When Ganguly was the captain, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe were among the best of world cricket. Every other team was afraid of playing them. Still Ganguly beat those teams convincingly.
It may be true that Ganguly's win rate is only 30% when you exclude Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. But how can we forget the countless centuries Ganguly had hit against Australians. I think Ganguly holds the record for most centuries against Australians. That record speaks for itself.
RE:Bangladesh and Zimbabwe were tough teams earlier
by Soumava Mandal on Jul 09, 2007 01:09 AM
You can never get out of your regional bias, and try and belittle others to prop up a puppet and uninspiring captain like Dravid. You know very well in your hearts who is a better leader, so for God's sake be honest to yourself.
It was Ganguly's century during the first test in Australia that set the tone for the series.
Do not confuse yourself between leadership abilities and excellence as a player.
Tendulkar, Bradman and Richards are not great because of their captaincy, similarly Brearley and Lloyd are remembered for their tactics.
RE:Bangladesh and Zimbabwe were tough teams earlier
by Ifear paceman on Jul 09, 2007 07:42 PM
Now more
SO MUCH FOR THE CAPTAINCY..
Even then we lost to Bangladesh in 2004-2005 - 2nd Match at Bangabandhu National Stadium (26/12/2004)when Gangs was there as a Captain. result: Bangladesh Won by 15 Runs
Man of Match: Mortaza
now Captain Ganguly India South Africa
1st IND v SAF 09/03/2000 Nehru Stad. (Kochi),India won by 3 wickets
Now you can see Donald who was there in tests opted out,Clusner did not bowl but he was there in the squad.
Pollock,Kallis,N Boje did not finish their quota.Cronje,Hayward,
Williams,Crookes finishing rest of the overs.
2nd IND v SAF 12/03/2000 Keenan Stadium India won by 6 wickets
What they are up against? same bowling despite earlier defeat.
Same bowling pattern. 4th IND v SAF 17/03/2000 IPCL Sports Complex India won by 4 wickets.
What was cooking up. Did South Africa wanted themselves to loose? Inspite of being two one down in five match series. This should be do or die match for SA. Same bowling pattern.
yes Real great captaincy by Ganguly and match management by Dalmia combine.He not only motivated Indian players but South African
RE:Bangladesh and Zimbabwe were tough teams earlier
by Ifear paceman on Jul 09, 2007 07:43 PM
Gangu fans tell about victory and leveling 3 match series an Australia.
one match drawn.
Arre... and about the match we won...
that time Gillespie was only bowler, all other star bowlers were rested by Australia.
Re: RE:Bangladesh and Zimbabwe were tough teams earlier
by samyadeep sengupta on Feb 14, 2012 10:04 AM
exactly...shut up...ganguly is the best indian captain.
i can say ganguly was the best captain than steve waugh, fleming, ponting ..etc., rather than ganguly there were few best captains like clive lyod, imran khan, kapil dev and hansy cronje. these guys only better than ganguly. but rest of them they had and they are having very good team. but in case of ganguly, he him self found some players from ordinary cities like bajji, zaheer, balaji, kaif, denesh mongya, yuvraj, sehwag, irfan pathan ..etc., and he gave excellent boost to them and they did good under his captaincy. but in case of other team captains, they have terrific players in their teams and without their performances their team won soo many matches. As a captain ganguly made 11 centuries only ponting did this feat along with ganguly. But unfortunately Mad fellow chapel and dravid made our team next to zimbabwe team standards. even bangladesh and irland doing great than india past few months. but luckly ganguly came back and india smelling the victory curry and they beaten south africa and team members are feeling comfort and they have faith on them right now. but we need sehwag rather than players like uthappa, jafer. so LONG LIVE GANGULY IN THE TEAM. AND SACHIN AND DRAVID TOO.
A lot of heated debate has been generated in the last couple of years as to whether Ganguly was a good captain or a bad captain. A captain as they say is only as good as his team! However, Ganguly had quite a few qualities which have been lacking in other Indian captains- past or present. He was the first who demonstrated to the world that Indians can't be bullied any more! Rather than going for a sentimental declaration as a mark of protest(what Bedi did in Kingston Sabina Park, 1976)he resorted to counter-bullying which even Australians and English (who have a congenital superiority complex against the Indians and Pakistanis)realised. Ganguly's actions were not liked by some of the puritan so-called Pandits(like Kiran More, who preferred licking the boots of a white ill-temperamental coach, who was a complete misfit in his own country), who obviously sensed a threat in his presence and would have liked a yes man like Dravid. This was another characteristic of Ganguly- HE WAS NEVER THE YES MAN OF ANY BCCI BOSS, unlike the current captain.He played on his merits. Another facet of Ganguly- he was one of the few captains who was TRULY a captain OF INDIA, and not a provincial captain!He hardly patronised anybody unless he had the quality- Zaheer, Harbhajan, Sehwag,Yuvaraj- are all testimonials to this ability of Ganguly. Don't forget what Dravid is enjoying today is the result of the fruits of labour of Ganguly.
