Name : Sourav Chandidas Ganguly.
Nick name : Dada, The Prince of Kolkata.
Date of Birth : July 08, 1972.
Place of Birth : Kolkata, INDIA.
Batting Style : Left Handed Batsman.
Bowling Style : Right Arm Medium.
Role : Middle order batsman in Test’s.
ODI Debut : With West Indies in 1992.
TEST Debut : With England in 1996 at Lords.
Playing Teams :Bengal, INDIA and Kolkata Knight Riders (Captain).
ONE DAY INTERNATIONAL CARRIER::
About Batting ::
Matches : 311(As on April2008)
Runs : 11363
Best : 183 vs. Sri Lanka@Tauton,England in 1999.
Strike Rate : 82.78
Average : 41.02
100’s : 22
50’s : 72
About Bowling ::
Matches : 311
Wickets : 100
Best figures : 16/5 with Pakistan in 1999.
Economy :: 5.34run’s per over.
Average : 38.49
Catches : 100.
TEST CARRIER::
About Batting ::
Matches : 109*(As on October 2008).
Runs : 6935.
Best : 239 with Pakistan in 2007.
Strike Rate :: 49.65 .
Average : 42.74.
100’s : 15.
50’s : 34.
About Bowling::
Matches : 106*.
Wickets : 34.
Best figures : 37/3.
Economy : 4.67run’s per over.
Average : 51.31.
Catches : 69
Ganguly’s personal information::
Ganguly full name is Sourav Chandidas Ganguly in which in his name, the middle name is his fathers name i.e., Chandidas and his mothers name is Nirupa Ganguly. Ganguly was the youngest son of Nirupa and chandidas ganguly. His father was a secretary of the cricket Association of Bengal and was of riches person in whole city. His family was very big family with 45 relatives in joint family. By the inspiration of his brother, Ganguly stepped into the cricketing field, his brother Snehasish Ganguly would play for Bengal. Although Ganguly was Right Handed Batsman, he was inspired by his brothers technique, in order to use the technique of his brother he started practicing in Left handed. Ganguly joined one of the cricket academy in Bengal and worked hard to make his career bright, though his family was so not supporting him, as they want Ganguly to concentrate on studies not on cricket. An indoor multi-gyan and concrete wicket was built at home for him and his brother, and he would often watch cricket videos especially his hero David Gower. He did his schooling in “St. Xavier’s school”.
Starting from his carrier::
As Ganguly began his career in 1990-91.Actually Ganguly was picked into Indian team in 1990-91 season, but due to his inconsistent performance he was taken out from the team. In his first ODI he just scored only 3 run’s against West Indies in1992.
As we all know “Failure is the stepping stone for success” Ganguly also learnt how to solve his mistakes after being excluded from the team, he rushed into Domestic cricket and scored ton’s of run’s through out that season i.e.,4-5 years. That season was unforgettable for his life, and also bounced back into in national side against tour of England in 1996.
He was selected for only one ODI and again omitted from Test cricket as there was no place in Test squad, but luck was so good that due to the controversies between his teammates Navjot Singh Siddu and captain Mohammad Azharuddin, siddu left the touring party, and so Ganguly was included alongside Rahul Dravid. On his Test Debut Ganguly made century and became the only third cricketer to score a century on debut and there on Dada did not see backside and went on scoring run’s for team India.
As Ganguly made his ODI debut in1992 against West Indies, but he could manage to make his maiden ODI century in the year 1997 against Sri Lanka by scoring 113 smashing all over the park. There on Ganguly opened the innings for every ODI match that was played. Ganguly was very keen playing against Pakistan, and at the same season where he was in great touch with bat, SAHARA cup has been started; he performed so brilliantly not only with bat but also with bowl. He made his best bowling figures in that series (16/5).
In the 1999 world cup, he smashed his career best 183 against Sri Lanka at Tauton of 158 balls by smashing 17four’s and 7six’s, and that was the same match where sachin and himself(Ganguly) made second best record partnership(318)…..
After naming him as a captain::
It was year 2000, after the match fixing scandal Sourav Ganguly was named as a captain of Indian team. Under his Captaincy India played brilliantly in the world cup 2003. India reached the world cup Final, where they lost to the Australians in the Final’s.
