Sourav Chandidas Ganguly
Sourav Chandidas Ganguly (born 8 July 1972), affectionately known as Dada (meaning “elder brother” in Bengali), is a former Indian cricketer and captain of the Indian national team. Currently, he is appointed as the honourable President of the CAB and President of the Editorial Board with Wisden India.
Ganguly was introduced into the world of cricket by his elder brother, Snehasish. He is regarded as one of India’s most successful captains in modern times, and one of the greatest ODI batsmen of all time. He started his career by playing in state and school teams. Currently, he is the 8th highest run scorer in One Day Internationals (ODIs) and was the 3rd batsman in history to cross the 10,000 run landmark, after Sachin Tendulkar and Inzamam Ul Haq. In 2002, the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack ranked him the sixth greatest ODI batsman of all time, next to Viv Richards, Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Dean Jones and Michael Bevan.
After playing in different Indian domestic tournaments, such as the Ranji and Duleep trophies, Ganguly got his big-break while playing for India on their tour of England. He scored 131 runs and cemented his place in the Indian team. Ganguly’s place in the team was assured after successful performances in series against Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Australia, winning the Man of the Match awards. In the 1999 Cricket World Cup, he was involved in a partnership of 318 runs with Rahul Dravid, which remains the highest overall partnership score in the World Cup tournament history. Due to the match-fixing scandals in 2000 by other players of the team, and for his poor health, Indian captain Sachin Tendulkar resigned his position, and Ganguly was made the captain of the Indian cricket team. He was soon the subject of media criticism after an unsuccessful stint for county side Durham and for taking off his shirt in the final of the 2002 NatWest Series. He led India into the 2003 World Cup final, where they were defeated by Australia. Due to a decrease in individual performance, he was dropped from the team in the following year. Ganguly was awarded the Padma Shri in 2004, one of India’s highest civilian awards. He returned to the National team in 2006, and made successful batting displays. Around this time, he became involved in a dispute with Indian team coach Greg Chappell over several misunderstandings. Ganguly was again dropped from the team, however he was selected to play in the 2007 Cricket World Cup.
Ganguly joined the Kolkata Knight Riders team as captain for the Indian Premier League Twenty20 cricket tournament in 2008. The same year, after a home Test series against Australia, he announced his retirement from international cricket. He continued to play for the Bengal team and was appointed the chairman of the Cricket Association of Bengal’s Cricket Development Committee. The left-handed Ganguly was a prolific One Day International (ODI) batsman, with over 11,000 ODI runs to his credit. He is one of the most successful Indian Test captains to date, winning 21 out of 49 test matches.Sourav Gangly is the most successful Indian test captain overseas with 11 wins.[8] The Indian team was ranked eighth in the ICC rankings before he became the captain, and under his tenure the team rank went up to second. An aggressive captain, Ganguly is credited with having nurtured the careers of many young players who played under him, and transforming the Indian team into an aggressive fighting unit.
Along with Harshavardhan Neotia, Sanjiv Goenka, Utsav Parekh, and Spanish La Liga side Atlético de Madrid, Ganguly is also the co-owner of Atlético de Kolkata, a franchise of the Indian Super League, which won the inaugural season in 2014.
He was awarded with the Banga Bibhushan Award from the Government of West Bengal on 20 May 2013.
He presently holds the post of being a member of the Indian Premier League governing council.
Records and achievements:
The only cricketer to win four consecutive man of the match awards in One Day Internationals.
The eighth highest run-scorer in ODI history and second among the Indians, with 11,363 runs.
The fastest batsman to reach 9,000 ODI runs.
One of the only five cricketers to have achieved the unique treble of 10,000 runs, 100 wickets & 100 catches in ODI cricket.
His Test batting average never went below 40.
Has the highest individual score by an Indian batsman (183) in the Cricket World Cup.
One of the 14 cricketers in the world to have played 100 or more Tests and 300 or more ODIs.
India’s most successful Test captain overseas, winning 11 out of 28 matches that he led.
