Cricket is a religion in India and Indian Cricket fans argue among themselves on many issues after a game and one the most debatable topic among those is who is the best captain of India? Is it Virat Kohli or M.S Dhoni or Saurav Ganguly?
Some fans say that Dhoni is undoubtedly the best captain ever because of his statistics. Under his captaincy, India won their second World Cup and Champions Trophy 2003 and also helped India to reach number one in test ranking. But sometimes statistics don’t depict what the real story is. Statistically, Dhoni might be ahead of Saurav Ganguly but his contribution to Indian Cricket Team is beyond any statistics. As most of the cricket fan says Dhoni is the captain of best Indian team but Ganguly is the Best Captain of Indian Cricket Team.
Here are the 5 reasons why Ganguly is the Best Captain ever:
1. BACKED UP HIS PLAYERS -
A great captain is one who fights for his players and Ganguly was a master of that. In fact, he was the one who choose Dhoni over Dinesh Karthik. Dhoni scored a duck didn’t on his debut but keeping faith on him Saurav Ganguly send him up the order at 3rd against Pakistan in the 2nd ODI and the significance was Dhoni scored 148.
The same thing happened with Harbhajan Singh also who got frustrated after being constantly ignored by the selectors just when Saurav Ganguly fought with them and brought him into the team. Harbhajan Singh didn’t let Ganguly’s expectation down neither anyone can forget his dramatic spell against Australians in Eden Garden 2001. As a consequence, the player gives his best shot in repaying that faith and plays like a champion. That’s what Harbhajan Singh exactly did!
2. BROUGHT THE TEAM TOGETHER ONCE AGAIN AFTER THE FIXING PERIOD –
Indian fans lost hope on Indian Cricket team when big cricketers were exposed in match-fixing. The viewers started scrutinizing the performance of every Indian player. That was a time when Indian cricket as a whole was at an all-time low. The fixing episode of 2000 was surely the lowest point in Indian cricket when Saurav Ganguly took the responsibility of the team under an enormous dark cloud. He promised the nation to bring back Indian Cricket to where belong through a bold press conference. He kept his words and started regrouping the team as a result after a few months the team started to play well and achieved success hence rejuvenating the faith of fans and they started loving the game once again. Sometimes, getting a nation engaged in the game is far more important than just winning.
3. PREPARED FUTURE STARS –
No can deny all the great Indian players of today’s time made debut under Saurav Ganguly like Shewag, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh, Dhoni, Gautam Gambhir and many. Even players like Ajit Agarkar, Md Kaif won many matches single-handedly. He was the one who put faith in the youngsters and keeps them encouraging.
He also reached the finals of Champions Trophy 2002 and World Cup 2003 finals with all these players.
We can never forget the ones who won the World Cup in 2011 or the Champions Trophy in 2013 like Virender Shewag, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh, Dhoni, Gautam Gambhir, Asish Nehra all got the perfect break for their careers under Dada.
4. AGGRESSIVE BAND OF CRICKET –
People now days compare the aggressiveness of Prince of Kolkata with Virat Kohli. No Indian fans will forget his epic celebration at Lord’s balcony after the NatWest series win in 2002 when he pulled off his shirt and did a heroic celebration to shut up England supporter’s mouth. People wonder if any Indian Captain will show such courage again in future. Ganguly even went on to give the likes of Steve Waugh and co. some serious tough time when he made them wait intentionally under the sun in Eden Gardens. This aggressive brand of cricket often does the job for the side and keeps the team in the loop throughout the game. Ganguly was often seen in giving his lads the license to sledge the opposition players in their own background. He went words to words with opposing captains like Ricky Ponting, Naser Hussein and all.
5. HAS WON SERIES OVERSEAS –
Ganguly made the team believe that they can win overseas; winning a test in countries like England and Australia is the most difficult thing for a captain and Ganguly did exactly that. The Maharaja of Indian Cricket inspired his side to such an extent that the Indians went on to beat Pakistan in Pakistan in 2004. He took the team to the finals of World Cup 2003 in South Africa but was unfortunate to lose the final against Australia after an awful bowling performance. India was taking England in its own backyard and was 0-1 down in a 4 match series. In the third test at Headingley, the Indians under the leadership of Ganguly played an inspiring of cricket. The Indians won that game by an innings. The win against Australia at Adelaide was the most special one though. The Aussies were simply formidable at home, and Ganguly took them on. The Indians drew that series 1-1. It could easily have been 2-1 to India, but a defiant knock by Steve Waugh in his last test and saved face for Australia. But drawing the series in Australia was no less than a great feat at that time Winning overseas is something really special, as it undoubtedly involves players going under tremendous physical as well as mental pressure.
Many players might come and go, but no one can replace the enigma of a man called SOURAV GANGULY. Once, Sourav was asked by Ravi Shastri, former Indian captain, why was there no stand named after him in Eden Gardens. Sourav had quite candidly responded that the entire ground belongs to him. Such a magnanimous statement could have only come from none other than the "MAHARAJA OF INDIAN CRICKET".
