5 Cricket legends who timed their retirements to perfection

#4 Sourav Ganguly

Sourav Ganguly: The man who changed Indian cricket for good

1996 was a significant year in Indian cricket, as 2 cricketing legends debuted against England at Lord's. One of them was Sourav Ganguly who went on to score a memorable 131 followed by a classy 136 in Trent Bridge. With consistent performances in both Tests and ODIs over the next few years, he was given the responsibility to lead an Indian team which was in shambles. He partnered with John Wright and both of them put Indian cricket back on track with overseas wins in England and Australia . Ganguly played an influential role in backing match-winners which resulted in India reaching the finals of the 2003 World Cup.

After a tumultuous phase with coach Greg Chappell, he was ousted from the team. Since he was a strong-minded and a conviction-driven individual, he made a historic comeback against South Africa in 2006 and became the leading run-getter for India in Tests with 1106 runs @ 61.44 in 2007. He decided to hang up his boots against Australia in the 2008 Border-Gavaskar Trophy after having scored 18575 runs in 424 International games @ 41.46 with 39 centuries.

Such was his contribution to Indian cricket, that the regular skipper MS Dhoni asked him to captain for the last one hour in his final Test match after which he was carried on the shoulders by his teammates to the dressing room.