RE:Ganguly-is he the best? Just wait and watch
by bharat on Jul 08, 2007 01:03 PM
A mother always loves her child even if he/she is ugly! The same is the reason for Bengalis' blind appreciation of Ganguly.
People may criticise me for trying to make it a regional issue, but I dare say that the lavish praise reaped for Ganguly predominantly comes from a particular region and it is indeed based on regional biase to a great extent.
Re: RE:Ganguly-is he the best? Just wait and watch
by samyadeep sengupta on Feb 14, 2012 10:07 AM
so very true.....still i would say ganguly is the best indian captain...hahahaha
RE:Ganguly-is he the best? Just wait and watch
by Suneel kumar on Jul 08, 2007 01:35 PM
No Bharat. I would agree to the most of the comments Sujoy. I am from South India, not a Bengali. To some extent credit must be given to Jagmohan Dalmia for his unconditional support to Ganguly.
RE:RE:RE:Ganguly-is he the best? Just wait and watch
by Suneel kumar on Jul 08, 2007 01:46 PM
No other captain can match Ganguly in certain areas. He didn't care what the rest of the world makes of his actions both on and off the field. If he believes certain action helps bringing fighting spirit or helps in winning in mental battle, he will do it. For example, making Steve Waugh wait for toss, removing shirt and answering Fintoff's actions etc.
Only other person who I believe may be able to lead like that in the current team is Yuvraj Singh. This is my view anyways :-)
RE:Ganguly-is he the best? Just wait and watch
by Rahul nanda on Jul 08, 2007 03:37 PM
Ganguly has more supported in Punjab and punjabi's living overseas.I can say that as i m a punjabi living overseas.
Ganguly is prefered over Dravid any day.
Ganguly stood up for his team...he earned the respect of the aussies and the english.no wonder they dont like him as he broke the stereotype of humble indians...like our current shit captian Dravid.
He looked in the eye for the first time..instead of sucking up to anyone.....he backed some great talent....who dravid spoilt..
RE:Ganguly-is he the best? Just wait and watch
by Ifear paceman on Jul 09, 2007 07:36 PM
Now more
SO MUCH FOR THE CAPTAINCY..
Even then we lost to Bangladesh in 2004-2005 - 2nd Match at Bangabandhu National Stadium (26/12/2004)when Gangs was there as a Captain. result: Bangladesh Won by 15 Runs
Man of Match: Mortaza
now Captain Ganguly India South Africa
1st IND v SAF 09/03/2000 Nehru Stad. (Kochi),India won by 3 wickets
Now you can see Donald who was there in tests opted out,Clusner did not bowl but he was there in the squad.
Pollock,Kallis,N Boje did not finish their quota.Cronje,Hayward,
Williams,Crookes finishing rest of the overs.
2nd IND v SAF 12/03/2000 Keenan Stadium India won by 6 wickets
What they are up against? same bowling despite earlier defeat.
Same bowling pattern. 4th IND v SAF 17/03/2000 IPCL Sports Complex India won by 4 wickets.
What was cooking up. Did South Africa wanted themselves to loose? Inspite of being two one down in five match series. This should be do or die match for SA. Same bowling pattern.
yes Real great captaincy by Ganguly and match management by Dalmia combine.He not only motivated Indian players but South African
RE:Ganguly-is he the best? Just wait and watch
by Ifear paceman on Jul 09, 2007 07:40 PM
Gangu fans tell about victory and leveling 3 match series an Australia.
one match drawn.
Arre... and about the match we won...
that time Gillespie was only bowler, all other star bowlers were rested by Australia.
RE:Ganguly-is he the best? Just wait and watch
by Satyendra Bhardwaj on Jul 09, 2007 04:52 PM
Brother i m from Agra (U.P.), have no whatsoever connection with West Bangal, still i m die-heart fan of Dada. Infact, some guys, like u, hate Dada because you guys r bitten by that regional-insect! Whenever u guys will start looking at our country as one, you will realize that Saurav Ganguly is the greatest cricketer and the greatest captain ( i know that some of u will have hart time to digest it, but so what let it be).
