what is your opinion about ganguly?
By parimi
@parimi (948)
India
40 responses
@love_maniac90 (1237)
• India
16 Nov 06
i love ganguly and want him back to indian team.heres some informations about ganguly-the great left hander of indian cricket ever
Ganguly is a left-handed batsman and a right-handed medium-pace bowler. He is a natural right-hander, but converted to the southpaw stance at a young age so that he could use his left-handed brother, Snehasish Ganguly's equipment.
Nicknamed Bengal Tiger, Prince of Calcutta and also affectionately called Dada (older brother in Bengali) by his team-mates and Lord Snooty by his opponents, he is an aggressive player on and off the field. He made his one-day international debut in 1992, but his talents did not truly receive the recognition they deserved until India's 1996 tour of England when he scored centuries both in his debut Test as well as the next match (the second and third Tests of the series). Ganguly is only the third cricketer ever to score a century on debut at Lord's, after Harry Graham and John Hampshire. He scored 183 against Sri Lanka at Taunton in the 1999 Cricket World Cup, the highest by an Indian in World Cup cricket. However, his post World Cup performance has deteriorated consistently and finally he was axed from the team. His performance in domestic as well as English county matches were also very poor and he doesn't seem to be in contention
Sourav Ganguly made his international debut against Australia in India's tour of Australia in 1992. He didn't score much and was dropped from further matches. Four years later, following a good domestic record, he was recalled into the national side for a Test series against England in England. He made his Test debut at Lords, with a century in that match and repeated the feat in the match which followed. He was retained for the One day team and he went on become a regular in both forms of the game. One of his most memorable performance was in the final of the Independence cup at Dhaka against Pakistan, when the entire Pakistan team walked back in stating bad light along with the umpires, but Ganguly refused to come in. Ganguly scored 124 in that match in darkness, while Hrishikesh Kanitkar scored the winning runs with a boundary.
In 2000, after the match fixing scandal Ganguly was named the captain of the India team. In 2003 under his captaincy India reached the World Cup Final, where they lost to the Australians. Ganguly has scored over 10,000 runs in One Day Cricket and over 5,000 runs in Test cricket, including 12 centuries in Tests and 22 in ODIs. In terms of number of centuries in ODIs, he is exceeded only by Sachin Tendulkar. Sourav, along with Sachin Tendulkar, formed by far the most successful opening pair in One Day Cricket, having amassed the highest number of century partnerships (16) for the first wicket. Together, they have scored 5,308 runs at an average of 45.37[1]. Sourav has been succeeded by Virender Sehwag as opener.
He is the third player to cross 10,000 ODI runs, after Sachin Tendulkar and Inzamam Ul Haq, and reached 6000, 7000, 8000 and 9000 ODI runs milestones in least number of matches played. Sourav can bowl medium-pacers as well, but has under-achieved in this aspect in Test matches, taking 25 wickets in 84 matches, at an average of 52.47. In 2004, he was awarded the Padma Shri. As of 2006, he is the only Indian captain to win a Test series in Pakistan.
Sourav Ganguly's 10 year international cricket career could be easily bisected into 2 halves, the pre and the post Y2K eras. The significance of the year 2000 lies not only in the fact that he became the captain of the Indian team but also in the fact that the ICC introduced the one bouncer per over rule in ODIs starting from that year. This introduction of the rule by the ICC had a negative impact on Sourav Ganguly's batting average, which plunged from a high 45.5 before the year 2000 to a low 34.9 between the 5 year period of 2001-2005[2]. Also, against Test playing nations(which included Zimbabwe and Bangladesh), his overall average plunged further down to 30.66, as did his 'away' average which fell to 29. He managed to score only (6) centuries between 2001-2005, of which 3 centuries were against Kenya & 1 was against Namibia.[3] This sudden drop in his batting average against Test playing nations after 2001 was clearly a result of the short pitch stuff he had to encounter from opposition bowlers. As S.Rajesh, the assistant editor of Cricinfo analyzes, Sourav Ganguly has been dismissed numerous times fending off the short ball[4] since 2001 and his average of 11.92 against the short ball has been the lowest among contemporary Indian batsman who played more than 80 ODI matches. The former captain has also been uncomfortable while attempting the 'pull' and the 'hook' shots when bowlers have dug it in short, often lasting less than five(4.89) balls before being dismissed[5].
