Committee. The aim of the committee is to receive a report from the selectors at the end of every cricket season, to access the accountability of the selectors and make necessary recommendations. In October 2009, he also played the Ranji cup in the Bengal team. Brendon McCullum was selected to lead KKR in 2009. Sourav Ganguly returned as a captain of KKR in 2010. In 2011, he was signed by the Pune Warriors India. He played for them two seasons and then took retirement from the IPL. He announced the retirement from IPL on 29 October, 2012 and decided not to play in next year's IPL and to retire from the game. Sourav Ganguly after retirement has been active in the development of the game.
Fans distribute maks on Sourav Ganguly's birthday
Sourav Ganguly or Dada of Indian cricket, fan group, 'Maharajer Darbare', has decided to distribute masks on Ganguly's birthday. On the one side of the masks will have Ganguly's 1996 Lord's debut photo and on the other the current photo as BCCI President. Maharajer Darbare will distribute masks to those who cannot afford masks and also sell to those who want to buy them.
This group has more than 10,000 fans from across the state who have also planned to visit Ganguly's Behala residence on his birthday on 8 July (Wednesday) morning with a few of those masks as a gift for him.
List of All IPL Winner Teams (2008-2019)
Sourav Ganguly: President of BCCI
In 2019, Sourav Ganguly was elected as the President of the Board of Cricket Control of India.
Sourav Ganguly: Records and Achievements
Some of the records of Sourav Ganguly are mentioned below:
1. Sourav Ganguly was the most successful Test captain overseas and he remained for a long time. He captained 28 matches and out of which 11 were won by the Indian team. Now, this record has been broken by Virat Kohli in August 2019.
2. In One Day Internationals, he is the only cricketer to win four consecutive man of the match awards.
3. With 1163 runs, Sourav Ganguly is India's second and world's eighth highest run-scorer in the history of ODI.
4. In ODIs, he was the fastest batsman to score 9,000 runs, although his record was broken in 2017 by AB de Villiers of South Africa.
5. He is one of five cricketers to have achieved the unique feat of scoring 10,000 runs, 100 wickets and 100 catches in ODI cricket.
6. In the 9 cricketers in the world, he is the one who has scored a century and taken 4 wickets in a single match.
7. He is also among the twelve cricketers in the world who have scored a half-century and taken 5 wickets in a single match.
8. In the history of ICC Champions Trophy, he is the first player to score three centuries.
9. In the final of the ICC Champions Trophy, Sourav Ganguly holds the record for the highest individual score (117) by any batsman.
10. He is one of the world's 14 cricketers who have played 100 or more Tests and 300 or more ODIs.
Sourav Ganguly: Awards
He has been awarded several awards for his outstanding contributions in the field of sports. Some of them are Sports Star Person of the Year, Arjuna Award, CEAT Indian Captain of the Year, Padma Shri 2004, Rammohan Roy Award. He earned 31 ODI Man of the Match awards. He achieved 6 Man of the Match awards in Test cricket.
On 20 May 2013, the Government of West Bengal honoured Sourav Ganguly with the Banga Bibhushan Award.
Sourav Ganguly: Controversies
- He was often criticised for being arrogant and was tagged with "princely behaviour" during his period in country cricket.
- In India-Australia series in 2001, he reported late for the toss in almost for every game.
- Sourav Ganguly was banned for three matches for showing dissent to an umpire's decision.
- He was involved in a controversy in 2005 with the then coach of the Indian Cricket Team, Greg Chappell, and was subsequently dismissed as captain.