Early life
The youngest son of Chandidas and Nirupa Ganguly, Ganguly was born on 8 July 1972 in Kolkata. His father ran a flourishing print business and was one of the richest men in Kolkata. He had a luxurious childhood and was nicknamed the Maharaja. Though he was asked to concentrate on his studies and not to play cricket, he was inspired to do so by his brother Snehasish Ganguly, an accomplished left-handed batsman for Bengal. Though he was actually right-handed, he batted left-handed so that he could use his brother's equipment. After he showed some promise as a batsman, he was enrolled in a cricket academy. An indoor multi-gym and concrete wicket was built at home for him and his brother, and he would often watch cricket videos, especially those of David Gower, whom he admired. After he scored a century against the Orissa U-15 side, he was made captain of St Xavier's School's cricket team, where several of his teammates complained against what they perceived to be his arrogance. One anecdote was that during a tour with a junior team, it was Ganguly's turn to be the twelth man, a substitute who can only field and whose role is usually to raise morale by supporting the playing XI by organising their spare equipment and drinks, and ferrying messages from the dressing room to the players. Ganguly purportedly refused to do such tasks as he considered it beneath his social status to assist his teammates in such a way.
International career
An innings-by-innings breakdown of Ganguly's Test match batting career, showing runs scored (red bars) and the average of the last ten innings (blue line).
Debut and early career
Following a prolific Ranji season in 1990-91, Ganguly made his One Day International debut for India against West Indies in 1992, and scored three runs. He was dropped immediately since he was perceived to be "arrogant" and his attitude towards the game was openly questioned. He toiled away in domestic cricket, scoring heavily in the 1993–94 and 1994–95 seasons Following an innings of 171 in the 1995–96 Duleep Trophy, he was recalled to the national side for the tour of England in 1996 amidst intense media scrutiny. He played in one ODI, but was omitted from the team for the first Test. However, after Navjot Sidhu left the touring party citing ill-treatment by the then captain Mohammed Azharuddin, made his Test debut at Lord's alongside Rahul Dravid, in what was umpire Dickie Bird's last Test. He scored a century, becoming only the third cricketer to score a century on debut at Lord's, after Harry Graham and John Hampshire. Andrew Strauss and Matt Prior have since accomplished this feat, but his 131 still remains the highest by any batsman on his debut at Lord's. In the next Test match at Trent Bridge he made 136, thus becoming only the 3rd batsman to make a century in each of his first two innings (after Lawrence Rowe and Alvin Kallicharran). He 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.
Opening in ODIs
In 1997 Ganguly scored his maiden ODI century, opening the innings he scored 113, in his side's 238, against Sri Lanka. Later that year he won four consecutive man of the match awards in the Sahara Cup with Pakistan, the second of these was won after he took 5/16 off 10 overs, his best bowling in an ODI. After a barren run in Test cricket his form returned at the end of the year with three centuries in four Tests all against Sri Lanka two of these involved stands with Sachin Tendulkar of over 250.
In January 1998, in the final of the Independence Cup at Dhaka, against Pakistan, he scored 124 as India successfully chased down 315 off 48 overs, winning the Man of the match award. In March 1998 he was part of the India team that defeated Australia, his biggest impact came in Calcutta as he took three wickets having opened the bowling with his medium pace.
In the 1999 World Cup Ganguly scored 183 against Sri Lanka at Taunton, Somerset in England. The innings took 158 balls and included 17 fours and 7 sixes. It is the second highest in World Cup history and the highest by an Indian in the tournament. His partnership of 318 with Rahul Dravid is the highest ever in the World Cup and is the second highest in all ODI cricket.
In 1999/00 India lost Test series to both Australia and South Africa in the five Tests. Ganguly struggled scoring 224 runs at 22.40, however his ODI form was impressive, with five centuries over the season taking him to the top of the One Day Ratings for batsmen.
Ascension to captaincy
In 2000, after the match fixing scandal, Ganguly was named the captain of the India team. In the Champions Trophy of that year he scored 2 centuries but his second in the final was in vain as New Zealand won by four wickets. In 2003 under his captaincy India reached the World Cup Final, where they lost to the Australians.