Also, Sourav Ganguly's Test career had been riddled with lean patches, the first of which streched for 3 years from Dec 1999 to Dec 2002[6], during which his batting average fell to 31.7 in 36 consecutive Test matches over 60 innings. The next biggest lean patch of his career occurred after the 2003 World Cup, when his ODI average fell to 28 and this was when his place in the team was questioned by numerous Indian cricket fans. He averaged 23.5 in 20 ODI matches between Sep 2004 and Sep 2005[7], before being finally dropped from the ODI side.
Despite his hot and cold streaks Sourav Ganguly is only the third Indian Test match batsman to maintain a career average that never dipped below 40 runs per innings for his entire Test career. The other two who achieved this feat are Sunil Gavaskar and Mohammad Azharuddin.
Sourav Ganguly also shares with G.R. Viswanath of India the record for scoring at least 10 or more centuries and his team either winning or drawing each and every match in which he scored a century. He also shares with Mohammad Azharuddin the record of scoring two consecutive hundreds in his first two Test matches, though Azharuddin bettered that by scoring a third consecutive hundred in his first three test matches.
Sourav Ganguly has the highest Test and ODI aggregate of any left-handed batsman India has produced and his 12 Test and 22 ODI centuries are also a record for any Indian left-hander.
It was however as captain of the Indian team that Sourav Ganguly's biggest achievements occurred. He led India in a record 49 Test Matches, winning 21 of those, including 12 of them outside India. All three figures are records for Indian test captains. He also led India to her first series wins in both tests and ODIs in Pakistan, a feat that had eluded India for over 50 years. Ganguly also led India to more test wins (11) outside India between 2000 and 2005 than all Indian captains had done between 1980 and and 2000
Controversies
Ganguly is a temperamental player and has often attracted controversy. He has attracted the wrath of match referrees quite a few times, the most severe of which was a ban for 6 matches by ICC match referee Clive Lloyd for slow over rates against Pakistan and therefore his tour to Sri Lanka for the Indian Oil Cup 2005 was uncertain. These circumstances led to Rahul Dravid being made captain for the tour. Later, Justice Albey Sachs reduced the punishment from 6 matches to 4, and this permitted Ganguly to join the team, but as a player and not captain. In his opening match he made the highest score of the side (51) taking (110) balls[8]. He was again named captain for the Zimbabwe tour of August-September 2005. With this, he has captained India in the highest number of Tests (49).
Ganguly's performance in the last couple of seasons has been really poor. This put his place in the Indian team under pressure. In the tour of Zimbabwe, in which he was newly reinstated as skipper, Ganguly ground out a painfully slow century, against what is regarded as one of the weakest bowling attacks in international cricket. During the match he told reporters that newly-appointed coach Greg Chappell had asked him to stand down as captain - a comment which Chappell later played down. However, forty-eight hours after saying that he respected the Indian captain and looked forward to working with him in the future, Chappell sent an email to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Both Ganguly and Chappell were summoned to a BCCI board meeting in which they agreed to work together for the good of the team. Rahul Dravid was appointed captain for the series against Sri Lanka and South Africa after Ganguly was not selected for the opening games due to injury. When the two series got over, Rahul Dravid was asked to continue as skipper.
On November 22, 2005, Sourav stepped down as captain of Bengal cricket team after being replaced as captain of the Indian Test team. He played in the first two Test matches in the three-Test series against Sri Lanka. However, on December 14, he was controversially dropped, for the third Test at Ahmedabad, to make way for Wasim Jaffer, an opening batsman for Mumbai. Jaffer was picked by the selectors as they wished to build up a player selection pool with sufficient experience to succeed at international level.
Despite this, he retained his A-grade contract from the BCCI, in December 2005.
