90s Kid’s Superstar: Sourav Ganguly

The man brought Indian cricket out from the darkness of fixing very quickly. The man who almost gave this country a world cup in 2003. A leader who formed the base of 2011 world cup winning team. He is unarguably the best captain in the history of Indian cricket. He is Sourav Ganguly. Sourav Ganguly was born on 8 July, 1972 in Kolkata. He was born in one of the richest families in Kolkata. In his childhood, he played football, which was very popular sport in Kolkata at that time. Like most of the parents in this country, his parents also wanted him to focus on studies rather than sports.

By the time Sourav reached in tenth grade, his elder brother Snehashish Ganguly was established cricketer of Bengal cricket team. Snehashish helped Sourav in taking up cricket seriously by insisting their father to enroll him in cricket camp during summer holidays. He was right handed but he batted left-handed to use his brother’s kit. His performances at junior level cricket helped him earn a spot in Bengal’s Ranji trophy team. Sourav Ganguly made his first class debut in 1989. He earned a spot in ODIs in 1992 after successful 1990-91 Ranji season.

Ganguly was not able to make the impact on his ODI debut. Thus, he was dropped from the team. He made comeback in test team in 1996. It was his debut in test matches. And it was a dream debut. He scored a century at Lord’s. It is always special to score a 100 at Lord’s. And if you do it on your debut then it is even more special. He cemented his place in the side with that 100. Then came the clouds of fixing over Indian cricket. Some players were banned, some were suspended and no senior player wanted to be a captain of Indian team.

At that time Ganguly took the reins and brought Indian cricket out of the darkness of fixing pretty quickly. Under him, team reached in the final of ICC knockout trophy in 2000. In 2002, the team won NatWest trophy in England. Then in 2003, he led team to the final of the world cup. Not only in ODIs, he was equally good leader in test matches. He is India’s most successful captain as far as overseas tours are concerned. Ganguly always led from the front with some inspiring performances with the bat. He was given the nickname ‘God of offside.’

During his tenure as a captain, he nurtured a lot of youngsters who went on to the world cup for India in 2011. He created good clean image of Indian cricket. Ganguly held the whole team together and created the platform for India to dominate the world cricket. Ganguly believed in the ability and experience of seniors. Along with that, he encouraged youngsters to come out and perform. Today, he is president of CAB and willing to be the coach of team India in future.

90s Kids’ Connection

90s kids were growing when he was designing team India’s future. He inspires 90s kids to lead from the front. For 90s kids, He is that strong personality who knows how keep the dirt away. Ganguly demonstrates how to be aggressive when you are on the field and humble and full of gratitude when you are off the field. He also demonstrates how to be a Dada of man management. 90s kids (in whichever field they are) try to create respected, dignified, strong and unquestionable personality like him. 90s kids are inspired to serve the nation as he is serving.