23rd marked the birth of a "Maharaja"

       One may criticize him regarding his ipl records.One may criticize his captaincy in international cricket. But, the criticism appears only if you believe that ''a captain is only successful if he gifts his team trophies ".

    When the Indian cricket was in a dark phase,  when there was a challenge to regain the glorious period of indian cricket, this man came forward with  huge responsibility on his shoulders.

 He is known as 'The Prince of Calcutta'.

Have you ever remembered the test match victory at the iconic Eden Gardens against the mighty Australian side way back in 2001. It is not only special for VVS Laxman's galiant 281* or his match-saving

partnership with Rahul Dravid or Harbhajan Singh's hattrick. Rather, it was special for Indian cricket too as it gave the players as well as the fans the hope that we can beat any team and emerge as one of the greatest super-powers in the world of cricket.

Even before this series, Sourav Ganguly was determined to have Harbhajan Singh in his squad. But, the selectors were not in the same state of agreement with the skipper. He said, " I 'll not leave this room unless there's Bhajji's name on that paper" and thus convinced the selectors to include Harbhajan Singh and eventually Harbhajan made a dream performance in the series to prove his captain correct.

Let's pick up another instance.Natwest

series final in 2002, when the winning runs came off Zaheer Khan's bat, Sourav removed his shirt at the famous Lord's balcony to give a fitting reply to Andrew Flintoff who earlier had potrayed the same at the Wankhede Stadium. It may be

controversial that whether the shirt removal was correct or not but it created an iconic moment in the cricket field and gaveevery Indian cricket fan a moment to be remembered forever.

     The famous "coming down the wicket and hit a six straight over the bowler's head" , his masterclass against spin-bowling, and obviously his strength in the offside which had earned him the title, "The God of the offside" are some of the fondest memory to a ninety's kid ever. They would be very lucky to convey their next generation that they have watched the great Sourav- Sachin pair to open the batting for India.

 He may have lost the 2003 World Cup final to an Australian side which was almost

unbeatable at that time,  but he was always successful in gifting some glorious players like Yuvraj singh, Gautam gambhir,

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan who later gifted us the highest cricketing title in the world of cricket, the ICC World Cup, 2011.

   You may not call him as the most successful captain of Indian cricket ever, but he will always be remembered for what he has done for Indian cricket.

 If the history of Indian cricket is ever writter, one name will be always written in golden letters "SOURAV CHANDIDAS GANGULY".

   On this very day, in the year 1990. He made his first class debut,  a journey of a legend was started in big platform. Who later played 113 tests, 311 ODIs and scored almost 20000 runs in international cricket.

Photo Source: Google

Writer: Saptak Sanyal

Thanks for reading FRONT FOOT BLOG. Keep visiting this blog to get cricket updates and articles. Press the Like button and share this post if you like it. Comment here and say your opinion.

Signing off now. Will come back with the updates of other Legends. Keep Watching Cricket!

Stay connected, stay healthy and spread the love.