Sourav Ganguly Announces His Retirement from International Cricket

At last, all the speculations over Sourav Ganguly’s retirement have come true. India’s most successful captain, Sourav Ganguly has announced his retirement from international cricket on Tuesday as he has declared that the upcoming test series against Australia will be his last series in Indian outfit. He announced his quit from international cricket at the end of a regular press conference held in Bangalore. Before that he also had chat with his teammates as well as national selectors Kris Srikkanth and Narendra Hirwani about his retirement. Though there was speculation going around in the air about his retirement since he was picked up for the first two tests, Ganguly’s announcement of saying good bye to international cricket came as a big surprise to the journalists in the press conference. Here, I am sharing Sourav Ganguly’s words from Cricinfo:

"Just one last thing lads, before I leave, I just want to say that this is going to be my last series," Ganguly said after taking the last question of his press conference. "I've decided to quit. I told my team-mates before coming here. These four Test matches are going to be my last and hopefully we'll go on a winning note."

Sourav Ganguly and pressure have been synonymous when it comes to cricket. Since his early days in Indian team, pressure has bee an instant companion for this great cricketer. However, all the time he emerged winner against all the pressure both as a player as well as a captain. However, chief selector, Krishnamchari Srikkanth, has said that Ganguly wanted to play at least one series without any pressure. The chief is hopeful that Ganguly will be able to go out with couple of hundred, terming Ganguly one of the best captains in the world ever.

Zee News reported:

“Sourav is a perfect team man and he had already informed the whole team of his decision,” Srikkanth further added.

"He had a good chat with me and Narendra Hirwani. He wants a peaceful series without any troubles on his mind. I hope he goes out with couple of hundreds. Ganguly was one of the best captains the world has ever produced and I think he deserves it," Srikkanth added.

Sourav Ganguly as a Cricketer Overall

Sourav Ganguly started his international career in January 1992 with an ODI match against West Indies in the Benson & Hedges World Series, but he failed to shine in his debut being out for 3 and eventually got out of the team without getting a second chance for the next four years before being called up in the test squad for the England tour in 1996. This time, he did not let the chance go off knowing that another mistake might cost his whole career. Ganguly started his test career with a hundred at Lord’s and went on to hit another in the next test at Trent Bridge. That was the start of a new chapter in Indian cricket which will be closed with his retirement after the upcoming home series against Australia. Ganguly along with Sachin Tendulkar formed the most formidable opening partnership ever in ODI, producing 6609 runs together in 136 innings.

It was still unknown to all that he would one day become the country’s most successful captain. This Bengle southpaw took over as Indian captain in February 2000 when Indian cricket was badly struck by match-fixing fiasco. There were lots of confusions over the captaincy prowess, but Ganguly turned out to be one of the best captains in the history guiding both the seniors as well as youngsters in an effervescent way. He led India to win a historic test series win against Australia at home and then guided Indian team to reach the final of 2003 world cup, first time after India won the world cup in 1983 under Kapil Dev.

Success both as a batsman and as a captain started coming on his way and he was becoming very popular as a captain too. The first thing he did after becoming captain was to unite the whole team and created the idea of Team India since then. His aggressive, intelligent, bold character helped him to set himself as an influencing person in the team. His ability to get the best out of the cricketers was instrumental behind his success as a captain. Another thing I want to mention here when it comes to Sourav Ganguly’s captaincy is his support to the youngsters like Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh that helped these talented players to flourish their potential and prove their talent. May be Ganguly knew it better how it felt being dropped for four years for a second chance.

Most of the former cricketers have welcomed his decision saying it is right time for Ganguly to go out on high note. Here, I am sharing words from former cricketers on Sourav Ganguly’s retirement from different websites:

PTI News reported:

"I would like to celebrate his retirement, rather than mourn it because of his enormous contribution to Indian cricket. A great player, a legend of the game has hung up his boots and we all should celebrate his contribution," Bedi said.

"I'm not surprised since such a possibility was doing the rounds. It looked very much on the cards. I think he thus became a forerunner among the senior players and I hope he went on his own terms," he added.

Times of India reported:

"Ganguly had a superb career as a cricketer. He was an outstanding captain and a great player. I suppose all great careers have to end at some time or the other. Probably the fact that he had to play for India A following his selection in the Test team might have triggered the decision (to quit)," Vengsarkar said.

Sify reported:

"It is a big decision for any cricketer. But we should not be saddened by it. He is a great player and what a wonderful career he has had. He gave tremendous confidence to the team as captain. With him began a new era in Indian cricket. We are proud to have a cricketer like him, " Kapil said.

"He is a big striker of the ball and has the ability to hit any fast bowler on the off-side. And most importantly he always spoke his mind. I wish other cricketers could do the same, " he added.

Arun Lal, a former Bengal captain, said Ganguly took the right step and hoped that he ends his career on a high note.

Former India fast bowler Javagal Srinath said: "I was pretty disappointed when he was ignored by the selectors (for the Irani Trophy). There should have been a better way of going out of the game. Nevertheless, he has got this opportunity to speak to the selectors. I would be very pleased for Ganguly if he can really make a difference in this series and leave on a high note,"

"He has played his 12 years of international cricket successfully and also led the side successfully. He had a huge impact on some of the players, Yuvraj in particular, and had a great influence on Harbhajan Singh's career. Arguably he is one of the best captains we have had so far," Srinath added.

Sourav Ganguly is one of the three cricketers who have more than 10 thousands runs, 100 wickets as well as 100 catches in ODI with Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuria being the other two. He is the only seventh cricketer who has more than 10 thousands ODI runs. Ganguly scored 11363 runs at 41.02 from 311 ODI matches with 22 hundreds and 72 half centuries. In test cricket, he has 6888 runs at 41.74 in 109 matches with 15 centuries and 34 half centuries.

Sourav Ganguly’s batting was always under the microscope, even when he was at the peak of his form. He lost his captaincy in 2006 following a spat with the then coach Greg Chappell. However, since his famous come back in December 2006, he has remained India’s most successful batsman in test cricket so far, showing excellent performance in the series against England, Pakistan and South Africa. However, still he was left out of India’s ODI squad for the CB series in Australia earlier this year. Even though his played well against South Africa in the last home series, selectors ruled him out of Rest of India team for the Irani Cup 2008 match, citing his poor performance in the three-match series in Sri Lanka where most of the Indian batsmen failed to shine. Recently, he was recalled to the Indian team for the first two tests against Australia. Now, he has announced his retirement.

Sourav Ganguly has lots of success as a batman as well as captain, but the kind of mental strength and power he put in his game throughout his career deserve him a place among the elite members of world cricket.