SOURAV GANGULY

PROFILE:-
Born: 8 July, 1972
Teams: Bengal, Lancashire, India
Batting Style: Left Hand Batsman
Bowling Style: Right Arm Medium Fast

Saurav Ganguly, the Prince of Kolkata has a fan following of millions and that is justified considering the number of winning knocks he has played for India. His batting is the perfect blend of elegance and power. He has all the traditional style that goes with left handed batsmanship. He is also a superb/ perfect timer of the ball. The manner in which he steps out and pounces on the ball, like a tiger on a hapless prey, is something to be enjoyed on the spot. He is one of the most aggressive Captain India has ever had and has emerged as one the key components of the Indian team. His ability to play shots on the off side is special because there are very few players who can hit the ball in that area as crisply as he does. He is an aggressive left-handed batsman and is also an effective (right-handed) medium pace bowler.

He started his international career as a 19 year old during the tour to Australia in 1991-92 where both his ability and attitude was questioned. His recall for the 1996 tour to England was severely criticised as one of the evils of India's "quota" system. But he answered that in style by not only scoring centuries in his first two Test innings but also capturing vital wickets to bag the Man of the series award. Still he was considered fit only for the Test matches because of his inability to
play onside strokes. He worked on that problem and became a household name in India after the Sahara Cup in Toronto where he won several matches for India against Pakistan. Besides several superlative batting performance (including 75* in 75 balls), he exploited the conditions to return some excellent bowling figures (including 5-16). He is often criticised for his running between the wickets and if he works on that, the way he has worked on his leg-side then he will definitely become a formidable force in the World of Cricket.

Family:
Dad's Name : Chandi Das Ganguly
Wife's Name : Dona Ganguly
Ganguly was born to a life of luxury and comfort as he was the son of an affluent printer. Ganguly is perhaps one of the richest Indian cricketer of recent times. Ganguly's father presides over a big joint family of over 50 people, though they all do not live in the same house. There are 22 bedrooms in his house, and the family possesses over 20 cars.

His first step towards cricket:
Ganguly's first step towards cricket was a happy accident of fate: Ganguly was not encouraged to play cricket because his parents wanted him to focus on his studies. But his elder brother Snehasish was an accomplished cricketer. He was a left-hander so Sourav simply followed his brother and started playing with left hand. It was convenient for him because he could thus use his brother's cricket equipment; for his fans, it was a blessed stroke of luck, for the joys of the left-handed drive in cricket surpass almost everything else. One fine day during his holidays, Sourav asked his father to get him enrolled in a cricket academy as he was finding difficult to pass his time.

Setbacks:
An under-15 Orissa cricket team happened to be in Calcutta, and Sourav happened to smash them with a century. Young Sourav had found his métier. But the pain was yet to come. A hundred (121) for East Zone against West Zone in the Duleep Trophy in 1991 earned Sourav a place on the tour of Australia in 1991-92. He was played in only one One-day International match and was then forgotten for over four years. He thought that his career as an international cricketer was over as he was ridiculed as a non-talent, and it was alleged that he had 'attitude problems'. They said he refused to carry drinks for his teammates, he was too high-headed and arrogant, he behaved like a Maharaja, an emperor. None of it was true, says Sourav. But the labels stuck, and Sourav was a forgotten man. He was left alone to sort out his career, and to reinforce his shattered confidence, with some help from an English rugby team sports psychologist.

Success:
But fate had more surprises in store. Sourav was chosen to tour England with the Indian team in 1996. Navjot SinghSidhu, his roommate on the tour, chose to walk out of the team after a misunderstanding with captain Azharuddin, while Sanjay Manjrekar was injured. Sourav thus got a chance to make his Test debut. There was a crescendo of criticism on his selection for the tour; that the Bengal lobby was at the base of his inclusion was the harsh and unanimous verdict. But all that lasted only till the second Test at Lord's where he blasted a superb century.

As a person:
Sourav Ganguly is a quiet, unassuming, undemonstrative man with nerves of steel. As the current captain of the team, Ganguly's aggressive batting and big scores testify to the fact that he has learnt to deal with pressure and the burden of leading the country does not constraint him. In fact, the responsibility seems to have had an encouraging effect; he is beginning to emerge from the shadow of Sachin Tendulkar. Sourav is a deeply religious person and observes a fast every Tuesday.

His marriage:
He is married to Dona, who was a next-door neighbour to the Ganguly family. Their fathers were once friends but the relationship was strained and the young couple got married under cover. It was a typical Hindi movie love story where the hero and heroine are separated by their parents and so they run off to get married. And like the movie ends their families too reconciled but only in the end i.e. after the marraige.

His first love
You all will be surprised to know that 'Football' is Saurav's first love. He played for his school football team for four years. But since there were not many opportunities in football, he shifted to cricket. This shift of game was because of his father, who made him join a cricket coaching club. His father Mr. Chandi Ganguly had also played for the state.