While he has achieved significant success as captain, his individual performance deteriorated during his captaincy, especially after successes in the World Cup, the tour of Australia in 2003 and the Pakistan series in 2004. Following indifferent form in 2004 and poor form in 2005, he was dropped from the team in October 2005. He remained active on the first-class cricket scene in hopes of a recall, but his performance was a mixed bag - he hit a couple of centuries in domestic cricket, but his English county stint in 2005 and subsequent appearances in the Challenger Trophy were failures.
Having been nominated and rejected in 2001 when the game suffered a tarnished reputation due to match fixing scadals, Ganguly was awarded the Padma Shri in 2004, one of India's highest awards.
In his tenure between 2000 and 2005, Ganguly became India's most successful Test captain. He led his team to victory on 21 occasions – 7 more times than Mohammad Azharuddin with the second most wins – and led them for a record 49 matches – twice more than both Azharuddin and Sunil Gavaskar. Compared to his batting average of 45.47 when not captain, Ganguly's Test batting aerage as captain was a lower 37.66. The pressure of captaincy detracting from Ganguly's batting is also reflected in his ODI batting averages: 38.66 as captain compared to 43.16 when playing as a specialist batsman. In ODIs, he captained India 146 , emerging victorious on 76 occasions, second only to Azharuddin in both number of wins and number of matches as captain.
Comeback
Following India's poor batting display in the ICC Champions Trophy 2006 and the ODI series in South Africa, in which they were whitewashed 4-0, Ganguly made his comeback to the Test team.[34] Wasim Jaffer, Zaheer Khan and Anil Kumble had earlier been selected for the one-day squad,[35] in what was seen as an indictment of coach Greg Chappell's youth-first policy. Coming in at 37/4, he scored 83 in a tour match against the Rest of South Africa, modifying his original batting style and taking a middle-stump guard, an innings that set up a victory for India. In his first Test innings since his comeback, against South Africa in Johannesburg, he scored 51 in a low scoring game, an innings that helped India win a Test match in South Africa for the first time. Though India went on to lose the series, he topped the run scroing charts for his side.
After his successful Test comeback he was recalled for the ODI team, as India played host to West Indies and Sri Lanka in back to back ODI tournaments. In his first ODI innings in almost 2 years, he scored a matchwinning 98. He performed creditably in both series, averaging almost 70 and won the Man of the Series Award against Sri Lanka.
2007 World Cup and aftermath
Following his good performance, Ganguly was named in the squad for the 2007 Cricket World Cup. He was the leading scorer for India in their first round defeat against Bangladesh. After India were knocked out of the tournament in the group stage, there were reports of a rift between certain members of the Indian team and their coach Greg Chappell. Ganguly, allegedly, ignored instructions from the team management to score quickly. After Sachin Tendulkar issued a statement saying that what hurt the team most was that "the coach has questioned our attitude", Chappell decided not to renew his contract with the Indian team.
On 12 December 2007, Ganguly scored his maiden double century of his career while playing against Pakistan in the first innings of the third and final Test match of the series. He was involved in a 300 run partnership for the 5th wicket along with Yuvraj Singh - a much needed partnership that saved India which was struggling at 61 for the fall of four wickets. He later went on to score 239 before being dismissed by Danish Kaneria.
On 18 April 2008, Ganguly led the Kolkata Knight Riders team owned by Shah Rukh Khan in the IPL Twenty20 cricket match to a 140 run victory over Bangalore Royal Challengers led by Rahul Dravid and owned by Vijay Mallya. Ganguly opened the innings with Brendan McCullum and scored 10 runs while his partner Brendan McCullum remained unbeaten blasting his way to a record 158* runs in 73 balls. On 1 May in a game between the Knight Riders and the Rajasthan Royals, Ganguly made his highest score of the season and his second T20 half century, scoring 51 runs off of 39 balls at a strike rate of 130.76. In his innings, Ganguly hit four 4s and two sixes, topping the scorers list for the Knight Riders.
Ganguly has been prolific in both Test and ODI cricket in the year 2007. He scored 1106 Test runs at an average of 61.44 (with three centuries and four fifties) in 2007 to become the second highest run-scorer in Test matches of that year after Jacques Kallis. He is the fifth highest rungetter in 2007 in ODIs, where he scored 1240 runs at 44.28.
