Sourav Ganguly Height Weight Age Biography Family Wiki Net Worth, Affairs, Marriage & much more.Sourav Chandidas Ganguly ( born 8 uly 1972), affectionately known as Dada (meaning “elder brother” in Bengali), is an Indian cricket administrator, commentator and former national cricket team captain who is the 39th and current president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). He is popularly honoured as Maharaja of Indian Cricket. During his playing career, Ganguly established himself as one of the world’s leading batsmen and also one of the most successful captains of the Indian national cricket team. While batting, he was especially prolific through the off side, earning himself the nickname God of the Off Side for his elegant stroke play square of the wicket and through the covers.
As a cricketer he played as a left-handed opening batsman and was captain of the Indian national team. He was elected as a president of the BCCI in 2019. and President of the Editorial Board with Wisden India. Before being elected as the President of BCCI, he was the President of Cricket Association of Bengal, governing body for cricket in West Bengal, India.
Ganguly was introduced into the world of cricket by his elder brother, Snehasish. He started his career by playing in state and school teams. After playing in different Indian domestic tournaments, such as the Ranji and Duleep trophies, Ganguly got his big-break while playing for India on their tour of England. He scored 131 runs and cemented his place in the Indian team. Ganguly’s place in the team was assured after successful performances in series against Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Australia, winning the Man of the Match awards. In the 1999 Cricket World Cup, he was involved in a partnership of 318 runs with Rahul Dravid, which remains the highest overall partnership score in the World Cup tournament history. Due to the match-fixing scandals in 2000 by other players of the team, and for his poor health, Indian captain Sachin Tendulkar resigned his position, and Ganguly was made the captain of the Indian cricket team. He was soon 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. He led India into the 2003 World Cup final, where they were defeated by Australia. Due to a decrease in individual performance, he was dropped from the team in the following year. He returned to the National team in 2006, and made successful batting displays. Around this time, he became involved in a dispute with Indian team coach Greg Chappell over several misunderstandings. Ganguly was again dropped from the team, however he was selected to play in the 2007 Cricket World Cup. He is regarded as one of India’s most successful captains in modern times, and one of the greatest ODI batsmen of all time. Currently, he is the 8th highest run scorer in One Day Internationals (ODIs) and was the 3rd batsman in history to cross the 10,000 run landmark, after Sachin Tendulkar and Inzamam Ul Haq. In 2002, the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack ranked him the sixth greatest ODI batsman of all time, next to Viv Richards, Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Dean Jones and Michael Bevan.
Ganguly joined the Kolkata Knight Riders team as captain for the Indian Premier League Twenty20 cricket tournament in 2008. The same year, after a home Test series against Australia, he announced his retirement from international cricket. He continued to play for the Bengal team and was appointed the chairman of the Cricket Association of Bengal’s Cricket Development Committee. The left-handed Ganguly was a prolific One Day International (ODI) batsman, with over 11,000 ODI runs to his credit. He 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.The Indian team was ranked eighth in the ICC rankings before he became the captain, and under his tenure the team rank went up to second. An aggressive captain, 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.
Along with Harshavardhan Neotia, Sanjiv Goenka, and Utsav Parekh, Ganguly is also the co-owner of Atlético de Kolkata, a franchise of the Indian Super League, which won the inaugural season in 2014.
Ganguly was awarded the Padma Shri in 2004, one of India’s highest civilian awards.Ganguly was awarded with the Banga Bibhushan Award from the Government of West Bengal on 20 May 2013.
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.
Early and personal life
Sourav Ganguly was born on 8 July 1972 in Calcutta, and is the youngest son of Chandidas and Nirupa Ganguly. Chandidas ran a flourishing print business and was one of the richest men in the city. Ganguly had a luxurious childhood and was nicknamed the ‘Maharaja’, meaning the Great King. Ganguly’s father Chandidas Ganguly died at the age of 73 on 21 February 2013 after a long illness.
Since the favorite sport for the people of Calcutta was football, Ganguly was initially attracted to the game. However, academics came in between his love for sports and Nirupa was not very supportive of Ganguly taking up cricket or any other sport as a career. By then, his elder brother Snehasish was already an established cricketer for the Bengal cricket team. He 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. Ganguly was studying in tenth standard at that time.