Following the drop, fans blocked roads and railway tracks in Kolkata, burning effigies of chief selector Kiran More and Indian coach Chappell, and the urban development minister of West Bengal, Asoke Bhattacharya, said Ganguly was a victim of the internal politics of the BCCI.[9] Cricinfo editor Sambit Bal wrote in a commentary that this was in all probability ... the end of the road for him.[10] However, it was announced on December 25, 2005 that he was selected as part of the Indian team to tour Pakistan. Kiran More cited his experience as the key reason, with Mohammed Kaif being dropped[11]. He was in the playing XI in the Lahore and Karachi Tests, but was dropped for the Faisalabad match, and has not been recalled since. He was unable to
@ramamanohar (135)
• India
27 Nov 06
yes......... Saurav Ganguly, the Prince of Calcutta has a fan following of millions and that is justified
considering the number of winning knocks he has played for India. His batting is the perfect
blend of elegance and power. He has all the traditional style that goes with left handed
batsmanship. He is also a superb/ perfect timer of the ball. The manner in which he steps out
and pounces on the ball, like a tiger on a hapless prey, is something to be enjoyed on the spot.
He is one of the most aggressive Captain India has ever had and has emerged as one thekey
components of the Indian team. His ability to play shots on the off side is special because there
are very few players who can hit the ball in that area as crisply as he does. He is an aggressive
left-handed batsman and is also an effective (right-handed) medium pace bowler. He tarted his
international career as a 19 year old during the tour to Australia in 1991-92 where both his ability
and attitude was questioned. His recall for the 1996 tour to England was severely criticised as
one of the evils of India's "quota" system. But he answered that in style by not only scoring
centuries in his first two Test innings but also capturing vital wickets to bag the Man of the
series award. Still he was considered fit only for the Test matches because of his inability to
play onside strokes. He worked on that problem and became a household name in India after the
Sahara Cup in Toronto where he won several matches for India against Pakistan. Besides
several superlative batting performance (including 75* in 75 balls), he exploited the conditions to
return some excellent bowling figures (including 5-16). He is often criticised for his running
between the wickets and if he works on that, the way he has worked on his leg-side then he will
definitely become a formidable force in the World of Cricket
@ramamanohar (135)
• India
27 Nov 06
yes......... Saurav Ganguly, the Prince of Calcutta has a fan following of millions and that is justified
considering the number of winning knocks he has played for India. His batting is the perfect
blend of elegance and power. He has all the traditional style that goes with left handed
batsmanship. He is also a superb/ perfect timer of the ball. The manner in which he steps out
and pounces on the ball, like a tiger on a hapless prey, is something to be enjoyed on the spot.
He is one of the most aggressive Captain India has ever had and has emerged as one thekey
components of the Indian team. His ability to play shots on the off side is special because there
are very few players who can hit the ball in that area as crisply as he does. He is an aggressive
left-handed batsman and is also an effective (right-handed) medium pace bowler. He tarted his
international career as a 19 year old during the tour to Australia in 1991-92 where both his ability
and attitude was questioned. His recall for the 1996 tour to England was severely criticised as
one of the evils of India's "quota" system. But he answered that in style by not only scoring
centuries in his first two Test innings but also capturing vital wickets to bag the Man of the
series award. Still he was considered fit only for the Test matches because of his inability to
play onside strokes. He worked on that problem and became a household name in India after the
Sahara Cup in Toronto where he won several matches for India against Pakistan. Besides
several superlative batting performance (including 75* in 75 balls), he exploited the conditions to
return some excellent bowling figures (including 5-16). He is often criticised for his running
between the wickets and if he works on that, the way he has worked on his leg-side then he will
definitely become a formidable force in the World of Cricket
@amitabhisthebest (382)
• India
26 Nov 06
yes ..he should be given a chance again..there r many other players who have failed but still get chances..ganguly deserves it too..on his day he can take apart any opposition..
@amitabhisthebest (382)
• India
26 Nov 06
yes ..he should be given a chance again..there r many other players who have failed but still get chances..ganguly deserves it too..on his day he can take apart any opposition..