Retirement from International Cricket
On 7 October 2008, Ganguly announced that the Test series against Australia starting in October 2008 would be his last and stated "to be honest, I didn't expect to be picked for this series". Ganguly played in every game of the four-Test series, repaying the selectors faith in him by amassing 324 runs at an average of 54.00. In his last innings, he was dismissed for duck off just one ball. India won the series 2-0, and in the final match, with India needing one wicket to secure a victory, the India captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, allowed Ganguly to lead the side in the field one last time.
Playing Style
Sourav Ganguly was a left-handed batsman whose runs came primarily from the off-side. Throughout his career, he played off-side shots such as the square cut, square drive and cover drive with elegance and complete command. Early in his career he was not comfortable with the hook and pull, often giving his wicket away with mistiming such shots. He was also criticized for having difficulty in handling short pitched balls and bouncers, notoriously exploited by the Australians and South Africans. However, after his comeback in 2007, he worked upon these weaknesses to a large extent. He used to hit powerful shots to the off-side on front and back foot with equal ease.
In One Day Internationals, where he usually opened the innings, he used to try to take the advantage of fielding restrictions by advancing down the pitch and hitting pace bowlers over extra cover and mid-off. He was also notorious for attacking left arm spin bowlers. Due to excellent hand-eye coordination, he was noted for picking the length of the ball early, coming down the pitch and hitting the ball aerially over mid-on or midwicket, often for a six. However, he did have a weakness in running between the wickets and judging quick singles. There were many instances where Ganguly's batting partner was run out due to Ganguly's calling for a run, and then sending him back while halfway down the pitch. Ganguly was also an unagile player, and compounded this with a reputation for lazy running between the wickets. In one ODI against Australia, he took a single when on 99, but he coasted and did not ground his bat. Although it was past the crease, it was in the air and he was run out.
Ganguly was a right arm medium pace bowler. He could swing and seam the ball both ways and often chips in with useful wickets to break partnerships. Despite not being very athletic as a fielder, Ganguly has taken 100 catches in one-day Internationals. However, his ground fielding, especially his slowness in intercepting the ball to prevent runs is the subject of much derision.
Post-retirement
On 7 July 2008, news reports circulated that Ganguly is being projected as a candidate for the post of President of the Cricket Association of Bengal against his former mentor Jagmohan Dalmiya. Reports also suggested that he could run for the post of BCCI President in 2014 as East Zone's representative. Ganguly himself did not deny the reports and did not rule out any such move either.
Controversies
County Cricket
Ganguly's County cricket career in England was not a success. In "The Wisden Cricketer" it was described as follows: "The imperious Indian - dubbed 'Lord Snooty' - deigned to represent Lancashire in 2000. At the crease it was sometimes uncertain whether his partner was a batsman or a batman being dispatched to take his discarded sweater to the pavilion or carry his kit bag. But mutiny was afoot among the lower orders. In one match Ganguly, after reaching his fifty, raised his bat to the home balcony, only to find it deserted. He did not inspire at Glamorgan or Northamptonshire either. At the latter in 2006 he averaged 4.80 from his four first-class appearances." His Lancashire teammate Andrew Flintoff thought him to be aloof and compared his attitude to that of Prince Charles.
The Chappell - Ganguly controversy
His dispute with then-coach Greg Chappell resulted in many headlines during 2005 and early 2006. Greg Chappell emailed the BCCI stating that Ganguly was unfit to lead India and that his "divide and rule" behaviour was damaging the team. This email was leaked to the media and resulted in huge backlash from Ganguly's fans. Eventually due to his poor form and differences with the coach he was stripped of his captaincy and dropped from the team. However, 10 months later, during India's tour to South Africa, Ganguly was recalled after his middle order replacements Suresh Raina and Mohammad Kaif suffered poor form.
Shirt take-off at Lords
The shirt that Ganguly took after India's victory in the Natwest Series Final in 2002
During the final match of the 2002 Natwest Trophy held in Lords after a stunning performance by team mates Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif, Sourav Ganguly took off his shirt in public and brandished it in the air to celebrate India's winning of the match. He was later strongly condemned for tarnishing the gentleman's game image of cricket and disrespecting Lords protocol. Ganguly said that he was only mimicking an act performed by the English all-rounder Andrew Flintoff during a tour of India.