RE:Ganguly-is he the best? Just wait and watch
by Arun Mehra on Jul 11, 2007 10:34 AM
Bharat,
Even i have seen that a lot of bengalis do support Ganguly, but trust me i live in Bangalore and the scene is quite similar to this here for Dravid, may be its a little more in Bengal.
Also there is a little more to it than just the bongs supporting ganguly. If you notice, when ganguly hits a hundred or hits a six, immediately even the most suave commentators like Harsha would say that the whole of calcutta must be in raptures, but when Tendulkar or Dravid does something good, they never say Mumbai and Bangalore must be rejoicing, they say the whole of india. Does Ganguly score runs for India or Bengal, then why is this attitude.
Secondly there are a lot of people who have a prejudice against ganguly that he is a bad guy, and also always they tend to have a prefix bengali beofore ganguly and hence all bongs seem to unite as they feel for a common cause.
RE:Ganguly-is he the best? Just wait and watch
by Sanjeev Verma on Jul 08, 2007 10:57 PM
Where are Harbhajan and Shewag today? Dravid also supported Sreesanth, Raina and Kaif. Yuvraj got his position in team because of Dravid. In fact, Yivi was never a regular member of Indian test team under Ganguly. Ironically, Yuvi replaced Ganguly in the team India. It was not possible to have Dravid, Tendulkar, Lakshman and Yuvi at the same time in indian Test team. Now, Ganguly is back and Lakshman has to sit out. That was the reason Lakshman did not find a place in Team India in Bangladesh.
RE:RE:Ganguly-is he the best? Just wait and watch
by Ifear paceman on Jul 09, 2007 07:40 PM
Because Ganguly fans and left politicians are taking Indian cricket for ranson.
ganguly can never be counted as a good captain. A captain who breaks the team instead of putting it together is the biggest threat to the team. All stats would be negative if the likes of Dravid, Sachin & Kumble in the team. He is the most selfish player in the history of cricket.
RE:ganguly and a good captain !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!???????????????
by Suneel kumar on Jul 08, 2007 01:43 PM
If we go by Mr. Khan's comments, Steve Waugh, Waughan, Cronje are also not good captains. They had better teams than India.
RE:RE:ganguly and a good captain !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!???????????????
by Ifear paceman on Jul 09, 2007 07:45 PM
Gangu fans tell about victory and leveling 3 match series an Australia. one match drawn.
Arre... and about the match we won...
that time Gillespie was only bowler, all other star bowlers were rested by Australia. Bowlers that time were, J N Gillespie, B A Williams, S C G MacGill, A J Bichel, S M Katich, S R Waugh
How many overs he can Bowl?
Dravid first inning 233 runs Laxman 148 runs. Dada ? 2 mere runs
second inning Dravid 72 sehwag 47 and our great Bengal Paper Tiger 12 runs......
RE:ganguly and a good captain !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!???????????????
by Rahul nanda on Jul 08, 2007 08:34 AM
Ganguly is the best captain ever to play for india.
there is no match.noone even comes closer to have a comparison.
Ganguly build the team india and Dravid,chappel could handle..as they wanted to re invent the wheel ...hence failed
RE:ganguly and a good captain !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!???????????????
by Ifear paceman on Jul 09, 2007 07:42 PM
Now more SO MUCH FOR THE CAPTAINCY.. Even then we lost to Bangladesh in 2004-2005 - 2nd Match at Bangabandhu National Stadium (26/12/2004)when Gangs was there as a Captain. result: Bangladesh Won by 15 Runs Man of Match: Mortaza now Captain Ganguly India South Africa 1st IND v SAF 09/03/2000 Nehru Stad. (Kochi),India won by 3 wickets Now you can see Donald who was there in tests opted out,Clusner did not bowl but he was there in the squad. Pollock,Kallis,N Boje did not finish their quota.Cronje,Hayward, Williams,Crookes finishing rest of the overs.
2nd IND v SAF 12/03/2000 Keenan Stadium India won by 6 wickets What they are up against? same bowling despite earlier defeat. Same bowling pattern. 4th IND v SAF 17/03/2000 IPCL Sports Complex India won by 4 wickets.
