WHY SOURAV IS THE BEST EVER CAPTAIN???

Captain is born not made. Leadership is your trait –in your genre. Either you have it or you don't have. There is no in between. Sourav like England's Mike Brearley or Nasser Hussain can be in the team just because of his leadership qualities. Unlike Brearley, whose Test batting averagewas under 23 or Hussain whose Test average was 37, Sourav's average is nearly 41. In the 2003-04 series against Australia, Sourav's century at Brisbane set the tone for one of the best performance by India in an away series. it is beyond doubt that he has brought the killer instinctto the Indian team that was sorely lacking..

• No wonder every Indian skipper goes through a bad phase. Azharuddin being a prime example .same goes for Dravid. Generally when he leads India, his batting nosedives. Consider this. In Tests, as a player he averages 60.46, as a skipper his average 17.25.

In one-dayers, as a player he averages 40.22, as a skipper 29.22. It's no different abroad. Take for example Michael Vaughan, England's highly successful skipper, as a player in Test his average is 50.98, as a captain it is down to 35.94, lower than even Ganguly's 37.03. All batsmen go through bad patches. Even Rahul Dravid has gone through this phase. In 1999-00 during a 13-month period he went through 16 innings without a fifty.

• Sourav is an expert in "Man Management". Words such as 'Groups' and 'Camps' have vanished from the Indian dressing room. That is why we saw the name "Team India" because in Ganguly's era there is no in-fighting. The other great asset of Sourav is that he has risen over parochial interests and backed players on their talent. That is indeed revolutionary when compared to the policies of the past skippers who made it open secret in picking their favourites. Mahendra Singh Dhoni, from Jharkhand, Kaif from Uttar Pradesh, but they are all equal in Ganguly's eye. The only thing he believes in is talent.

Yuvraj Singh, Kaif, Sehwag, Irfan Pathan, Sanjay Bangar, Murali Kartik, Harbhajan Singh, Dinesh Mongia, Parthiv Patel, Zaheer Khan, Dinesh Kartik, Dhoni, Balaji, Nehra all have done India proud because Sourav have backed them through thick and thin. Even Players like Srinath gave his best while coming back to limited overs cricket under Sourav Ganguly.

• Sourav has won six Test matches away from home, a huge improvement over any other skipper

Sourav as Captain for Team India :

•There is no debate over the very fact that Sourav has rechristened Indian cricket in last five years—2000 to 2005. Indians have never had a captain who has looked at the opposition in the eye and forced them on the backfoot even before a ball is bowled.Azhar, Sachin, Srikkanth, Kapil and Gavaskar did not have the sort of aggression which Sourav does! As a player and a captain he has given a new looked Men-in-Blue, a blend of youth and experience. This team proved its merit as it raced to the finals of the World Cup 2003.

•He has never shied away from responsibilities and always stood up for his boys. Perhaps for the first time Indian cricket got a captain whorose above petty parochial regionalism and fought with BCCI to select the best talents available in the country. Few promising youngsterslike Juvraj ,Harvajan ,Pathan , Dhoni or player like Sehwag –all are mentored during the tenure of Sourav . Below statistics vividly manifests the very fact that he is always a big tournament player and big challenge motivates him immensely. He literally brandised Indian cricket with the help of his Men -in -Blue. Let’s analyse his performance as captain..

•Out of 49 test matches where Sourav played the role of Chieftain, 21 Victories by any standard (almost 43% win) is a glorious feat! Out of which in seven cases win by an innings (33% of all win --- that means out of 3 wins, one will be always by an innings!) quite impressive and comprehending victory over opponents. Statistics again reveal that Ganguly was keener on chasing the target to victory. Vis a vis other players, captaincy did not hamper Sourav’s batting average much(down from 40 to 37 range ).A very interesting fact is whenever India own the match,Ganguly played a very key role in the side to victory. His near about 50 batting average in those 21 matches ( where India won the test under his stewardship) clearly points out that Ganguly was very much instrumental in team success and led the side from the front in victory. All through these victories, Ganguly contribution as captain in batting was phenomenal. In those 7 innings victories, his batting average is astounding 72.42 .even in those 11 matches where, India won by chasing target , Sorav’s contribution is healthy 42.57 !

