Hyderabad: Former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly on Wednesday was formally elected as the President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
The appointment of Ganguly, who has donned many hats, including presiding over the administration of Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) became the only contender for the top job that was finalised last week.
Meanwhile, Union Home Minister Amit Shah's son Jay Shah was made the secretary. Kerala's Jayesh George was appointed as BCCI Joint Secretary, while Mahim Verma of Uttarakhand became the new vice-president.
The appointment of the new BCCI team brings an end to the 33-month reign of the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) who were tasked for running the administration of world's richest cricket body.
Ganguly's appointment will, however, be a short one as he will have to go in for a cooling-off period from September 2020, under the new rules.
Interestingly, Ganguly, who ushered in a new era in Indian cricket with his aggressive captaincy, will be the second Indian captain to hold the top job in BCCI once elected. The only other Indian captain to become full-time BCCI president was Maharajkumar of Vizianagram or Vizzy, who had led the Indian team in 3 Test matches during the tour of England in 1936. He became the president of BCCI in 1954.
Here are some lesser-known facts about Ganguly:
Off-field facts:
- It is a well-known fact that Sourav was given the title ‘Prince of Calcutta’ by the former England cricketer Geoffrey Boycott, but, not many people know that Sourav was nicknamed ‘Maharaj’ even before that, during his childhood by his father.
- Even before Sourav became a successful cricketer, the Gangulys were one of the richest and renowned families in Kolkata as his father Chandidas Ganguly owned a printing business and it was the third-largest in all of Asia. Sourav’s joint family home in Behala, a suburb in Southern Calcutta, has nearly 30 residing members with more than 45 rooms.
- Lovingly called as 'Dada' by his fans, Ganguly was born a right-hander. He writes, eats, and as we know, bowls with his right hand. He was a right-handed batsman, too, in his early days. But, because his brother Snehashish was left-handed, Sourav held the bat left-handed so that he could then use his elder brother’s kit.
- Ganguly brothers had an indoor multi-gym and a concrete wicket built at their home, for them to practice.
- Ganguly has a road named after him in West Bengal. A 1.5 km road in Rajarhat in the North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal is named 'Sourav Ganguly Avenue'.
- Sourav is a big foodie at heart to the extent that he also opened a restaurant in Kolkata named ‘Sourav’s—The Food Pavilion’ which was inaugurated by his dear friend Sachin Tendulkar.
- Sourav is a deeply religious person and observes a fast every Tuesday.
On-field facts:
- Sourav made his first-class debut in 1989/90 season for Bengal and ironically replaced his elder brother Snehashish in the Ranji Trophy team who was dropped from the team due to poor performance.
- Ganguly made his international debut against West Indies at Brisbane in 1992 and he scored merely three runs in the game. He was consequently dropped from the side because of his rumored ‘attitude’ problems and that he refused to carry drinks to his teammates. After his debut match, Ganguly was kept away from international cricket for 4 years.
- After being dropped from the Indian team in 1992, Sourav Ganguly bought a bowling machine to practice at home and it paid off as he slammed a ton in the first innings of his Test debut against England in 1996 at Lord's.
- Ganguly scored 131 runs on his debut at Lord’s in June 1996, which is till date the highest score by any international debutant player at Lord’s.
- During 2003 World Cup, Sourav became the first Indian to score a century in the World Cup knockout match. In 2003 WC semi-final, Ganguly scored unbeaten 111 against Kenya which was the first century by an Indian batsman in a WC knockout stage.
- Many people know that Mohammad Azharuddin was Ganguly’s first international captain, but it is relatively less known that Ganguly was Azharuddin’s last international captain. Azharuddin played his last Test under Sachin Tendulkar, but when Ganguly took over as India’s ODI captain, Azharuddin played 11 ODIs with Ganguly as his captain.
- As a left-handed batsman, Ganguly scored most international runs for India. He led in the both international formats (Test and ODI) in this category as his total international runs were 18,433 (7,212 runs in Tests and 11,221 runs in ODIs).
- Ganguly has smashed most centuries by an Indian left-hander in international cricket. He boasts of 38 centuries (16 in Tests and 22 in ODIs) during his international cricketing career.Ganguly's stats as a cricketer
- India never lost a Test match in which Ganguly scored a century. Out of his 16 Tests centuries, India had drawn 12 Tests and won 4 Test matches.
- Ganguly’s Test career average is 42.17 and interestingly his Test average never fell below 40 at any point during his entire Test career.
- Only once had Ganguly opened the batting in a Test, and it was in the same Test where he had gone all the way in the first innings in 1997-98, hitting Kumar Dharmasena out of Wankhede. With India having secured a 151-run lead, Sachin promoted Ganguly (instead of Nayan Mongia) to open with Navjot Sidhu.
- In ODI cricket, no. 8 was the Ganguly’s lowest batting position. Ganguly came to bat at no.8 in ODI for only once. It was against Pakistan in Toronto on 17th September 1996. The southpaw remained not out in that match with 11 runs.
- Sourav is also one of the five players in the world to achieve amazing treble of 10,000 runs, 100 wickets and 100 catches in ODI cricket history, the others being Tendulkar, Kallis, Sanath Jayasuriya and Tillakaratne Dilshan.