His Secret
Now we will tell you a private habit of your favourite cricketer.............The first thing Saurav does after he checks into a hotel room is to place the portrait of goddess Kali and the picture of his wife Dona on his bed side table. For this Bengal Tiger there is nothing more relaxing than watching Dona (his wife who is a classical dancer) perform a dance routine.
CAREER:-

Ganguly is a left-handed batsman and a right-arm medium-pace bowler. He is the seventh Indian cricketer to have played 100 Test matches.^[3] He is currently the 5th highest overall run scorer for India in Tests.^[4] He is the fourth Indian to have played in more than 300 One Day Internationals.^[5] In terms of overall runs scored in ODIs, Ganguly is the second among Indians after Sachin Tendulkar (who has the highest ODI runs in the world) and the fourth in the world.^[6] Ganguly has scored 15 centuries in Test matches and 22 in ODIs. He is one of only seven batsmen to score more than 10,000 runs in ODIs.^[7]

Ganguly was the captain of the Indian cricket team from 2000 to 2005. He led India in a record 49 Test matches and is the most successful Test captain of his country (India won in 21 of the 49 test matches that Ganguly led).^[8] He also led India to the 2003 World Cup final.^[9]

Following an exit from the national team in early 2006, Ganguly was recalled to the Indian test side in December, staging a successful comeback in the 2006 - 2007 Indian tour of South Africa.

Ganguly has earned various nicknames over the years. He is affectionately called Dada (which means elder brother in Bengali), and sometimes Dadi, by his team-mates. Former England captain Geoffrey Boycott named him The Prince of Calcutta. During Ganguly's stint at English county cricket, some English sports journalists conferred upon him the highly sarcastic title Lord Snooty for his apparent aloofness from his county teammates.

SOURAV IN ONEDEY INTERNATIOL

• Second fastest player to reach 10,000, 11,000 ODI runs
• Fastest to reach multiples of 7,000, 8,000, 9,000 ODI Runs
• Hold the record of most 200+ ODI partnerships (6 times) along with Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting.
• Holds the record, shared with Sachin Tendulkar, for most 1st wicket ODI partnerships of 175+ runs (7 times).
• Holds the record, shared with Mahendra Singh Dhoni, for the second highest score by an Indian cricketer in an ODI — 183, against Sri Lanka in 1999.
• Held the record, shared with Sachin Tendulkar, for the highest first wicket partnership for India in a ODI match, 258, against Kenya in 2001. This record was bettered by Sri Lankan opening pair of Jayasuriya and Tharanga in 2006 at Headingley.
• Was involved in the first 300 run ODI partnership with Rahul Dravid.
• Sixth on the all time list with 31 man of the match awards.
• 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 in Australia.
• Highest ODI runs scorer in the world (in a calendar year) in 1997.
• Second highest ODI runs scorer in the world (in a calendar year) in 1998.
• Highest ODI runs scorer in the world (in a calendar year) in 1999.
• Highest ODI runs scorer in the world (in a calendar year) in 2000.
• Second highest ODI runs scorer for India (in a calendar year) in 2001.
• Second highest ODI runs scorer for India (in a calendar year) in 2002.
• Third highest ODI runs scorer for India (in a calendar year) in 2003.
• Third highest ODI runs scorer in the world (in a calendar year) in 2004.
• Third in the list of hitting maximum number of sixes in ODIs.

SOURAV IN 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


SOURAV GANGULY AS CAPTION

Prince of Calcutta ” Saurav Gangully” announced as a best cricket caption in 75 years of Indian history. In this path he accrossed 4 great personalties, Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavasker, Sachin Tendulker, Rahul Dravid. In this occasion Saurav Gangully’s captionship quality is appreciated to take Indian Cricket Team towards the path of success. All the team was present in this programme and all of them appreciate his quality and experience. In this occasion on asking him he said ” This is all success of mine is done through the confidence and full support of the team members to me”. Record of Saurav as Caption: *Out of total 49 Test Matches, India win 21 matches, 15 were draw and 13 were lost. *Out of 147 One Day Matches , in his captionship 76 matches won. *43% in Test Matches and 53.58% in One Day Matches is a graph of success under his captionship.

SOURAV GANGULY ACHIVMENTS

Ganguly made a mammoth 183 against Sri Lanka in World Cup 1999, which, at that time, was the Highest ODI Score by an Indian, beating Kapil Dev's Record of 175*.

was the Man of the Series in the Pepsi Cup 1999 (March-April) for scoring 278 runs and taking 6 wickets in total.

Ganguly has the distinction of being one of the few players in the World to Score a century and take 4 wickets in the same match. (ODIs)

Ganguly along with Tendulkar forms the 1th Best Opening Pair in the History of One-day cricket.

7)Saurav Ganguly and Tendulkar were involved in a World Record Opening Partnership of 252.

Ganguly scored a Century on Debut at Lords in 1996, and went on to score a century in the very next match as well.

Ganguly was named Sport star Person of the Year 1998. He also won the Arjuna Award in 1998.

Ganguly was the Highest Run-Scorer for India in ODIs in 1997.

In the Sahara Cup 1997, Saurav Ganguly set a new World Record for 5 consecutive Man of the Match Awards. He was also the Man of the Series.

2007 he was the highest run taker in test and ODI cricket.

2008 he got best Asian batsman and best Asian player of the year Aword.

Sourav Ganguly given special Aword Of India " Padma Shri" in 2004 of his brilliant performs for India

SOURAV GANGULY RECORD

Career statistics
	Tests	ODIs
Matches	106	311
Runs scored	6792	11363
Batting average	42.71	41.02
100s/50s	15/34	22/72
Top score	239	183
Balls bowled	2948	4561
Wickets	32	100
Bowling average	51.31	38.49
5 wickets in innings	0	2
10 wickets in match	0	n/a
Best bowling	3/37	5/16
Catches/stumpings	69/0	100/0

PRINCE OF KOLKATA