Either call him the "God of off Side" or call him the "Prince of Calcutta", Dada or Sourav Ganguly will always be someone to whom Indian Cricket looks at, when there comes a time for some serious changes to be implemented. As a player, he's always being the person leading from the front whenever he captained the side, and now when he's elected to become the next BCCI's President we would like to take you down the memory lane and remember some of his most important contributions towards the upliftment of Indian Cricket.
• Changing Beliefs and Perceptions
Ganguly took up captaincy when not only the team but the entire nation was shaken up from the match-fixing saga and barely any sort of hope to recover from it was left among the players. He was the first person who educated Indians the art of aggression, self-belief and the custom of winning abroad.
He along with stalwarts like Sachin, Dravid, Kumble and Srinath formed a group which played only for one result which was "Winning".
The players under him started to believe in themselves more and more and got a "never say die" attitude. The biggest gain from this was India’s performance abroad, India was always a tiger at home but with changed attitude, the team started believing in it’s calibre even on the grounds of Australia, England and South Africa. As a result, Ganguly remains the most successful Indian captain outside Asia by a wide margin than everybody else.
Ganguly gave the greatest gift any captain can give to his team - his belief in them. From making the Aussie skipper wait to waving his shirt at the Lord’s balcony, he did things which no other Indian captain ever did. The tag, 'Bengal Tiger' was not only for where he was born, but because he showed his lion-heartedness on the field as well.
He was the master in the art of unsettling oppositions, as he always had a habit of giving it right back at the face, he never felt any sort of fear from anybody and was always upfront in playing tit-for-tat.
The poor days of game-fixing were over under his reign. He also shielded youngsters from any kind of malicious actions in sports. He was also the sole person who took India to World Cup finals nearly after two decades in the year 2003.
• Backing up Young Talent
During Ganguly's captaincy Indian greats like MS Dhoni, Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, and Zaheer Khan founded their ways into the team. He had the habit of finding rare talents and once he saw something special in a player, he would back him to the hilt and didn’t even hesitated to fight out the selectors for his players. Due to this high level backing up from the captain himself, all his players justified his faith in them as well.
He also created a culture where players were told to focus on sharpening their skills via hard work and persistence, he was the one who backed up Dhoni's selection against Karthik for the 2005 series against Pakistan, he was also the person behind Harbhajan Singh's selection for the home series against Australia and what happened next is as they say 'history'.
He was the one who demanded the selection committee for the inclusion of Anil Kumble in the 2003-04 Australia series as a left-arm spinner, he stated in an interview that, “I told John if you leave Anil, he may not play for India again. I said I am not going to sign the selection sheet till Anil is in the side." Eventually, Kumble was the leading wicket-taker of that tour.
This was Ganguly's faith in his players that legends like Sehwag once stated that, "Ganguly sacrificed the opening slot for me, made me Test cricketer", this highly reflects on what kind of relationship he had with his players.
• Ganguly- The Great Indian Batsman
Profoundly known as "The God Of Off-Side", Ganguly was a magician with the bat in hand, his fluent drives and his cut through a point made many people stick to their television screens like anything.
He was the kind of batsman who just believed in timing the fast ball to perfection and smacking spinners down the ground, which precisely made up for his signature "Dadagiri" stroke.
He made his international debut at the mecca of cricket in 1996, and who can forget how he managed to carve his name on the honour's board by smacking a majestic ton in his very first innings.
He finished up with a majestic career of 18,575 international runs at an average of 41 with 38 centuries and 107 half-centuries under his belt.
• Captaincy Achievements
Be it defeating the invincible Aussies at home in 2001 or be it the heroic 2002 NatWest final win everything achieved by Ganguly as a captain was so memorable.
Under his captaincy, India reached the 2003 World Cup final and almost won the 2003/04 Test series Down Under. Under him India also defeated arch-rivals Pakistan at their kingdom for the first time, Sourav’s leadership changed Indian cricket and its image all over the world prolifically.
• Life post-retirement
Ganguly has been around for a while now in the administration of Indian Cricket, firstly with CAB and then with various advisory committees set by BCCI, one can easily remember how he changed Eden Gardens from being a spinners paradise to being an equally good wicket for the Pacers as well.
Wherever Ganguly worked, as a player, as a captain, as a president of a state board or as advisory committee member, he was the one game-changer who took Indian cricket to greater heights, from infusing aggressive mindset in the Indian dressing room to inspiring a generation of cricketers with his bull-headed confidence, he has always done good whenever he has been given a big opportunity, and now when he is elected to become the next BCCI's President one can expect nothing less than a plenty of good things happening to Indian Cricket in the upcoming future.