•Nevertheless such a lead-from-the-front approach, the critics still keep on making Noise! We really appreciate their audacity and no-cricket-sense stance!Sourav in test definitely did well in away tests in opponent soil! There is lot of hue and cry made by his critics that he can’t play fast bowler well. For them his performance as a captain against Aussies (batting average 47.33), England (58.50) and west Indies (53.66) is enough to shut their mouth!

We know that those three teams have more formidable fast bowlers than spinners.
Right?

•The performance in one day is also comparable like test. Here also the same out of 147 matches where he led team India, in 76 matches India won and in those matches Sourav’s average 51.37, only re strengthen the very fact Sourav Ganguly can easily claim the lions share as batsman and captain in team’s success .His performance is quite magnificent in world cup and ICC championship where his average is resounding 58.12 and flabbergasting 83! I think after all these statistics there should not be any further argument over the fact –who is real mentor of Team India. As captain and as a batsman – it is Sourav Ganguly –“The Prince of Calcutta”.

☛DADA - THE BEST INDIAN SKIPPER EVER MADE☚

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How sachin is the king when situation is easy and fails when tough time prevails and DADA is reverse???

For an overseas batsman, runs scored in Australia often means more than runs scored anywhere else. Apart from the relatively bouncy pitches, the batsmen also have to overcome the challenges posed by the most potent bowling attack in world cricket, and one of the meanest fielding units around.

Even in Australia, though, some venues have been more hospitable to overseas batsmen than others. Adelaide, for instance, has almost always produced a flat pitch - thanks to Les Burdett, their curator - with little assistance to the bowlers. Sydney, meanwhile, has often helped spinners more than the fast bowlers. At both these venues, the bounce and seam movement has been less pronounced, allowing batsmen from outside Australia to feel more at home with conditions and get among the runs.

At the other three regular Test venues, though, the story has been entirely different. "Brisbane has mostly helped the fast bowlers, and often hosts the first Test of a series, leaving overseas batsmen with little time to adjust to the Australian conditions. Melbourne has been quite bowler-friendly as well, while the trampoline-like bounce in Perth has often been far too much for the batsmen to get on top of. The best bet for most batsmen has been to make extra runs in Sydney and Adelaide, so that the overall numbers still look good after the damage from the other three venues".

The table below checks out the numbers for overseas top-order batsmen (Nos. 1-7) since 1990, and the difference in numbers between the two sets of numbers is stark: batsmen score 26% more runs per dismissal in Sydney and Adelaide than in the other three grounds.

Overseas top-order batsmen in Australia since 1990 :

VENUES : TESTS RUNS AVERAGE 100s/50/s

ADELAIDE AND SYDNEY : 40 17,660 35.67 34/ 81
Brisbane, Melbourne & Perth : 55 19,958 28.30 28/ 108


The table below lists out the batsmen with the highest difference in averages between the two sets of venues (at least four innings at each set of venues). The two England captains lead the way: Paul Collingwood averages more than 90 in Adelaide and Sydney and less than 27 in the other three grounds, while Michael Vaughan isn't far behind. However, Vaughan and Sachin Tendulkar, the next batsman in the list, have done reasonably well in Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth - the high difference in average is largely due to their exceptional records in Sydney and Adelaide.

That argument doesn't hold for Brian Lara, though. He has a superb record in Sydney and Adelaide, with five 50-plus scores - including two double-centuries - in 15 innings. His stats in the other three venues are dismal: in 18 innings there, he has been dismissed without scoring four times.

The difference is almost as much for two former opening batsmen. Michael Atherton averaged more than 50 when batting on the true pitches of Sydney and Adelaide, but it dropped to less than a third of that figure when the conditions got tougher - his highest from 18 innings in Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth was 54. It was a similar struggle for Gary Kirsten, whose average dropped from 52.63 to 23.80.

A few Things came to my notice which made my belief that ,DADA is A much Better Test Batsman Than his credentials Show,MuCH more Stronger.

I will key it in 2 set of stats : (plz click these two pics and view it for clear focus) :





Not too many batsmen fall into the next category, but there have been a few overseas players who have flourished in conditions that most have found too difficult to conquer. The list is headed by an unlikely candidate: Mark Ramprakash managed an average of just 36.50 in Adelaide and Sydney, but he was consistency personified in the three tougher venues, with four 40-plus scores in eight innings. Sourav Ganguly has often been pulled up for his problems against pace and bounce, but surprisingly, he has done much better in Brisbane and Melbourne than in Sydney and Adelaide.

