10 cricketers who make good biopic materials

#3 Sourav Ganguly (India)

Rahul Dravid regarded Sourav Ganguly as the “God of offside”

“The Prince of “Calcutta” made his Test debut for India in 1996 scoring a century in his debut Test. He followed it up with another century in the same series and made a name for himself within a short span of time.

The southpaw then went on to score a majestic 183 against Sri Lanka in the 1999 World Cup at Taunton which is still regarded as one of the finest innings played in ODIs. He literally belted the Sri Lankan all around Taunton and notched up a 331 run partnership with Rahul Dravid for the 2nd wicket.

The Bengal Tiger was handed over the national captaincy in 2000 following the infamous match-fixing scandal involving some of his teammates. He began on a good note and captained India to the finals of ICC Knockout Trophy in Kenya in 2000 only to lose to New Zealand in the final.

In the following years, he continued to emerge as a world class captain and handled his troops with authority. Under him, players like Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan amongst others proved their mettle and continued to serve India for many more years.

The infamous “Shirt waving” incident at Lord’s is still fondly remembered by every Indian cricket lovers. Ganguly also captained India to the World Cup final in 2003 eventually losing to Australia in the final at Johannesburg. Apart from his leadership qualities Ganguly was a terrific opening batsman for India in ODIs and with Sachin Tendulkar, the duo formed a formidable opening partnership. The southpaw has a total of 22 centuries in his ODI career.

In 2005 after the appointment of Greg Chappel as India’s head coach, there was a fallout between him and Ganguly and the controversy took centre stage. Ganguly was removed as the Indian captain and was replaced by Rahul Dravid . He was also dropped from the ODI team on November 2005 nad later lost his place in the Test side at the end of January 2006. There was a huge uproar in Ganguly’s hometown of Kolkata and he was eventually recalled to the team after his replacements couldn't perform well.

Ganguly remained unsold in the 2011 IPL auctions after being the captain of Kolkata Knight Riders for the first three seasons. However, during his tenure, KKR couldn't reach the semi-finals in any of the editions. The left-hander is also the 2nd successful Indian captain after MS Dhoni and is considered as the man who ignited the belief in Indians that they have the ability to win Test matches in overseas conditions.