80 Facts About Sourav Ganguly

Sourav Ganguly is popularly called as Maharaja of Indian Cricket.

Sourav Ganguly made history as he has the highest score by an Indian batsman in the ICC Champions Trophy with his 141 not out against South Africa in the 2000 tournament.

Sourav Ganguly was introduced into the world of cricket by his elder brother, Snehasish.

Sourav Ganguly started his career by playing in state and school teams.

Sourav Ganguly was the subject of media criticism after an unsuccessful stint for county side Durham and for taking off his shirt in the final of the 2002 NatWest Series.

Sourav Ganguly led India into the 2003 World Cup final, where they were defeated by Australia.

Sourav Ganguly returned to the National team in 2006, and made successful batting displays.

Sourav Ganguly was again dropped from the team, however he was selected to play in the 2007 Cricket World Cup.

Sourav Ganguly is regarded as one of India's most successful captains in modern times, and one of the greatest ODI batsmen of all time.

Sourav Ganguly has the highest score made by an Indian batsman in the Cricket World Cup, which was his 183 he made against Sri Lanka in the 1999 Cricket World Cup.

Sourav Ganguly joined the Kolkata Knight Riders team as captain for the Indian Premier League Twenty20 cricket tournament in 2008.

Sourav Ganguly continued to play for the Bengal team and was appointed the chairman of the Cricket Association of Bengal's Cricket Development Committee.

Sourav Ganguly is one of the most successful Indian Test captains to date, winning 21 out of 49 test matches.

Sourav Ganguly is the most successful Indian test captain overseas with 11 wins.

An aggressive captain, Sourav Ganguly is credited with having nurtured the careers of many young players who played under him, and transforming the Indian team into an aggressive fighting unit.

Sourav Ganguly was awarded with the Banga Bibhushan Award from the Government of West Bengal in 2013.

Sourav Ganguly was the brand ambassador of I-League side Mohammedan Sporting.

Sourav Ganguly was elected as a president of the BCCI in 2019.

Sourav Ganguly is currently a part of the Supreme Court of India appointed Justice Mudgal Committee probe panel for the IPL Spot fixing and betting scandal's investigations.

Sourav Ganguly was born on 8 July 1972 in Calcutta, and is the youngest son of Chandidas and Nirupa Ganguly.

Since the favourite sport for the people of Calcutta was football, Sourav Ganguly was initially attracted to the game.

However, academics came in-between his love for sports and Nirupa was not very supportive of Sourav Ganguly taking up cricket or any other sport as a career.

Sourav Ganguly supported Ganguly's dream to be a cricketer and asked their father to get Ganguly enrolled in a cricket coaching camp during his summer holidays.

Sourav Ganguly purportedly refused to do such tasks as he considered it beneath his social status to assist his teammates in such a way.

On 2 January 2021, Sourav Ganguly complained of chest pain while exercising and was later diagnosed with three blocked coronary arteries which had led to a mild cardiac arrest.

Sourav Ganguly underwent primary angioplasty for one of the blockages on the same day.

Sourav Ganguly was dropped immediately since he was perceived to be "arrogant" and his attitude towards the game was openly questioned.

Sourav Ganguly played in a single ODI, but was omitted from the team for the first Test.

However, after teammate Navjot Singh Sidhu left the touring party, citing ill-treatment by then captain Mohammad Azharuddin, Sourav Ganguly made his Test debut against England in the Second Test of a three-match series at Lord's Cricket Ground along with Rahul Dravid.

England had won the First Test of the three-match series; however, Sourav Ganguly scored a century, becoming only the third cricketer to achieve such a feat on debut at Lord's, after Harry Graham and John Hampshire.

Weeks after his successful tour of England, Sourav Ganguly eloped with childhood sweetheart Dona Roy.

Sourav Ganguly was part of the Indian team that competed in the 1999 World Cup in England.

Around the same time, allegations came that Sourav Ganguly was romantically involved with South Indian actress Nagma, something he denied.

In 2000, after the match fixing scandal by some of the players of the team, Sourav Ganguly was named the captain of the Indian cricket team.

The decision was spurred due to Tendulkar stepping down from the position for his health, and Sourav Ganguly being the vice-captain at that time.

Sourav Ganguly began well as a captain, leading India to a series win over South Africa in the five-match one day series and led the Indian team to the finals of the 2000 ICC KnockOut Trophy.

Sourav Ganguly scored two centuries, including one in the final; however, New Zealand still won by four wickets.

In one match Sourav Ganguly, after reaching his fifty, raised his bat to the home balcony, only to find it deserted.

