Biography of Sourav Ganguly
Biography of Sourav Ganguly: He is the former captain of the Indian cricket team. He is one of the best cricket players of India. He is counted among the most successful captains of the Indian cricket team. He is an excellent left handed batsman.
Presently, he is the President of BCCI. Sourav Ganguly, popularly known as Dada in the world of cricket, is also called by his fans as Prince of Kolkata, Bengal Tiger and Maharaja. Sourav Ganguly was awarded the ‘Arjuna Award’ in 1998. keep reading
Biography of Sourav Ganguly
Sourav Ganguly was born on 8 July 1972 in Kolkata, P. Happened in Bengal. His full name is ‘Sourav Chandidas Ganguly’. He belongs to a Bengali family. Sourav’s father Chandidas Ganguly was counted among the nobles of Kolkata. In such a situation, it is natural that Saurav’s childhood was full of luxury. His father has a printing business, and his business comes third in Asia. Like other people, Ganguly’s father also dreamed of making him a doctor or an engineer.
Education of Sourav Ganguly
Sourav was admitted to the famous St. Xavier’s School in Kolkata to get his schooling. During this time he started taking interest in the game of football. It is worth mentioning here that the game of football is very popular in Bengal. Probably this also affected Sourav and he was attracted to play football, but in later days, on the advice of his elder brother Snehasish Ganguly, Sourav started playing cricket.
Sourav started showing his bat fire right from his school days. During this, he scored a century while playing for the Bengal Under 15 team against Orissa.
Cricket career of Sourav Ganguly
Seeing his better performance in Ranji Trophy, Duleep Trophy etc., Sourav Ganguly was included in the Indian cricket team for the West Indies tour in the year 1992. In this tour, on 11 January 1992, he played his first international ODI against West Indies at the Gabba. In this tour, he got a chance to play only one match and he scored only three runs. This tour proved to be a flop for him in terms of career. After that he was not included in the national team for four years. He later played the first Test against England at Lord’s in 1996.
There is a wonderful confluence of strength and enthusiasm in Ganguly’s batting. He plays amazing shots on the off side as well. When he was included in the Test match, he was severely criticized. It was said that he was kept in the team because of the quota system. But Sourav silenced everyone by scoring a century in his first two Test innings. Not only this, he also won the ‘Man of the Series’ award by taking more wickets in those matches.
Initially, Sourav Ganguly was deemed fit to play only Test matches due to his inability to play on-side stroke, but he soon overcame his weakness and played brilliantly against Pakistan in the 1997 Sahara Cup in Toronto. He made his place in the heart of every Indian. Sourav has shown an amazing ability to score 75 runs in 75 balls and also took 5 wickets for 16 runs. He won ‘Man of the Match’ 4 times in Toronto. For this reason, he was also selected as ‘Man of the Series’.
He has played several times with Sachin Tendulkar as an ‘opening’ player. Sourav’s main problem is running between the wickets. He believes more in hitting fours than every single run.
In 1997, he was adjudged the best batsman of the year for scoring the most runs in one day match. Thanks to his century, India made the highest score of 314 in one-day match against Pakistan in Dhaka. His partnership of 252 runs with Tendulkar in ODIs is the highest ever record. His and Sachin’s opening pair is the world’s number four best pair in one-day cricket history.
The year 1999 was the best year of Sourav Ganguly’s cricket career. This year he won the ‘Man of the Series’ title in both the five-match ODI series against New Zealand and the Pepsi Cup. In February 2000, Sourav was made the captain of the Indian cricket team. After that he continued to lead the Indian team for a long time. Under the leadership of Sourav, the Indian team reached the final in the 2004 Cricket World Cup.
He had to drop out of the team in the year 2007 due to his poor performance and a rift with the coach of the Indian team, Greg Chappell. After this, he started playing in the IPL tournament with Kolkata’s team Kolkata Knight Rider. Here too he did not stay for a long time, so he joined the team of Pune Warriors.
Awards and honors
In the 1997 Sahara Cup, Sourav set the record of getting the ‘Man of the Match’ award for 5 consecutive times and then won the ‘Man of the Series’ award. Sourav Ganguly was awarded the ‘Arjuna Award’ in 1998. In 1998, Ganguly was given the ‘Sports Person of the Year’ award. Apart from this, he has also received Padma Shri Award and Banga Vibhushan Award.
Achievements –
Ganguly, who started his international career with the Lord’s Test in 1996, was at that time only the third batsman in the world to score a century in both the innings of the debut Test.
In February 2000, Sourav was made the captain of the Indian cricket team.
In November 1999, he was adjudged ‘Man of the Series’ in the five-match ODI series against New Zealand.
Playing against Sri Lanka in World Cup 1999, Sourav scored a mammoth score of 183 runs in one day match and broke Kapil Dev’s previous record of 175. This was the highest score by an Indian player at that time.
Ganguly was adjudged ‘Man of the Series’ in the Pepsi Cup 1999. He scored 278 runs and took 6 wickets.
Ganguly is one of the few players in the world who has scored a century in the same match and has also taken 4 wickets.
Sourav Ganguly is at number four in the world as the opening player pair with Sachin.
Sourav and Sachin together have made a record partnership of 252 runs as the opening pair.
Sourav Ganguly was given the ‘Arjuna Award’ in 1998.
Sourav was given the ‘Sports Person of the Year’ award in 1998.
In 1997, Sourav became the highest scorer in ODIs.
In the 1997 Sahara Cup, Sourav holds the record of getting the Man of the Match award for 5 consecutive times and then won the Man of the Series award.
Dada is second in terms of most centuries outside home ground. He has scored 18 centuries outside India. In this matter, only Sachin Tendulkar is above him. Tendulkar has scored 29 centuries outside India.
Sourav Ganguly is the second Indian cricketer after Sachin Tendulkar in terms of being the man of the match in ODIs. Sachin Tendulkar has become man of the match 62 times while Ganguly has been adjudged man of the match 31 times.
Dada is at number six in the list of most sixes in Nde cricket.
Sourav Ganguly is at number six with 190 sixes after Shahid Afridi (351), Sanath Jayasuriya (270), Chris Gayle (238), Sachin Tendulkar (195), Brendon McCullum (190). On the other hand, if we talk about Indian batsmen, then they are second only to Tendulkar and above Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
Sourav Ganguly was such a captain of the country, who inculcated the habit of winning the country. Because of his stubbornness, his perceived arrogance and his tendency to speak like that.
Under the leadership of Sourav Ganguly, many young players of the Indian cricket team got a chance to show their talent. Not only did he have young players like Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Rahul Dravid and Laxman in his team, he also got the benefit of experienced players like Sachin Tendulkar. He will always be remembered for instilling enthusiasm and passion for victory in his team.
