Sourav Ganguly or affectionately known as dada who changed Indian cricket. Dada established himself as one of the World's leading batsman particularly in ODI. He was especially prolific through the off side, earning the nickname God of the Off Side for his elegant strokeplay square of the wicket and through the covers.
Dada was introduced in the world of cricket by his elder brother Snehasish. He is often considered as one of the greatest Indian captain in modern times. Currently he is 8th highest run scorer in ODI and is the 3rd batsman to cross 10,000 runs landmark in ODI after Sachin and Inzamam ul haq.
Ganguly got captaincy in the most difficult time that Indian Cricket has ever faced. In 2000, due to match fixing scandals and his poor health, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar resigned his position, and Dada was made the captain of Indian Cricket team. It was the time when not only Indian cricket but also the entire nation was shaken up from match fixing fiasco. There was barely any hope left among Indian players. Then this man came up and introduced us to the art of aggression , self-belief and the custom of winning in abroad.
It is said that at that time India lost many matches not because indian players were not good but they were involved in match fixing. When Dada got captaincy the first thing he did was to clean out the team. New blood was brought into the team and he formed a group of consisting players Sachin, Shrinath, Dravid and Kumble who only played for winning and the poor days of game fixing were over. And Dada brought the credibility of Indian cricket team within one year.
Dada ended the regional biased system in the selection of Indian cricket team which i think was a big problem at that time. In the late 1970's and 1980's Mumbai was hotbed of Indian cricket team. It was not because that Mumbai only had talented cricket , it was mainly due to the fact that the dominance of Mumbai in BCCI & influence of Dugarpur in the team selection resulted in the fact that only a very few players from other regions got to be selected in Indian team. You had to be very very special to get a chance in the team if not from Mumbai. When dada got the captaincy he ended regional biased system and in return Indian cricket got Yuvraj, Harbhajan, Sehwag , Pathan, Dhoni etc.
Ganguly changed the attitude of Indian cricket. Dada was aggressive and he transformed that aggression in the team. Under him the players started to believe in themselves and got a never die attitude. Under his captaincy started winning overseas tests as well as ODI.
Well he also became the subject of media criticism after an unsuccessful stint for county “Durham” and for taking off his shirt in the final of the 2002 NatWest Series. He led India into the 2003 World Cup final, where they were defeated by Australia. Dada became involved in a dispute with Indian team coach Greg Chappell over several misunderstandings. Ganguly was again dropped from the team, however he was selected to play in the 2007 Cricket World Cup.
In 2008 , after a home series against Australia he announced his retirement from International Cricket. Currently, he is appointed as the President of the Cricket Association of Bengal and President of the Editorial Board with Wisden India. Ganguly was awarded the Padma Shri in 2004, one of India's highest civilian awards.
He is the captain who educated us with the art of aggression.
You are anxious before every game because you had to win it. If you didn't you went down the ladder. I felt proud of the way we beat some teams in tough games. ~ Sourav Ganguly