What was cooking up. Did South Africa wanted themselves to loose? Inspite of being two one down in five match series. This should be do or die match for SA. Same bowling pattern. yes Real great captaincy by Ganguly and match management by Dalmia combine.He not only motivated Indian players but South African
RE:ganguly and a good captain !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!???????????????
by Manoj Gaur on Jul 08, 2007 11:54 AM
Fantastic, U describe ganguly in perfection
RE:ganguly and a good captain !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!???????????????
by ......:::::::PIKU:::::::....... on Jul 08, 2007 02:56 PM
wat the hell you say suhail khan
Forget about statistic, forget about winning or loosing.... But Ganguly is a 10 time better captain.. He taking better decision.. He is aggressive and killer instinct.. He place fielder, make changes in bowling better than Dravid.. Mindwell I am not a fan of Ganguly. I like Dravid a lot, he is a very good batsman like a wall even he is a very good wicket-keeper... But sorry, as a captain Ganguly is better nodought..thas all.
No doubt Ganguly is the best captain. Captain should have a killer and fighting attitude which Ganguly possess. The ability to motivate the team and taking important desicions makes a captain good. Forget about the statistics, I feel everyone in indian team likes Ganguly to stay in team because of his ability to motivate the team, even dravid has said that. I am not comparing ganguly with dravid, there is more time to dravid to prove as a good captain.
RE:definately !!!
by Suneel kumar on Jul 08, 2007 01:46 PM
What by your definitions is Good Team my friend. If you look at the team he had, only Sachin, Dravid, Kumble and Srinath were well established and talented members. Rest all were young talent identified and groomed well by Ganguly and John Wright.
RE:definately !!!
by Balaji Krishnamurthy on Jul 08, 2007 08:17 AM
Not fair. Remember that he became captain at a time when Indian cricket was going through one of the worst times in history : the match-fixing scandal, a disastrous tour of Australia and a 2-0 home defeat to South Africa. Look at the record of other Indian captains, he has the most overseas wins. The players he backed like Harbhajan, Laxman and Yuvraj played well as captain. Talking about Dravid, Ganguly revived his one-day career by making him keeper, at a stage when Dravid was struggling to hold his place in the one-day team. Sure he made mistakes, his biggest mistake was recommending Chappell. Chappell was a great player, but as a captain, after a stage, he chose to lead only in home series. So I don't think his opinion counts for much. It took him 22 months to say that the domestic structure was not competitive enough, which was what anybody who knew Indian cricket could tell you. Chappell had his chance and messed it up and now he is covering his tracks. There must have been something seriously wrong if only Dravid was at talking terms with Chappell by the time of the World Cup. Incidentally, the Australian cricket fraternity is not surprised at Chappell's failure. Bob Simpson had actually warned India against appointing Chappell in an article in The Sportstar 2 years ago some time before Chappell got his job.
See the video in the middle of this article. Everyone says glowingly about Sourav's captaincy in the video link. I have found Rediff as one of the the biggest Ganguly bashers. Rediff gets personal with Ganguly bcos he has never ever given a full fledged interview to Rediff. Let's see what Rahul does when he leads India Down Under later this year. Then only comparisons in Test matches will come with Dravid and Ganguly . In ODIs Dravid doesn't compare at all with Ganguly - Dravid failed at home in ICC Champions Trophy and World Cup- both 1st round exits, where as Ganguly won jointly the ICC Champions trophy with Lanka at their den in 2002 and was Runners Up in Kenya in 2000.India were Runners Up in WC 2003. Ganguly is India's all time greates captain. Stats say Ganguly is India's most successful captain after captaining India for 49 test matches and stats dont lie unlike Rediff.
RE:RE:Rediff & Ganguly .
by Prasad Shastri on Jul 07, 2007 10:01 PM
Dennis dear, under Saurav India lost 9 one day finals, lost / drew 4 Test series after being one-up. Take away 9 Test wins against Zim & BD, Saurav's stats come down to 12 Wins and 13 losses.
Stats don't lie, Rahul is the only Indian captain to win a series in WI in last 35 years, and before you dismiis WI as a weak side, remeber, India was w/o Sachin and yes w/o Saurav, apart from Kumble, Indian pace attack was less than 10 Tests in AGGREGATE, WI had Lara with about 12000 Test runs, Gayle, Chanderpaul and Sarwan with another 15000 runs amongst them.
Rahul is the first Indian Captain to win a test on Pak soil.
Rahul Dravid is the ONLY Indian captain to have won a Test on SA soil.