Sourav Ganguly did not inspire at Glamorgan or Northamptonshire either.

Sourav Ganguly was later strongly condemned for tarnishing the "gentleman's game" image of cricket and disrespecting Lord's protocol.

Sourav Ganguly said that he was only mimicking an act performed by the British all-rounder Andrew Flintoff during a tour of India.

The groundsmen went against Sourav Ganguly, leaving a large amount of grass on the pitch.

Sourav Ganguly decided against retiring and attempted to make a comeback to the team.

Sourav Ganguly was awarded the Padma Shri in 2004, India's fourth highest civilian award, in recognition of his distinguished contribution in the field of sports.

Chappell had emailed the Board of Control for Cricket in India, stating that Sourav Ganguly was "physically and mentally" unfit to lead India and that his "divide and rule" behaviour was damaging the team.

Sourav Ganguly had enlisted the support from the Indian media and eventually the board had to intervene and order a truce between the pair.

Consequently, due to his poor form and differences with the coach, Sourav Ganguly was dropped as the captain of the team, with Dravid taking his place.

Sourav Ganguly performed well in both series, averaging almost 70 and won the Man of the Series Award against Sri Lanka.

Sourav Ganguly was allotted a place in the official team for the 2007 Cricket World Cup.

Sourav Ganguly was the leading scorer for India in their first round defeat against Bangladesh.

Sourav Ganguly was alleged to have ignored instructions from the team management to score quickly.

On 12 December 2007, Sourav Ganguly scored his maiden double century of his career while playing against Pakistan.

Sourav Ganguly remained prolific in both Test and ODI cricket in the year 2007.

In February 2008, Sourav Ganguly joined as the captain of Kolkata Knight Riders team, owned by Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, as part of the Indian Premier League.

On 18 April 2008, Sourav Ganguly led the KKR, in the IPL Twenty20 cricket match.

Sourav Ganguly opened the innings with Brendan McCullum and scored 10 runs while McCullum remained unbeaten, scoring 158 runs in 73 balls.

Sourav Ganguly himself did not deny the reports and did not rule out any such move.

In May 2009, Sourav Ganguly was removed from the captaincy of the KKR for the 2009 season of the IPL, and was replaced by McCullum.

Sourav Ganguly played for the Ranji cup in the Bengal team in October 2009.

Sourav Ganguly scored 110 in the match against Delhi and was involved in a partnership of 222 runs with Wriddhiman Saha.

Sourav Ganguly was part of the Supreme Court of India appointed Justice Mudgal Committee probe panel for the IPL Spot fixing and betting scandal's investigations.

In March 2019, Sourav Ganguly was appointed as the advisor of the Delhi Capitals IPL team.

Sourav Ganguly's security cover was upgraded to 'Z' Category by the West Bengal government.

Sourav Ganguly commented that David Gower was the first cricketer to attract him to the game.

Sourav Ganguly loved Gower's style and used to watch old videos of him playing.

Sourav Ganguly is a left-handed batsman whose runs came primarily from the off-side.

Sourav Ganguly was criticised for having difficulty in handling short bouncers, notoriously exploited by the Australians and South Africans.

Sourav Ganguly can swing and seam the ball both ways and often chips in with useful wickets to break partnerships.

Author Pradeep Mandhani commented that in his tenure between 2000 and 2005, Sourav Ganguly became India's most successful Test captain.

Statistics about Sourav Ganguly show that he was the seventh Indian cricketer to have played 100 Test matches, the 4th highest overall run scorer for India in Tests, and the fourth Indian to have played in more than 300 ODIs.

In terms of overall runs scored in ODIs, Sourav Ganguly is the third among Indians after Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli and the ninth overall.

Sourav Ganguly became the fourth player to cross 11,000 ODI runs, and was the fastest player to do so in ODI cricket, after Tendulkar.

Unlike some of his predecessors, Sourav Ganguly was considered impartial, non-parochial, and forever pushed his players to perform better.

Sourav Ganguly was condemned as a hot-tempered man who refused to listen to other's opinions and abided by his own rules and regulations.

Sourav Ganguly believed that his legacy as a captain was that he was able to build a proper Indian team.

Sourav Ganguly felt that every young player should play two years of domestic cricket before being selected for international assignments.

Sourav Ganguly said that every newcomer should be given at least five games to prove himself.

Sourav Ganguly had always backed the influence and contribution of younger players of the team.

Sourav Ganguly himself had been summoned to the match referee no less than 12 times in the last decade.

Sourav Ganguly's approach was bound to precipitate what could possibly be termed a cultural conflict in the world of modern sport.