Sourav Chandidas Ganguly[1][2] (/sʃuːrəv ɡɛnɡuːlj/ ⓘ; natively spelled as Gangopadhyay; born 8 July 1972), also known as Dada (meaning “elder brother” in Bengali), is an Indian cricket commentator and former cricketer. He is popularly called the Maharaja of Indian Cricket.[3] He was captain of the Indian national cricket team and is regarded as one of India’s most successful cricket captains.[4] As captain, he led Indian national team to win the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy and reach the final of the 2003 Cricket World Cup, the 2000 ICC Champions Trophy and the 2004 Asia Cup.[5]
Ganguly scored 11363 runs in his ODI career which stands at ninth position in the world for most runs scored in ODI matches.[6] He was the third batsman to cross the 10,000 runs in One day cricket, after Sachin Tendulkar and Inzamam Ul Haq.[7] He holds the record for highest score in an innings (183) by an Indian batsman in the ODI Cricket World Cup.[8] In 2002, the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack ranked him the sixth greatest ODI batsman of all time.[9] He announced his retirement from international cricket in 2008 and from all forms of cricket in 2012.[5]
Ganguly was awarded the fourth highest Indian civilian award, Padma Shri in 2004.[10] He was elected as president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India in 2019.[11][12] He is also a part of the Supreme Court of India appointed probe panel for the IPL Spot fixing and betting scandal’s investigations.[13]
Early and personal life
Sourav Ganguly was born on 8 July 1972 in Calcutta, and is the youngest son of Chandidas and Nirupa Ganguly.[14][15] Chandidas ran a flourishing print business and was one of the richest men in the city.[16] 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.[17]
Ganguly was educated at St. Xavier’s Collegiate School, Kolkata.[18] He was then graduated in commerce from the St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata.[19]
Since the favourite 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.[20][21] 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.[22]
Despite being right-handed, Ganguly learnt to bat left-handed so he could use his brother’s sporting equipment.[20] 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.[16] 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.[20][23] While touring with a junior team, Ganguly refused his turn as the twelfth man, as he reportedly felt that the duties involved, which included organising equipment and drinks for the players, and delivering messages, were beneath his social status.[24] Ganguly purportedly refused to do such tasks as he considered it beneath his social status to assist his teammates in such a way.[25] 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.[20][26]
He is married to Indian classical dancer dancer Dona Ganguly, with whom he has a daughter Sana (b. 2001).[20]
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.[27][28]
