Sourav Ganguly

Sourav Chandidas Ganguly (pronunciation^ⓘ)(the first name occasionally spelt Saurav) is an Indian cricketer. Born 8 July 1972, at Barisha 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.

Biography

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 one-day international debut in 1992, but his talents did not truly receive the recognition they deserved until 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 (Andrew Strauss has also since accomplished the feat). He scored 183 against Sri Lanka at Taunton in the 1999 Cricket World Cup, the highest by an Indian in World Cup cricket. However, his post World Cup performance has deteriorated consistently and finally he was axed from the team in 2005. He has since remained active on the first class cricket scene in hopes of a recall, but his performance has been mixed - he has hit a couple of centuries in domestic cricket, but his English county stint in 2005 and subsequent appearances in the Challenger Trophy were failures.

He received a recall to the Indian Test squad in November 2006.

International career

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. One of his most memorable performance was in the final of the Independence cup at Dhaka against Pakistan, when the entire Pakistan team walked back in stating bad light along with the umpires, but Ganguly refused to come in. Ganguly scored 124 in that match in darkness, while Hrishikesh Kanitkar scored the winning runs with a boundary.

In 2000, after the match fixing scandal Ganguly was named the captain of the India team. In 2003 under his captaincy India reached the World Cup Final, where they lost to the Australians. Ganguly has scored over 10,000 runs in One Day Cricket and over 5,000 runs in Test cricket, including 12 centuries in Tests and 22 in ODIs. In terms of number of centuries in ODIs, he is exceeded only by Sachin Tendulkar. 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 (16) for the first wicket. Together, they have scored 5,308 runs at an average of 45.37 [2]. Sourav has been succeeded by Virender Sehwag 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. As of 2006, he is the only Indian captain to win a Test series in Pakistan.

Sourav Ganguly's 10 year international cricket career could be easily bisected into 2 halves, the pre and the post Y2K eras. The significance of the year 2000 lies not only in the fact that he became the captain of the Indian team but also in the fact that the ICC introduced the one bouncer per over rule in ODIs starting from that year. This introduction of the rule by the ICC had a negative impact on Sourav Ganguly's batting average, which plunged from a high 45.5 before the year 2000 to a low 34.9 between the 5 year period of 2001-2005[3]. Also, against Test playing nations(which included Zimbabwe and Bangladesh), his overall average plunged further down to 30.66, as did his 'away' average which fell to 29. He managed to score only (6) centuries between 2001-2005, of which 3 centuries were against Kenya & 1 was against Namibia.[4] This sudden drop in his batting average against Test playing nations after 2001 was clearly a result of the short pitch stuff he had to encounter from opposition bowlers. As S.Rajesh, the assistant editor of Cricinfo analyzes, Sourav Ganguly has been dismissed numerous times fending off the short ball[5] since 2001 and his average of 11.92 against the short ball has been the lowest among contemporary Indian batsman who played more than 80 ODI matches. The former captain has also been uncomfortable while attempting the 'pull' and the 'hook' shots when bowlers have dug it in short, often lasting less than five(4.89) balls before being dismissed[6].

Also, Sourav Ganguly's Test career had been riddled with lean patches, the first of which streched for 3 years from Dec 1999 to Dec 2002 [7], during which his batting average fell to 31.7 in 36 consecutive Test matches over 60 innings. The next biggest lean patch of his career occurred after the 2003 World Cup, when his ODI average fell to 28 and this was when his place in the team was questioned by numerous Indian cricket fans. He averaged 23.5 in 20 ODI matches between Sep 2004 and Sep 2005[8], before being finally dropped from the ODI side.

Despite his hot and cold streaks Sourav Ganguly is only the third Indian Test match batsman to maintain a career average that never dipped below 40 runs per innings for his entire Test career. The other two who achieved this feat are Sunil Gavaskar and Mohammad Azharuddin.

Sourav Ganguly also shares with G.R. Viswanath of India the record for scoring at least 10 or more centuries and his team either winning or drawing each and every match in which he scored a century. He also shares with Mohammad Azharuddin the record of scoring two consecutive hundreds in his first two Test matches, though Azharuddin bettered that by scoring a third consecutive hundred in his first three Test matches.

Sourav Ganguly has the highest Test and ODI aggregate of any left-handed batsman India has produced and his 12 Test and 22 ODI centuries are also a record for any Indian left-hander.

