The Prince of Kolkata (Calcutta), Sourav Ganguly was born on July 8, 1972 in Kolkata to Chandidas and Nirupa Ganguly. Sourav, was born with a silver spoon as his family was affluent. His father owned a flourishing printing business. He was the second born in the family.
As a young boy he was interested in football, as that was the favourite sport of the people of the city, but later developed his love for cricket. His brother was an established player in the Bengal Cricket Team. Though, his mother did not support this and wanted him to concentrate on his education. Sourav was encouraged by his older sibling and eventually enrolled for cricket coaching camp while he was in grade 10. Ganguly was right-handed but learnt to bat left-handed just so that he could practice the game with his elder brother’s equipment. While playing against Orissa, under-15, he scored a century and hence was made captain of his school’s cricket team.
Sourav Ganguly was elected to play for Bengal Cricket Team in the year 1989. During Ranji Trophy, Sourav put an impressive game and came into limelight. His international debut was against West Indies in the year 1992, where he did not perform well and was dropped out with the perception that he was arrogant. Sourav went back to playing domestic cricket and performed spectacularly in the Ranji Season in the years 1993, 1994 and 1995. He scored 171 runs in Duleep Trophy in 1995-96, which paved his path back to the Indian Team, taking him on a tour of England. Ganguly then played in a single ODI (One Day International, but he wasn’t part of the team for the first test.
They say if you wish for something and work hard towards achieving it, even the universe conspires in favour of you. Sourav was meant to play in the series and he did in the second test match against England at Lord’s Cricket Ground. He went on to score a century and became the third cricketer to achieve this feat at Lord’s on debut. This was just the beginning. He scored another century in the next test too.
Sourav, loving known as dada went on to play the World Cup in 1999 in England. Dada scored 183 of 158 balls which was the second highest score in the history of World Cup and the highest by an Indian, then. In the year 2000, he became the captain of the Indian Cricket Team. By the year 2004, Dada was quite successful as a captain and was deemed by media as India’s most successful captains in cricket, but unfortunately his individual performance deteriorated, which led to his drop out from the team in 2005.
Dada, was adorned with Padma Shri in the year 2004 for is distinguished contribution in the field of sports. Ganguly has served as an advisor for Delhi Capitals in IPL 2019 season and working closely with coach Ricky Ponting. He quit the role after being elected as the BCCI president in October 2019. After 3 years of serving as the president he now returns as the Director of Cricket ahead of the Indian Premier League 2023 season.
Wishing this ‘Bengal Tiger’ a ‘Happy Birthday’.