Other controversies
Ganguly is an aggressive player and has often attracted controversy. He has attracted the wrath of match referees 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 off 110 balls).[3] 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).
During the 2003 World Cup final against Australia, Ganguly won the toss and decided to field. This decision raised eyebrows but Sourav remained confident that there would be moisture on the pitch that would help his bowlers; however the bowlers flopped and Sourav performed poorly with the bat. India went on to lose by 125 runs, a staggering defeat.
Ganguly's performance in the last couple of seasons after that were extremely poor. This put his place in the Indian team under pressure. In the tour of Zimbabwe, in which he was newly reinstated as skipper, Ganguly ground out a painfully slow century, against what is regarded as one of the weakest bowling attacks in international cricket. During the match he told reporters that newly-appointed coach Greg Chappell had asked him to stand down as captain — a comment which Chappell later played down. However, forty-eight hours after saying that he respected the Indian captain and looked forward to working with him in the future, Chappell sent an email to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Both Ganguly and Chappell were summoned to a BCCI board meeting in which they agreed to work together for the good of the team. Rahul Dravid 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 were over, Rahul Dravid was asked to continue as skipper.
On 22 November 2005, Ganguly stepped down as captain of Bengal cricket team after being replaced as captain of the India Test team. He played in the first two Test matches in the three-Test series against Sri Lanka. However, on 14 December 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. Despite this, in December 2005 he retained his A-grade contract from the BCCI.
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.[55] Cricinfo editor Sambit Bal wrote in a commentary that this was "in all probability ... the end of the road for him."[56] However, it was announced on 25 December 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.[57] He was in the playing XI in the Lahore and Karachi Tests, but was dropped for the Faisalabad match. He was unable to play in the England home series and the West Indies tour. He was also not selected for the following tri-series in Sri Lanka. However, he was chosen amongst 30 probables for the ICC Champions Trophy after being left out in the dark for almost close to a year. Ganguly failed in the Challenger Trophy, however, managing less than 30 runs in two games, and so the chances of recall to the ODI side look bleak.
Ganguly later sent an email hitting out at his one time mentor saying that Jagmohan Dalmiya did not deserve to become CAB president as he had played with his career and that Ganguly was a victim of internal politics within the BCCI. This was in the backdrop of the CAB elections which Jagmohan Dalmiya won.
Records
Ganguly is the seventh Indian cricketer to have played 100 Test matches. He is currently the 4th highest overall run scorer for India in Tests. He is the fourth Indian to have played in more than 300 One Day Internationals. In terms of overall runs scored in ODIs, Ganguly is the second among Indians after Sachin Tendulkar (who has the highest ODI runs in the world) and the fourth in the world. Ganguly has scored 16 centuries in Test matches and 22 in ODIs. He is one of only seven batsmen to score more than 10,000 runs in ODIs. Ganguly has 22 centuries in ODIs, in terms of number of centuries in ODIs, he is only behind[63] Sachin Tendulkar, Sanath Jayasuriya and Ricky Ponting. Sourav, along with Sachin Tendulkar, formed by far the most successful opening pair in One Day Cricket, having amassed the highest number of century partnerships (26) for the first wicket. Together, they have scored more than 7000 runs at an average of 48.98, now with Sachin he is a world record holder for creating most no. of 50 run partnership in the first wicket(44 fifties).
Ganguly is the fourth player to cross 11,000 ODI runs and third player to cross 10,000 ODI runs and so far the fastest in ODI history, after Sachin Tendulkar. He also reached 6000, 7000, 8000 and 9000 ODI runs milestones in the fewest number of matches. Sourav can bowl medium-pacers as well, taking 31 wickets in 99 matches, at an average of 52.47. As of 2006, he is the only Indian captain to win a Test series in Pakistan (although two of the three Tests of that series was led by Rahul Dravid). He is also one of the 3 players in the world to achieve amazing treble of 10,000 runs, 100 wickets and 100 catches in ODI cricket history, the others being Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya.
