Some lesser known facts about 'Dada' on his 45th birthday
Indian cricket team's former captain Sourav Ganguly turns 45 today. One of the most successful batsmen in the world, Ganguly is best known for changing the face of Indian cricket after the match fixing scandal that rocked Indian cricket in 2000. Let us have a look at some of the amazing facts about our favourite 'Dada.'
Ganguly's career in numbers
Famous for his flamboyant batting style, Ganguly scored 11363 runs from 311 ODI matches and 7212 runs in 113 tests. He was only the second Indian cricketer to cross 10000-run mark in ODIs after Sachin Tendulkar.
A left-handed batsman by force?
Sourav Ganguly is a right-handed person. He writes with his right hand, bowls with right hand and basically does every thing under the sun with his right hand except batting. Ganguly became a left-handed batsman so that he could use his elder brother Snehasish's kit, who was left-handed. It was also on Snehasish's insistence that Ganguly was enrolled in a cricket academy.
Selection in Playing XI and then dropped soon?
Ganguly was included in the Indian team in 1992, but was soon dropped because of his alleged 'attitude' problems. He made a comeback in 1996 and scored 131 on his test debut at Lord's, the highest score on debut at Lord's even till today.
Dada's interest in other sports
Sourav Ganguly is a huge football fan and is also quite good at it. He is the co-owner of Kolkata based Indian Super League franchise Atletico de Kolkata along with businessmen Sanjiv Goenka, Utsav Parekh, and Spanish La Liga side Atletico Madrid. The club won the inaugural league in 2014, while their second title came in 2016.
Commentary and administration
Sourav Ganguly turned to cricket administration post retirement and is the current president of the Cricket Association of Bengal. He is also a member of BCCI's national coach selection committee, Cricket Advisory Committee, and sits on Supreme Court appointed Justice Mudgal Committee for investigating the IPL's spot fixing and betting case. He also does commentary for BCCI and ICC.
Cricket records
Ganguly's 183 in the 1999 Cricket World Cup is the highest score in the World Cup Championship by any Indian cricketer. He is the only cricketer in the world to have won four consecutive man of the match awards in ODIs. He is also one of the five cricketers in world to have 10,000 runs, 100 wickets & 100 catches in ODI cricket.
India's most successful captain overseas
Apart from leading India to various victories at home, Ganguly has been a lot successful outside India as well. He led Indian cricket team to 11 victories from 28 matches, the most by any Indian captain till now.