During his captaincy, he was able to concentrate only his captaincy, but not on his individual performance. He was very much happy that team was performing well under captaincy after the success of 2003 world cup. As his performance was going down and down, the winning margin of team India was also going down and he was dropped from the team in October 2005. Again he went to his domestic cricket and English county cricket, did well there and proved everyone wrong that he his player that should and must play for team India. Ganguly is the only fourth player to score 22centuries behind Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky ponting, Sanath Jayasuriya.
After his comeback in 2006::
Ganguly made his comeback when team India was struggling with opening slot and middle order batting slot against South Africa in One Day Series in South Africa. So he was recalled for the Test squad against South Africa, and performed well in the tour match against Rest of South Africa team by scoring 83 runs. The first Test was started and opening slot and number3 batsman
Went out very cheaply, and then Ganguly came in and stood for very long time in crease and scored crucial 51 runs in low scoring game which helped India to win in South Africa for the first time. As his performance was good in that series and as he is one of the senior members of Indian team he was included in 2007 world cup. There were lots of controversies when he was dropped from his team.
Controversary between Chappel and Ganguly::
When India played against Zimbabwe in the year 2005, Ganguly scored majestic century against Zimbabwe where his form was not so good at that period. He was interviewed by the Harsha Bhogle in the later evening session after day’s match was completed talking about his century .He was interviewed many questions asking about his shots and his return form then Harsha Bhogle asked that “Some has told you to step down from captaincy” is it right? Then Ganguly answered “ya it is true” and told it is part of a game, but that issue was stopped there later in the early 206, Greg Chappel who was coach of Indian team emailed to BCCI stating that Ganguly was unfit to lead team India. This email was leaked through out media and country and created history in home town of Ganguly. However 10 months later he was again picked into Indian team.
Ganguly in Indian premier League(IPL)::
Ganguly named as captain of Kolkata Knight Riders team which was owned by Shah Rukh Khan, though he was not a specialist of 20-20 format he has ton’s of experience of captaincy in his bags, so he has given to led Kolkata Knight Riders team. He could able to score only 10 runs in his opening match against Bangalore Royal Challengers, but team got victory in a long margin of 148 runs in which Mccullam’s great knock of 158 not out including 10fours and 13six’s helped them to a victory. They won first 2 matches quite handsomely but, they started losing the matches when team lost the crucial players like Mccullam and ponting…. His team was on the top of the table for few days, when they were performing well it was everything good and fine but started losing there after when they lost their players, however they managed to win 4 more matches in the next 12 matches in which one was no result. His team in the race of semi finals when they won 6 of 12 matches, but on the other side teams like Mumbai Indians and Delhi Dare Devils were cruising, so they out of IPL tournament and other four different teams were qualified for the semi finals.
Some Achievements and records of Ganguly::
~ Ganguly and Sachin is a world record holder for creating most number of 50 run parternerships in the first wicket(44) and they also have (26)century parternerships for the first wicket.
~ Ganguly is the only fourth player to cross 11,000 ODI runs besides Sachin, Ponting and Jayasuriya.
~ He also holds the record to reach 6000, 7000, 8000 and 9000 ODI runs in the fewest number of matches.
~ In the year 2004, Ganguly was awarded the “Padma Sri”.
~ He captained team India in a record of 49 Test matches in which he won 21 of these, including 12 of them outside India was his biggest Achievement.
~ He also led India to their first series win in both Test and ODI’s in Pakistan.
~ He also led India to victory over Steve Waugh’s Australia in the 2001 Border Gavaskar Trophy which is considered one of he greatest in Indian cricket history
~ Ganguly and Sachin holds the record of most 200+ODI partnerships (6 times).
~ He was involved in the first 300 run ODI partnership with Rahul Dravid.
~ He scored highest number of ODI runs in the year 1997, 1999 and 2000.
~ He scored 7centuries in a single year 2000 and stood second in the list of highest number of centuries in a single calendar.
~ He won 3 Man of the Series awards in Test cricket which was against England, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and 7 in ODI cricket which was against Pakistan(2), Sri Lanka(1), West Indies(2), New Zealand(1) and Zimbabwe(1).
~ He won 6 Man of the Match awards in Test cricket which was against England, Sri Lanka(2), Australia and South Africa, and 31 awards in ODI’s.