Snehasish Ganguly: Sourav Ganguly second-most talented cricketer after Sachin Tendulkar

Sourav Ganguly is one of the best left-handed batsmen to have emerged from India. Though Ganguly wasn’t a naturally gifted left-hander his brother Snehasish Ganguly was. It was only to use his elder brother’s kit, Sourav started batting left-handed. It was a cumbersome moment for the Ganguly household in the year 1990 when Snehasish Ganguly was dropped prior to the Ranji Trophy final and Sourav was handed his first-class debut for Bengal.

Snehasish was an established batsman in the domestic circuit while Sourav was just a teenager trying to fill the big shoes of his brother. The worse part was that their father was the secretary of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB).

In an interview with Cricbuzz, Snehasish revealed how he lost interest in cricketing after continuously being overlooked for the national team. That was when he shifted his focus to family business. Snehasish accumulated 2,354 runs in 59 first class matches. He believes he could have achieved a lot more before going on to provide vital insights to the most famous Ganguly of the household.

Speaking about his brother Sourav Ganguly, he considers him as the 2nd most talented cricketer after Sachin Tendulkar.

“Sourav is the most talented cricketer for me after Sachin Tendulkar. He is at least 2,000 runs less in cricket and 5-6 centuries short. The pressures of captaincy took those away from him but what he has achieved as a captain is tremendous. He built the team from an era where we were struggling with match fixing and things like that,” said Snehasish in the interview.

Highlighting on decision-making skills Snehasish said, “He is very dynamic. He is very firm with the decision he takes. He is organised as well. He is focused and loves the game like no one else.”

Sourav’s knack of spotting talents is well known and MS Dhoni happens to one such player whom Ganguly backed when he was early in his career. It is more of a coincidence that both Dhoni and Ganguly went onto to be the greatest captains to have lead the Indian side. Recalling the 1989-90 Ranji Final when he watched Sourav for the first time, Snehasish felt that there are some players who have a tremendous self-belief and would have made it big irrespective of where they came from.

“Players like Sourav, or Mahendra Singh Dhoni, no one can stop them. Even if they were born in Tripura, they would have played for India. Players like them, they have such tremendous self-belief that it’s hard to block their way. They come out and become successful no matter what,” Snehasish pointed out.

Though Snehasish hailed Jagmohan Dalmiya as a brilliant administrator, he felt it was not right for one person to run the CAB and more importantly Bengal cricket was not improving. Snehasish praised his brother, who is the current President of CAB for his innovative ideas.

“I always gave him advice. He is a very matured guy. Sourav has been the president for the last six-seven months. He has brought a lot of change, he is bringing in innovative ideas. The India-Pakistan game for example. After so much rain, the match did happen because there was a new drainage system in place. We have got enough money but we need a proper man,” the elder Ganguly added.