His captaincy record in Tests is as under W-L Aus 1-1 Eng 1-1 Pak 1-2 SA 1-2 SL 1-0 BD 1-0 WI 1-0
Of course, Rahul lost in the prelimnaries in the WC and ICC.
But Saurav had Rahul,Sachin,Laxman,Kumble,Sehwag,Harbhajan and even at Pathan at their best form.
Rahul has himself only and even his average of 47 as captain is bleow his overall average of 58
Saurav certainly had a flair and passion for the dramatic, but if Rahul is conservative, it is not necessarily bad.
I would not say Rahul is better captain or Saurav is the better, but calling Saurav India's all time great captain is going overboard.
RE:Rediff & Ganguly .
by Soumodeep Biswas on Jul 08, 2007 01:10 AM
it's a nice opportunity for all the non-Bengalis to come and bash ganguly because he was a bengali.
RE:RE:Rediff & Ganguly .
by Prasad Shastri on Jul 08, 2007 11:03 AM
If non-bengalis are bashing Saurav because he was a Bengali then they are fools because whatever may Saurav's fault of for that matter, Dravid's fault neither Saurav or Rahul can be accused of promoting their state mates.
Let's keep this debate in perspective. It is okay if you or I think our favorite is the best and we are blind to their minuses and if we only stress their positives. That is why fans are called crazy and obsessed.
But it would be wrong to make this a Bengal v/s Non Bengali fight.
WHat about Dravid ? He is the ultimate Pan-Indian. Father a Maharashtrain, Mother also a Maharashtrian from Indore, brought up in Bangalore, makes him a Maharashtrain by birth, a Kannadiga by upbringing, his wife is also a Mahrashtrian from Vidarbha. He appears to be more comfortable in English rather than Marathi or Kannada. So who is he, a Maharashtraian? A Kanndiga? or a Cosmopolitan Indian.
So we need not attribute regional bias to either Saurav and Rahul and agree that we had the good fortune to watch and enjoy very great cricketing legends like Sachin,Rahul,Saurav,Kumble and Laxman in our time.
RE:Rediff & Ganguly .
by Sanjeev Verma on Jul 08, 2007 02:10 AM
No one is saying that Ganguly was a bad captain but to say that he is all time best is not true.
RE:Rediff & Ganguly .
by Dennis Christie on Jul 07, 2007 10:38 PM
After reading ur reply it seems Rahul doesn't have the services of Sachin, Sourav (yes courtesy primarily Chappell, he didn't for more than a year), Laxman, Kumble and the Ganguly encouraged and flourished brigade - Yuvraj, Sehwag, Harbhajan, Kaif, Zaheer, Pathan et al. Ur post gives the impression that Rahul leads a new India with likes of Rohit Sharma, Ishant, Tiwari and Raina. Prasad, Rahul is not a leader. As a captain Dravid is worse than Gambhir or Jaffer, if these 2 were given a chance. Yes, as a batsman, he has the best defence in world and also perhaps the best average amongst contemporary test cricketers.
RE:Rediff & Ganguly .
by Pratap Reddy on Jul 07, 2007 10:46 PM
Mr.Dennis how come you are in India? comenting abt indian captain!!! Ton't tell these foolish things abt Dravid you are not previliged to talk abt him.
RE:Rediff & Ganguly .
by Prasad Shastri on Jul 08, 2007 11:00 AM
No Dennis, what I am trying to say is that while Saurav was captain, Sachin, Rahul, Laxman,Sehwag,Harbhajan were in prime form which is not the case today. A captain is as good as his team.
Saurav was undoubtedly a good captain but calling him the all time great captain is losing one's perspective.
RE:RE:Rediff & Ganguly .
by Sanjeev Verma on Jul 08, 2007 02:15 AM
Yuvraj never got a permamnent position in Indian team under Ganguly. Dravid ensure his place in test matches. Yuvraj won several man of the series award under Dravid. Dravid also encouraged youngsters like Sreesanth and Raina.
RE:Rediff & Ganguly .
by Sujoy Majumdar on Jul 08, 2007 10:59 AM
Yes but a lot of his proteges- Y Venugopal Rao, Robin Uthappa and some others - are biting the dust! Dont forget that it was Ganguly who first identified the true potentials of Yuvaraj and he was a permanent in the ODI team!The reason Yuvaraj was given a chance in the Test Team is because of the fact that the ungrateful Dravid wanted to show to the world that he has a replacement of Ganguly ! One can certainly hope that Mr Ego has by now realised that players like Ganguly dont come that often !
