Sourav Ganguly sit on dharna against selectors & changed team India's fortunes

Sourav Ganguly sit on dharna against selectors

New Delhi: Not only did the new century begin in the year 2000, but the fate of the Indian cricket team also changed. Team India, which was once 'talented' but with the title of 'unlucky', suddenly started snatching victory from the jaws of the opposition teams. Responsible for this change in Team India was Sourav Ganguly, who took the journey of the Indian cricket team from the 'marshy path' of defeat and brought it to that 'highway' of victory.

Following this path, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (MS Dhoni) first touched new heights and now Virat Kohli is achieving new successes. 'Dada' Ganguly, who made Team India so strong, is going to celebrate his 48th birthday today. On this occasion, we are sharing with you, some telling stories of his cricketing life.

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Protest to Include Harbhajan in the team

The extent to which Sourav Ganguly could go for his team of choice was seen before the 2001 India-Australia series. Dada knew the weakness of the Australian batsmen against off-spin. For this reason, in the meeting with the selectors, he insisted on Harbhajan Singh (Harbhajan Singh) to be included in the team. The selectors rejected Ganguly. By that time Harbhajan Singh had gained enough opportunities for Team India and was not very successful.

Because of this, the selectors were not ready to bet on Bhajji. But it was not so easy to refuse 'Dada'. He started a sit-in in the meeting hall itself. This strike ended only when Harbhajan's name came into the team. Everyone knows the history of what happened after this. In Kolkata Test, Harbhajan took 7 wickets in the first innings and took 6 wickets in the second innings. Together, VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid had a tremendous historical partnership. The result was that Team India won this match and from here a new round of success began.

4 years out of team for not carrying senior's kit bag

Politics is fiercely inside the dressing room of Team India. Some cricketer keeps disclosing this. Everyone has to bear the brunt of this politics, no matter how powerful a group you are. Sourav Ganguly also had this experience on the very first tour of his career. Sourav, who is said to have made his debut on the 1992 tour of Australia, was asked by a senior cricketer to take his kit bag from the field to the team bus.

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When Sourav refuses, he becomes infuriated by the senior cricketer. That cricketer was counted among the close of the then captain Mohammad Azharuddin. The cricketer has blamed the media for misbehaving with Saurav being arrogant, treating himself as Maharaj (while Saurav's nickname is Maharaj).

Sourav's perfect performance in this only ODI match of Benson & Hedges series against West Indies on this tour, Sourav's poor performance completed. Sourav was limited to only throwing the ball in net practice throughout the tour. A senior cricketer even called him in his dressing room and made him talk without reprimand. As a result, Sourav's ticket to return to India was cut before the end of the tour. After this, it took Sourav a full 4 years to return to the team to play his first Test match.

In the Chappell episode, he was retiring after losing the captaincy and a place in the team

After bringing Sourav Ganguly into his career as the coach of former Australia captain Greg Chappell, he lost his captaincy and position in the team. He considered it a betrayal of the chapel. Ganguly wrote about the incident in his biography 'A Century is Not Enough' that he was so broken that he was about to announce his retirement, but his father Chandidas Ganguly stopped. Ganguly himself has told that the selection committee headed by Dilip Vengsarkar did not even ask Captain Anil Kumble to remove him. I was angrily thinking of retirement, but Papa asked for the struggle.

Ganguly then made a tremendous performance in domestic cricket. Before returning to the team, he was asked to give a test by playing for the Board President's XI. For a cricketer who has scored more than 15,000 international runs in his career playing 100 Tests and more than 250 ODIs, it was disrespectful to him. Ganguly says that I once refused, but Kumble convinced me. After this, the team returned and I scored a century in Mohali and missed a close margin in Nagpur. After this, I proudly announced my retirement, demoralizing the selectors.

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Shahrukh Khan had to see what is the significance of Sourav
At the beginning of the IPL, Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan gave the command of his team Kolkata Knight Riders to Sourav Ganguly. The result of this was that his team had got a tremendous brand image in Kolkata from the very first day.

Unhappy with Sourav after 3 seasons, when Shah Rukh removed him from the captaincy and the team just before IPL 2011, the same branding suddenly broke out. Shah Rukh's vision of what Saurav was doing in Kolkata was seen when Sourav came to Kolkata to play IPL match against KKR for Pune Warriors. More than half of sports lovers arrived at the Eden Garden Stadium, full of KKR jerseys, to support Pune Warriors wearing their jerseys.

Yuvraj Singh told about Sourav Ganguly

An example of how Saurav Ganguly was so funny was told by Yuvraj Singh. Yuvraj said that he was going to play his debut match against Kenya. In the evening before this match to be held in Nairobi, Sourav told them that you have to open tomorrow. Yuvraj told that after hearing this I got nervous and stayed awake all night. Kenya batted first on the second day. After that, the batting of Team India came, so I sat down wearing a pad. I kept sitting and leave the opening, my batting did not come. Later it was found that Sourav ragged me in this way. For a long time, teammates laughed discussing this story.

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However, Yuvraj too has taken his revenge with Sourav. He, along with other teammates, made April Fool on April 1, the day of Sourav. Everyone came to Saurav's dressing room and surrounded them and started saying dictator and many other things. Sourav started cleaning, but no player was willing to listen. On this, Sourav announced to quit the captaincy. After this, Rahul Dravid told him that there is no need to be serious, the boys have made your April Fool.