Some lesser known facts about India's most dynamic skipper Sourav Ganguly
Sourav Ganguly will forever be remembered as the person who inspired India to believe they can perform in overseas conditions, and led to a new era of Indian cricket by placing his faith in young cricketers.
Sourav didn’t just captain India after the hullabaloo of the match-fixing scandal that threatened to derail Indian cricket, but he brought about a revolution, a change in mentality, a hunger, an undying belief embedded into the core of the Indian system that we were good enough to go shoulder-to-shoulder with the best teams in the world.
Let's have a look at 10 lesser known facts about the man who taught India to win, our very own Sourav Ganguly, our 'Dada'.
Fact 1:
Sourav’s parents gave him the nickname, ‘Maharaj’ which means ‘Prince’. Probably they knew the fact, their son was born to lead. Later, the nickname ‘The Prince of Calcutta’ was fondly given by Geoffrey Boycott.
Fact 2:
Ganguly was born a right-hander. He writes, eats, and as we know, bowls with his right hand. Basically, he does each and everything under the sun with his right hand. He was a right-handed batsman, too, in his early days.
His brother Snehashish was, however, a left-hander, and Sourav wanted to use his elder brother's kit. Exactly why he did this is unknown, but the choice made him the leading run-scorer among all left-handed Indian Test batsmen.
One more fact, Sourav replaced his elder brother Snehashish in the Bengal Ranji Trophy team. How ironical indeed!
Fact 3:
Chandidas Ganguly, the father of Sourav Ganguly, runs a flourishing printing business, the third largest in Asia. The Ganguly’s are one of the richest families in the ‘City of Joy’, Kolkata. Sourav’s joint family home in Behala, Southern Calcutta, has nearly 30 residing members with more than 45 rooms. Sourav is a deeply religious person and observes a fast every Tuesday. Yes, every Tuesday!
Fact 4:
Sourav was a huge football fan in his childhood (still he is), and actually football was his first love! But due to Snehashish’s insistence, Sourav was enrolled into a cricket academy during his class 10 holidays. And hence one of India’s greatest cricketers began his journey.