We should have gr8 respect for this man who changed the course of Indian cricket during his term. He is a marvelous player with exceptional skills. Nobody can forget the way he goes down to hit 6s. Every One Should pay tribute to him. The marvellous person is the ONE Saurav Ganguly.
Some felt he couldn't play the bouncer, others swore that he was God on the off-side; some laughed at his lack of athleticism, others took immense pride in his ability to galvanise a side. Sourav Ganguly's ability to polarise opinion led to one of the most fascinating dramas in Indian cricket. Yet, nobody can dispute that he was India's most successful Test captain - forging a winning unit from a bunch of talented, but directionless, individuals - and nobody can argue about him being one of the greatest one-day batsmen of all time.
Interesting facts about Sourav Ganguly
v Sourav Ganguly family is among the five richest families in Kolkata.
v Sourav Ganguly was a typical Cancerian, Sourav was very mischievous as a child. He was petrified of dogs as a kid!
v When Sourav was young, his parents thought to make him an engineer or a doctor!
v Sourav is a natural right hander and does everything, except bat with his right hand. Sourav learned to play with his left hand from his elder brother, Snehasish, from whom he learned to play cricket.
v Sourav was first selected in the Bengal Ranji team, at the expense of his brother, Snehashish.
v His home in Behala, Kolkata has 48 rooms and his family owns 32 cars (wow, that's a lot)!
v There is an apartment complex in Kolkata, India which is named after Sourav. It is called the ‘Sourav Housing Complex.
v Sourav’s first love was not cricket. In fact, it was football and he admits, that even today, he’d rather watch football than cricket on TV. Sourav wanted to be a football player, but he took up cricket because his elder brother was a cricketer.
v Sourav maintains a diary in Bengali. Also he is very religious person and prays before every match.
v Following Tendulkar's footsteps, Sourav opened a three-storey restaurant, Sourav's - The Food Pavilion in Calcutta's posh Park Street inaugurated by Sachin Tendulkar in 2004.
v Sourav is is very fond of Alu Posto and Chingri Macher Malaikari, both typically Bengali dishes.
v India have never lost a Test match in which Sourav scored a century.
v After playing in two or three ODIs, Sourav was dropped from the Indian side, because of his “arrogant attitude".
History of man of match and man of the series won by Sourav Ganguly
v Sourav Ganguly was 31 times awarded man of the match in ODI match cricket.
v Sourav Ganguly was 4 times awarded man of the match in test match cricket.
v Sourav Ganguly was 7 times awarded man of the series in ODI cricket and was 2 times awarded man of the series in test match cricket.
Major achievement of Sourav Ganguly in ODI cricket matches
v Second fastest player to reach 11,000 ODI runs
v 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.
v Held the record, shared with Sourav Ganguly, 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.
v Was involved in the first 300 run ODI partnership with Rahul Dravid.
v Sixth on the all time list with 31 man of the match awards.
v He is also the only player to win 4 consecutive man of the match awards in ODIs.
v India's most successful ODI captain.
v First Indian to score a ODI century against Australia in Australia.
v Second fastest after Viv Richards to reach 6,000 ODI Runs in 147 Innings and Sachin Tendulkar to 10,000 in 263 Innings
Major achievement of Sourav Ganguly in Test cricket matches
v Scored a century on Test debut and one of 3 batsman who made tons in their 1st two Test innings and his 131 still remains the highest by any batsman on his debut at Lord’s.
v Scored a century in each of his first two Tests
v Ganguly was only the 3rd batsman in the world to score a century on debut at Lord's.
v Most successful captain of Indian cricket team so far. Led India to a record 21 Test wins
v Captained India in a record 49 Test matches
May God bless our Hero - The Dada of indian Cricket team!! Stay kool