Despite being right-handed, Ganguly learned to bat left-handed so he could use his brother’s sporting equipment. After he showed some promise as a batsman, he was enrolled in a cricket academy. An indoor multi-gym and concrete wicket was built at their home, so he and Snehasish could practice the game. They used to watch a number of old cricket match videos, especially the games played by David Gower, whom Ganguly admired. After he scored a century against the Orissa Under–15 side, he was made captain of St Xavier’s School’s cricket team, where several of his teammates complained against what they perceived to be his arrogance. While touring with a junior team, Ganguly refused his turn as the twelfth man, as he reportedly felt that the duties involved, which included organizing equipment and drinks for the players and delivering messages, were beneath his social status. Ganguly purportedly refused to do such tasks as he considered it beneath his social status to assist his teammates in such a way. However, his playmanship gave him a chance to make his first-class cricket debut for Bengal in 1989, the same year that his brother was dropped from the team.
He is married to Indian classical dancer Dona Ganguly, with whom he has a daughter Sana (b. 2001).
Sourav Ganguly Height Weight Age Body Statistics Biography
Health
On 2 January 2021, Ganguly complained of chest pain while exercising and was later diagnosed with three blocked coronary arteries which had led to a mild cardiac arrest. He underwent primary angioplasty for one of the blockages on the same day.
2008–present: International retirement and IPL
In February 2008, Ganguly joined as the captain of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) team, owned by Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, as part of the Indian Premier League (IPL). On 18 April 2008, Ganguly led the KKR, in the IPL Twenty20 cricket match. They had a 140 run victory over Bangalore Royal Challengers (captained by Rahul Dravid and owned by Vijay Mallya). Ganguly opened the innings with Brendan McCullum and scored 10 runs while McCullum remained unbeaten, scoring 158 runs in 73 balls. On 1 May, in a game between the Knight Riders and the Rajasthan Royals, Ganguly made his second T20 half century, scoring 51 runs off of 39 balls at a strike rate of 130.76. In his innings, Ganguly hit four 4s and two sixes, topping the scorers list for the Knight Riders.
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On 7 July 2008, media reported that Ganguly was being projected as a candidate for the post of President of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) against his former mentor Jagmohan Dalmiya. Reports also suggested that he could run for the post of BCCI President in 2014 as East Zone’s representative. Ganguly himself did not deny the reports and did not rule out any such move.The same year in October, Ganguly announced that the Test series against Australia starting in October 2008 would be his last and stated “[t]o be honest, I didn’t expect to be picked for this series. Before coming here, [at the conference] I spoke to my team-mates and hopefully I will go out with a winning knock.” Ganguly played in every game of the four-Test series and amassed 324 runs at an average of 54.00. While playing the second Test match of the series in Mohali, Ganguly scored his final test century. In the final test match he played at Nagpur against Australia he scored 85 and 0 in his first and second innings respectively. In the Fourth and final Test, with India needing one wicket to secure a victory, the Indian captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, invited Ganguly to lead the side in the field for the final time. India regained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, winning the series 2–0.
In May 2009, Ganguly was removed from the captaincy of the KKR for the 2009 season of the IPL, and was replaced by McCullum. The decision was questioned by media and other players of the team, when KKR finished at the bottom of the ranking table with three wins and ten losses. After that, Bengali television channel Zee Bangla roped him as the host of the reality quiz show titled Dadagiri Unlimited. It presented participants from the 19 districts of West Bengal, who had to answer questions posed by Ganguly. By August, he was appointed the chairman of CAB’s Cricket Development Committee. The job of the committee is to receive a report from the selectors at the end of every cricket season, assess the accountability of the selectors and make necessary recommendations. He played for the Ranji cup in the Bengal team in October 2009. Ganguly scored 110 in the match against Delhi and was involved in a partnership of 222 runs with Wriddhiman Saha.