Two of the most consistent batsmen across all venues in Australia have been Jacques Kallis and Kevin Pietersen. Pietersen scored runs at almost every venue on England's tour in 2006-07, but Kallis' achievement is even more creditable, since his runs have come over three different series: he averages almost 50 in Sydney and Adelaide, and only marginally lesser in the other three venues.

courtesy : s.rajesh(stats editor of cricinfo)

FRM THE ABOVE STATS, ITZ CLEARLY SHOWN THAT GREATS LIKE SACHIN ,LARA AND ELSE PLAYED WELL IN ONLY SOFT CORNERS LIKE ADELAIDE AND SYDNEY and not in tougher venues like brisbane,melbourne and perth.. BUT ITZ MY SOURAV GANGULY HAS DONE MUCH BETTER IN THOSE TOUGHER VENUES THAN SACHIN AND LARA.....

~~~HOPE ALL WILL REALISE THE CLASS OF DADA IN TESTS TOO~~~

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KKR coach picked, to be announced soon : Ganguly

September 24, 2009 08:47 PM

Former India Captain Sourav Ganguly has revealed that KKR management has picked its coach. He also said that the management will announce its decision shortly.

"The coach has been decided. But I cannot announce it. The team management (owners Shah Rukh Khan and Jay Mehta) will do it shortly,"—he said.

He also said that KKR will have three practice matches with the visiting Champions League Twenty20 teams in the first week of October.

Sources close to KKR management also reveal that they are about to announce their coach before these practice matches.

KKR management had meetings with several former players like Wasim Akram, former India coach John Wright, former England all-rounder Dermot Reeve, former Pakistan coach Richard Pybus, former England coach Duncan Fletcher and former Australian batsman Michael Bevan, former India and Kenya national coach Sandeep Patil, Mumbai Ranji coach Praveen Amre and former Tamil Nadu coach WV Raman.

Sources also revealed earlier that KKR management was looking for a foreign and Indian blend in their coaching department.

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Sourav is my Role Model : Irfan Pathan

SOURCE :ZEE NEWS

Mumbai: Being left from the Indian Champions Trophy squad has not hampered pacer Irfan Pathan’s hopes; instead he has vowed to make a successful comeback into the team, just the way Sourav Ganguly did when he was dealing with a similar kind of a fate!

The Vadodara lad is not sulking for being omitted from the recently concluded tri-nation series in Sri Lanka and the upcoming Champions Trophy. On the contrary, he said that he is taking inspiration from former Indian skipper and his role model Ganguly, who, like the phoenix, rose from the ashes to break his way into the national side.

“Sourav is my role model in terms making comebacks to the Indian team,” said Pathan.

“I am confident that I will return to the Indian team soon,” he added.

Pathan was sidelined in the above mentioned series, due to his poor run of form after the World Twenty20 in England. He is now working out regularly and trying to make himself completely fit for the upcoming domestic season.

“My aim should be to get back to the team and cement my place, not just in the Twenty20 or ODI side but also in the Test team,” Pathan said

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Ganguly gears up for new Ranji season

Date: September 12, 2009

Keen to play for Bengal in the Ranji Trophy, Sourav Ganguly on Saturday padded up at Eden Gardens and batted for close to two hours in the morning.
Ganguly, who bid adieu to international cricket last year, practiced in the company of former Bengal players Gopal Bose and Goutam Shome Junior.

According to Goutam, Ganguly opted for a different batting style on Saturday.

"He changed his stance, opening up a bit to get a better view," he said.

Ganguly on Friday told state selectors Sambaran Banerjee and Devang Gandhi about his availability for the Ranji Trophy.

"Ganguly wants to play some of the matches. But the exact number of matches he will play, is yet to be finalised," Banerjee said.

Ganguly had on Wednesday expressed a desire to play a few matches for Bengal but had ruled out the possibility of a comeback to the national side.

The former Indian captain had earlier announced that he would play in the Vijay Hazare Trophy one-dayers.

He is also set to play the third edition of the Indian Premier League for the Kolkata Knight Riders with a possibility of returning as captain.

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