It was, however, as captain of the Indian team that Sourav Ganguly's biggest achievements occurred. He led India in a record 49 Test Matches, winning 21 of those, including 12 of them outside India. All three figures are records for Indian Test captains. He also led India to her first series wins in both Tests and ODIs in Pakistan, a feat that had eluded India for over 50 years. Ganguly also led India to more Test wins (11) outside India between 2000 and 2005 than all Indian captains had done between 1980 and and 2000.

November 3 2006, turned out to be lucky for Sourav Ganguly as the national board of selectors, chaired by Dilip Vengsarkar, decided to reinstate him in the team for the three-Test series against South Africa. The decision came after India had been knocked out early of the Champions Trophy, held in India, as well as losing the opening two games of an ODI series with South Africa. The selectors decided to back experience in a total reversal of coach Greg Chappell's mission to inject fresh blood into the Indian cricket team and Ganguly was selected alongside VVS Laxman and Zaheer Khan, who had also been removed from the Test team recently.

Controversies

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) taking (110) balls[9]. 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 really 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 got over, Rahul Dravid was asked to continue as skipper.

On November 22, 2005, Ganguly 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.

Despite this, he retained his A-grade contract from the BCCI, in December 2005.

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. ^[10] Cricinfo editor Sambit Bal wrote in a commentary that this was in all probability ... the end of the road for him. ^[11] 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 ^[12]. He was in the playing XI in the Lahore and Karachi Tests, but was dropped for the Faisalabad match, and has not been recalled since. 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.

After being dropped from the side for almost eight months, Ganguly was recalled to the Test team for the series against South Africa in December 2006, after an injury to Yuvraj Singh.

Career Centuries

Test Cricket

Runs	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
101*	New Zealand	Hamilton (1998/99)	Drawn
125	New Zealand	Ahmedabad (1999/00)	Drawn
136	Zimbabwe	Delhi (2001/02)	India
128	England	Leeds (2002)	India
100*	New Zealand	Ahmedabad (2003/04)	Drawn
144	Australia	Brisbane (2003/04)	Drawn
101	Zimbabwe	Bulawayo (2005)	India

One-Day Cricket

Runs	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
107*	Zimbabwe	Bulawayo (1998/99)	India
130*	Sri Lanka	Nagpur (1998/99)	India
183	Sri Lanka	Taunton (1999)	India
139	Zimbabwe	Nairobi (1999/00)	India
153*	New Zealand	Gwalior (1999/00)	India
100	Australia	Melbourne (1999/00)	Australia
141	Pakistan	Adelaide (1999/00)	India
105*	South Africa	Jamshedpur (1999/00)	India
135*	Bangladesh	Dhaka (1999/00)	India
141*	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
117*	England	Colombo (RPS) (2002/03)	India
112*	Namibia	Pietermaritzburg (2002/03)	India
107*	Kenya	Cape Town (2002/03)	India
111*	Kenya	Durban (2002/03)	India

Records

Test

Scored a century on Test debut
Scored a century in each of his first two Tests
Cumulative Test batting average never fell below 40 runs per innings
Captained India in a record 49 Test matches
Led India to a record 21 Test wins
India's most successful Test captain

ODIs

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, although Dhoni remained unbeaten while he did not.
Holds the record, shared with Sachin Tendulkar, for the highest first wicket partnership for India in a ODI match, 258, against Kenya in 2001.

Was involved in the First 300 run ODI partnership with Rahul Dravid

6th on the all time list with 30 man of the match awards (Sachin Tendulkar leads with 52 awards in 369 matches)

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 a ODI Century Against Australia inAustralia

Most number of runs in one single edition of the Champions Trophy Tournament.

Most number of centuries in one edition of the Champions Trophy Tournament.

External links

Reference

^ Protests follow Ganguly's axing from Cricinfo, 15 December 2005
^ A poignant end by Sambit Bal, published on Cricinfo, 14 December 2005
^ India sweet over Ganguly question by Anand Vasu, published on Cricinfo, 23 December 2005
^ Ganguly gets India recall by Reuters, published on TVNZ, 25 December 2005

Preceded by Sachin Tendulkar	Indian Test captains 2000/01 - 2005/06	Succeeded by Rahul Dravid
Preceded by Sachin Tendulkar	Indian One-Day captains 2000/01 - 2005/2006	Succeeded by Rahul Dravid

Sourav Ganguly

Source: [1], February 3 2006