Sourav 'Dada' Ganguly vs 'Captain Cool' Dhoni: Who's the better leader? (Part 1)

The endless debate – Dhoni vs Ganguly

When India won the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy, captain MS Dhoni added a 3rd ICC trophy to his already overflowing trophy cabinet. He had already led India to a World Cup and World T20 triumph. He is hence the only captain to have won all 3 major ICC titles. Apart from this, he can also boast of a Champions League T20 and 2 IPL trophies to his name and has thus consolidated himself as India’s most successful captain.

But when it comes to being called India’s “best ever” captain, he gets some serious competition from the “Bengal Tiger”, Sourav Ganguly, the man from whom he truly inherited Team India. “Dada”, as Ganguly is affectionately called, can be credited to a large extent for turning the Indian team into the force it is today. Who is India’s best ever captain, Ganguly or Dhoni, is thus a debate which can go on and on and on, just like the debate on who is the greatest of all time, Sir Don or Sachin.

Sourav Ganguly

It was the dawn of a new millennium. The year was 2000. Instead of looking excitedly towards a new future, world cricket found itself plunged into an abyss and fighting a seemingly unknown, but formidable new foe, called match-fixing. Many international players, most prominent being the late Hansie Cronje, the-then South Africa captain, were found involved. Among those found guilty also included India captain Mohammad Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja. Azharuddin, ironically, had just been re-appointed as India’s captain after disastrous results under Sachin Tendulkar.

In what BBC called “Indian cricket‘s darkest hour”, up stepped a man to take over the reigns, someone who had previously been criticised for his princely ways. Sourav Ganguly, belonging to a prominent Kolkata family, was given the charge. He knew exactly what was to be done, and in order to turn his team into a fighting unit, did what today’s generation has taken to an entirely new level. He instilled the hitherto lacking aggressiveness in the team. In the 2001 Test series at home against Australia, he stood up to the mighty Australians and gave them a taste of their own medicine.

If irritating Steve Waugh by making him wait for a toss, not once but four times, was not enough, then what about his bare-chested shirt waving act in the balcony of Lord’s? That was apparently a mocking of Andrew Flintoff who had done the same after England won an ODI in India in 2001. Being such a hothead that he was, the presence of wise men like John Wright, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble must have also helped him a lot as they must have done their bit in helping Dada out on numerous occasions.