Sourav Ganguly revealed how the initial days of his captaincy were tough because India was still recovering from the impact of the match-fixing scandal under Mohammad Azharuddin. Ganguly further revealed that during those days, he had to lead the likes of his former seniors.
The infamous incident of the 2000s, when Indian cricket was shaken by the allegations of players taking money to fix matches. Mohammad Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja were the culprits, and that tarnished the image of Indian cricket.
As a result of this, not only was a lifetime ban on Mohammad Azharuddin imposed alongside a five-year ban on Ajay Jadeja, but also fans lost trust in Indian cricket, as even the slightest of defeats led to murmurs of foul play.
Key Points
Sourav Ganguly opened up on the difficult period after India’s match-fixing scandal in the early 2000s.Ganguly revealed he personally asked Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble about fixing approaches.Ganguly credited India’s early wins under him for helping restore confidence inside the team.Indian cricket stepped into a new era of excellence under Sourav Ganguly. The Prince of Kolkata stepped in when Indian cricket needed someone to embrace the new role and lead a major turnaround. India needed a face whom the fans could rely on, and Ganguly was just that.
The former Indian skipper revealed that he questioned the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid on whether anyone approached them with the match-fixing offers, as no such offer was made to him.
“The issues that the Indian team faced just before I became captain—betting, match-fixing—I didn’t even know about these things. I kept asking Sachin [Tendulkar] and Rahul [Dravid], ‘Does it actually happen?’ Has anyone approached you? Because no one had approached me. So, I spoke to Sachin. ‘Tujhe kisi ne puucha?’ He said no.
"We all used to play both formats—Tests and one-dayers. Asked Anil [Kumble] too, he said, ‘No. Nobody asked me’. So, I wasn’t too sure what it even was. That [captaincy] was a job at hand. So, I didn’t have these things in mind,” Ganguly opened up on the Raj Shamani podcast.
Sourav Ganguly recalls the anxiety ahead of his maiden series as skipper of the Indian team
When Ganguly was appointed the skipper of the Indian team, he had several seniors in the Indian side, with the likes of Anil Kumble, Sachin Tendulkar, and Javagal Srinath still in the side. He recalled that he was anxious for the team meeting, but then slowly things turned out to be okay after that first famous victory against South Africa.
“I still remember our first match was in Kochi. On the eve of the game, I had to address the team meeting. I told Dona that many of these guys—Azhar, Sachin—had been my captains. How was I supposed to tell them what to do and what not to do?
"I still remember telling her I would keep the meeting short because the longer it went on, the more I’d have to speak. So we wrapped it up in about 15 minutes, and I quickly got a few things across. The next day, we won. In the following match in Jamshedpur, I scored a hundred. Slowly, everything started falling into place,” he added.
Sourav Ganguly's tremendous success as India's captain
Sourav Ganguly, the greatest of Indian captains, took over as the captain of the Indian team at the age of 27, leading to a massive turnaround in Indian cricket history. Just within the next five years of his career as the skipper of the Men in Blue, Ganguly had the results in his favour.
He helped India bounce back, and under his leadership, India started to win overseas matches and series on a more consistent note. He also led India to a draw in a Border-Gavaskar Trophy during this tenure before winning the first-ever Test series against Pakistan, the NatWest Trophy, and lastly ending as the joint winners of the ICC Champions Trophy 2002.
Under his leadership, India defeated Australia in a Border-Gavaskar series at home, and they also reached the finals of the ICC World Cup 2003 for the first time since 1983. His contributions to Indian cricket have been generational, as he has given rise to several generational talents like Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni, Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan, and Harbhajan Singh
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