Test
- Captained India in a record 49 Test matches
- Led India to a record 21 Test wins
- His Test average has never been less than 40.
ODIs
- Hold the record of most 200+ ODI partnerships (6 times) along with Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting.
- Holds the record, shared with Sachin Tendulkar, for most 1st wicket ODI partnerships of 175+ runs (7 times).
- Holds the record, shared with Mahendra Singh Dhoni, for the second highest score by an Indian cricketer in an ODI — 183, against Sri Lanka in 1999.
- Held the record, shared with Sachin Tendulkar, for the highest first wicket partnership for India in an ODI match, 258, against Kenya in 2001. This record was bettered by Sri Lankan opening pair of Jayasuriya and Tharanga in 2006 at Headingley.
- Was involved in the first 300 run ODI partnership with Rahul Dravid.
- Sixth on the all time list with 31 man of the match awards.
- He is also the only player to win 4 consecutive man of the match awards in ODIs.
- India's most successful ODI captain.
- First Indian to score an ODI century against Australia in Australia.
- Highest ODI runs scorer in the world (in a calendar year) in 1997, 1999, and 2000.
- Third in the list of hitting maximum number of sixes in ODIs.
- Second in the list of highest number of centuries in a single calendar year ever. 7 centuries in 2000.
Man of the Series awards
3 Awards in Test cricket
| # | Series | Season | Series Performance |
| 1 | India in England Test series | 1996 | 315 runs (2 matches, 3 innings, 2x100); 37.5-4-125-6 |
| 2 | Sri Lanka in India Test series | 1997/98 | 392 Runs (3 Matches, 4 Innings, 2x100, 1x50); 7-4-19-0 |
| 3 | Pakistan in India Test series | 2007 | 534 runs (3 matches, 6 innings, 1x200, 1x50); 37-10-77-4 |
7 Awards in ODI cricket
| # | Series (Opponents) | Season | Series performance |
| 1 | Sahara Friendship Series (Pakistan v/s India in Toronto) | 1997 | 222 runs (5 matches & 5 innings, 2x50); 48.5-8-160-15 (1x5 wicket); 3 catches |
| 2 | Pepsi Cup (Pakistan, Sri Lanka) | 1998/99 | 278 runs (5 innings, 1x100, 2x50); 20-0-101-6; 2 catches |
| 3 | DMC Cup (West Indies v/s India in Toronto) | 1999 | 89 runs (3 innings, 1x50); 10-1-53-3; 1 catch |
| 4 | New Zealand in India ODI tour | 1999/00 | 301 runs (5 innings, 1x100, 1x50); 18-3-95-2; 1 catch |
| 5 | Zimbabwe in India ODI tour | 2000/01 | 264 Runs (4 innings, 1x100, 1x50); 12-1-51-5 (1x5 wicket) |
| 6 | India in West Indies ODI tour | 2002 | 136 runs (3 innings, 1x50); 3-0-20-0; 2 catches |
| 7 | Sri Lanka in India ODI tour | 2006/07 | 168 runs (3 innings, 2x50); 8-0-43-1; 2 catches |
Man of the Match awards
6 awards in Test cricket
| S No | Opponent | Venue | Season | Match Performance |
| 1 | England | Trent Bridge, Nottingham | 1996 | 1st innings: 136 (17x4, 2x6); 19.5-2.71-3
2nd innings: 48 (8x4) |
| 2 | Sri Lanka | Wankhede, Mumbai | 1997/98 | 1st innings: 173 (25x4, 2x6); 3-0-19-0
2nd innings: 11 (1x4) |
| 3 | Sri Lanka | Asgiriya, Kandy | 2001 | 1st innings: 18 (2x4); 17-5-69-2
2nd innings: 98* (15x4); 10-4-21-0 |
| 4 | Australia | Gabba, Brisbane | 2003/04 | 1st innings: 144 (18x4); 1-0-8-0 |
| 5 | Pakistan | Chinnaswamy, Bengaluru | 2007 | 1st innings: 239 (30x4); 10-2-20-1
2nd innings: 91 (12x4) |
| 6 | South Africa | Green Park, Kanpur | 2008 | 1st innings: 87 (9x4)
2nd innings: 13* (2x4) |
