On July 8th 1972, popular Indian cricketer Sourav Ganguly was born in Kolkata. He would be later remembered as one of the most successful cricket captains in modern time.
Sourav Ganguly was born to Chandidas and Nirupa Ganguly in Kolkata. His father ran a very successful printing business which ensured Sourav Ganguly had a very comfortable childhood.
Initially Sourav Ganguly was attracted towards football, it being the most popular game in West Bengal. But he didn’t receive any encouragement from his mother who wanted him to concentrate on his studies rather than sports. Ganguly’s elder brother by then had already established himself in cricket for the Bengal Cricket Team. His brother encouraged him to become a cricketer and persuaded their father to have Ganguly enrolled in a cricket training camp during the summer holidays.
Following a successful Ranji session in 1990-91, Ganguly only scored three runs in his One Day International (ODI) debut for India against the West Indies. Following this, Ganguly was dropped from the team immediately since he was considered arrogant. It is believed that Ganguly refused to serve drinks to his team mates saying that it was not his duty to do so.
Having being removed from the team, Sourav Ganguly proved his mettle in domestic cricket and did well for himself in the 1993-94 and 1994-95 Ranji matches. After scoring an innings of 171 in the Duleep Trophy, he was integrated in the national team for a tour of England in 1996. Ganguly played a single ODI, but was excluded from the team for the first test. After his team mate Navjot Singh Sidhu complained about mistreatment by the then captain Mohammad Azharuddin and left the team, Ganguly got the opportunity to make his test debut against England in a three-match series at Lord’s along with Rahul Dravid. Even though England won the first test of the three match series, Ganguly scored a century in this match. In his next test match, Ganguly scored 136 runs becoming the third batsman to make a century in each of his first two innings.
In 1997, Ganguly scored his first ODI century by getting 115 runs. Following this performance, he won four consecutive Man of the Match awards in the Sahara Cup against Pakistan.
Throughout his career, Ganguly is considered to be one of the most successful captains in the history of Indian test cricket. The Indian test team won 21 matches out of the 49 they played under his captaincy. Apart from that, Ganguly also developed a number of accomplished cricketers under his leadership, namely, Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh and Yujraj Singh.
In his test cricket career, Ganguly played 113 matches and scored 7212 runs, which included 16 centuries and 35 half centuries. His highest test score was 239 runs and his overall batting average was 42.17 runs. In ODI cricket, Ganguly played 311 matches, making a total of 7,212 runs which included 22 centuries and 72 half centuries. His overall batting average was 41.02 runs.
Ganguly made his comeback to cricket in a match against South Africa in which he scored 85 runs, leading India to win the match. In 2007, Ganguly returned to the ODI team and he scored 66 runs in a match against Bangladesh in the 2007 World Cup.
Ganguly was also the captain of the Kolkata Knight Riders IPL (Indian Premier League) Twenty-20 cricket tournament in 2008. Ganguly’s last test match was against Australia in 2008, in which he scored 85 runs. His last ODI was against Pakistan, in which he scored 5 runs. As captain, Ganguly led the team to 146 ODI matches, out of which the Indian team won 76 matches. Sourav Ganguly was awarded the Padma Shri in 2004.
Also On This Day:
1914: Jyoti Basu is born.
1918: Montagu-Chelmsford Report is published seeking reforms in the Indian legislature.
1954: Jawaharlal Nehru inaugurates the world's longest dam, Bhakra-Nangal, at Punjab.
1996: Chief Election Commissioner T.N. Seshan wins Magsaysay award.