In the third season of the IPL, Ganguly was once again given the captaincy of KKR, after the team ended at the bottom in the second season. The coach John Buchanan was replaced by Dav Whatmore. In 40 matches and 38 innings for KKR Ganguly scored 1,031 runs and took eight wickets. In the fourth season of the IPL he was signed by the Pune Warriors India, after being unsold in initial bidding process and he made 50 runs of four matches and three innings. In the 2012 season he has been appointed as the Captain cum mentor for Pune Warriors India. On 29 October 2012, he announced that he has decided not to play in next year’s IPL and to retire from the game.
In 2018 his autobiographical book A Century is Not Enough was published.
In March 2019, Ganguly was appointed as the advisor of the Delhi Capitals IPL team.
Administration career
From 2015 to October 2019 he was the President of the Cricket Association of Bengal. In October 2019 he became President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India.
Overall career performance
Records and achievements
- The only cricketer to win four consecutive man of the match awards in One Day Internationals.
- The ninth highest run-scorer in ODI history and third among the Indians, with 11,363 runs.
- He holds the record for registering the highest individual score by any batsman in a ICC Champions Trophy final (117)
- He was also the first player to score 3 centuries in the history of ICC Champions Trophy
- The second fastest batsman to reach 9,000 ODI runs after AB De Villiers of South Africa who broke Ganguly’s record in 2017
- One of the only six cricketers to have achieved the unique treble of 10,000 runs, 100 wickets & 100 catches in ODI cricket. (Others cricketer were Sachin Tendulkar, Sanath Jayasuriya, Jacques Kallis, Chris Gayle, Tillakaratne Dilshan.)
- Has the highest individual score by an Indian batsman (183) in the Cricket World Cup.
- One of the 14 cricketers in the world to have played 100 or more Tests and 300 or more ODIs.
- Sourav Ganguly is the only batsman to score a century on debut and to be dismissed first ball in his final Test innings.
Captaincy record
| Captaincy Record in Test Matches | ||||||
| Venue | Span | Matches | Won | Lost | Tied | Draw |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home | 2000–2005 | 21 | 10 | 3 | 0 | 8 |
| Away | 2000–2005 | 28 | 11 | 10 | 0 | 7 |
| Total | 2000–2005 | 49 | 21 | 13 | 0 | 15 |
| Career summary as Captain in Test Matches | ||||||||||||
| Venue | Span | Matches | Runs | HS | Bat Avg | 100 | Wkts | BBI | Bowl Avg | 5 | Ct | St |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home | 2000–2005 | 21 | 868 | 136 | 29.93 | 2 | 3 | 1/14 | 78.00 | 0 | 24 | 0 |
| Away | 2000–2005 | 28 | 1693 | 144 | 43.41 | 3 | 2 | 2/69 | 193.00 | 0 | 13 | 0 |
| Total | 2000–2005 | 49 | 2561 | 144 | 37.66 | 5 | 5 | 2/69 | 124.00 | 0 | 37 | 0 |
| Captaincy Record in One Day Internationals | ||||||
| Venue | Span | Matches | Won | Lost | Tied | N/R |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home | 2000–2005 | 36 | 18 | 18 | 0 | 0 |
| Away | 2000–2005 | 51 | 24 | 24 | 0 | 3 |
| Neutral | 1999–2005 | 59 | 34 | 23 | 0 | 2 |
| Total | 1999–2005 | 146 | 76 | 65 | 0 | 5 |
| Career summary as Captain in One Day Internationals | ||||||||||||
| Venue | Span | Matches | Runs | HS | Bat Avg | 100 | Wkts | BBI | Bowl Avg | 5 | Ct | St |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home | 2000–2005 | 36 | 1463 | 144 | 43.02 | 2 | 16 | 5/34 | 30.87 | 1 | 14 | 0 |
| Away | 2000–2005 | 51 | 1545 | 135 | 32.18 | 2 | 15 | 3/22 | 39.26 | 0 | 23 | 0 |
| Neutral | 2000–2005 | 60 | 2096 | 141 | 41.92 | 7 | 15 | 3/32 | 43.20 | 0 | 24 | 0 |
| Total | 2000–2005 | 147 | 5104 | 144 | 38.66 | 11 | 46 | 5/34 | 37.63 | 1 | 61 | 0 |