|
| |
Indian
|
| |
India
|
| |
IND
|
| |
Sourav Ganguly
|
| |
cricket no picpng
|
| |
Left-handed batsman (LHB)
|
| |
Right-arm Medium Pace (RM)
|
| |
88
|
| |
5221
|
| |
4078
|
| |
12/25
|
| |
173
|
| |
3952
|
| |
25
|
| |
5311
|
| |
0
|
| |
0
|
| |
3/37
|
| |
59/0
|
| |
279
|
| |
10123
|
| |
4065
|
| |
22/60
|
| |
183
|
| |
6871
|
| |
93
|
| |
3731
|
| |
2
|
| |
5/16
|
| |
96/0
|
| |
February 3
|
| |
2006
|
(the first name occasionally spelt '''Saurav''') is an Indian cricketer. Born
8 July 1972 , in
Kolkata , formerly
Calcutta ,
West Bengal , he made his One Day International debut against
Australia in 1992, and a Test debut versus
England in 1996. He went on to become the captain of
Indian Cricket Team from
2000 to
2005 . He has led India to the
World Cup 2003 finals, and holds the Indian captaincy record for the most Test victories.
Ganguly is a left-handed
Batsman and a right-handed medium-pace
Bowler . He is a natural right-hander, but converted to the
Southpaw stance at a young age so that he could use his left-handed brother,
Snehasish Ganguly's equipment.
Nicknamed ''Bengal Tiger'', ''Prince of Calcutta'' and also affectionately called ''Dada'' (older brother in
Bengali ) by his team-mates and ''Lord Snooty'' by his opponents, he is an aggressive player on and off the field. He made his ODI
One-day International debut in
1992 , but his talents did not truly receive the recognition they deserved until the
India's 1996 tour of
England when he scored centuries both in his debut Test as well as the next match (the second and third Tests of the series). Ganguly is only the third cricketer ever to score a century on debut at Lord's, after Harry Graham and John Hampshire. He scored 183 against
Sri Lanka at
Taunton in the
1999 Cricket World Cup , the highest by an Indian in World Cup cricket, and the then-highest by any Indian in international cricket.
Sourav Ganguly made his international debut against Australia in India's tour of Australia in 1992. He didn't score much and was dropped from further matches. Four years later, following a good domestic record, he was recalled into the national side for a test series against England in England. He made his test debut at Lords, with a century in that match and repeated the feat in the match which followed. He was retained for the One day team and he went on become a regular in both forms of the game.
Ganguly was nick-named as the Prince of Kolkata by as opener.
He is the third player to cross 10,000 ODI runs, after
Sachin Tendulkar and
Inzamam Ul Haq , and reached 6000, 7000, 8000 and 9000 ODI runs milestones in least number of matches played. Sourav can bowl medium-pacers as well, but has under-achieved in this aspect in Test matches, taking 25 wickets in 84 matches, at an average of 52.47. In
2004 , he was awarded the
Padma Shri .
In terms of statistics, Sourav is India's most successful captain. He has more Test wins to his credit than any other Indian captain. He is the only Indian captain to win both the
One Day and
Test Series against
Pakistan in their home turf.
Ganguly is a temperamental player and has often attracted controversy. He has attracted the wrath of match referrees quite a few times, the most severe of which was a ban for 6 matches by
ICC match referee
Clive Lloyd for slow over rates against Pakistan and therefore his tour to
Sri Lanka for the
Indian Oil Cup 2005 was uncertain. These circumstances led to
Rahul Dravid being made captain for the tour. Later, Justice Albey Sachs reduced the punishment from 6 matches to 4, and this permitted Ganguly to join the team, but as a player and not captain. In his opening match he made the highest score of the side (51). He was again named captain for the Zimbabwe tour of August-September 2005. With this, he has captained India in the highest number of Tests (49).
Ganguly's performance in the last couple of seasons has been poor. This put his place in the Indian team under pressure. In the tour of was appointed captain for the series against
Sri Lanka and
South Africa after Ganguly was not selected for the opening games due to injury. When the two series got over, Rahul Dravid was asked to continue as skipper.
On
November 22 ,
2005 , Sourav stepped down as captain of
Bengal cricket team after being replaced as captain of the Indian test team. He played in the first two Test matches in the three-Test series against Sri Lanka. However, on
December 14 , he was controversially dropped, for the third Test at
Ahmedabad , to make way for
Wasim Jaffer , an opening batsman for
Mumbai . Jaffer was picked by the selectors as they wished to build up a player selection pool with sufficient experience to succeed at international level.
Following the drop, fans blocked roads and railway tracks in
Kolkata , burning effigies of chief selector
Kiran More and Indian coach Chappell, and the urban development minister of
West Bengal ,
Asoke Bhattacharya , said Ganguly was a victim of the internal politics of the BCCI. Cricinfo editor
Sambit Bal wrote in a commentary that this was ''in all probability ... the end of the road for him.'' However, it was announced on
December 25 2005 that he was selected as part of the Indian team to tour Pakistan. Kiran More cited his experience as the key reason, with
Mohammed Kaif being dropped . He was in the playing XI in the Lahore and Karachi Tests, but was dropped for the Faislabad match, and has not been recalled since.
| '''Against''' | '''Venue (Year)''' | '''Result''' |
| 131 | England | Lord's (1996) | Drawn |
| 136 | England | Nottingham (1996) | Drawn |
| 147 | Sri Lanka | Colombo (SSC) (1997/98) | Drawn |
| 109 | Sri Lanka | Mohali (1997/98) | Drawn |
| 173 | Sri Lanka | Mumbai (1997/98) | Drawn |
| 136 | Zimbabwe | Delhi (2001/02) | India |
| 128 | England | Leeds (2002) | India |
| 101 | Zimbabwe | Bulawayo (2005) | India |
| '''Against''' | '''Venue (Year)''' | '''Result''' |
| 113 | Sri Lanka | Colombo (RPS) (1997/98) | Sri Lanka |
| 124 | Pakistan | Dhaka (1997/98) | India |
| 105 | New Zealand | Sharjah (1997/98) | India |
| 109 | Sri Lanka | Colombo (RPS) (1997/98) | India |
| 139 | Zimbabwe | Nairobi (1999/00) | India |
| 141 | Pakistan | Adelaide (1999/00) | India |
| South Africa | Jamshedpur (1999/00) | India |
| Bangladesh | Dhaka (1999/00) | India |
| South Africa | Nairobi (Gymk)(2000/01) | India |
| 117 | New Zealand | Nairobi (Gymk)(2000/01) | New Zealand |
| 144 | Zimbabwe | Ahmedabad (2000/01) | India |
| 127 | South Africa | Johannesburg (2001/02) | South Africa |
| 111 | Kenya | Paarl (2001/02) | India |
Was involved in the first 300 run partnership with
Rahul Dravid
- Holds the record, shared with Mahendra Dhoni , for the second highest score by an Indian cricketer in an ODI — 183, against Sri Lanka in 1999.
- Holds the record, shared with Sachin Tendulkar , for the highest first wicket partnership for India in a ODI match, 258, against Kenya in 2001.
