Sourav Ganguly Height Weight Age Biography Family Wiki Net Worth, Affairs, Marriage & much more. Sourav Chandidas Ganguly (born 8 July 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 honored 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 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 the 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).
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.
Sourav Ganguly Height Weight Age Body Statistics Biography
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