Full name :Sourav Chandidas Ganguly

Born :8 July 1972 (1972-07-08) (age 36),Calcutta, Bengal, India.

Nickname: Dada, Prince of Kolkata, Bengal Tiger, Maharaja.

Height: 5 ft 11 in (1.8 m)

Batting style :Left-handed

Bowling style:Right arm medium

Role: Batsman

Relations: Snehasish Ganguly (Brother)

The youngest son of Chandidas and Nirupa Ganguly, Ganguly was born on 8 July 1972 in Kolkata. His father ran a flourishing print business and was one of the richest men in Kolkata.He had a luxurious childhood and was nicknamed the Maharaja.Though he was asked to concentrate on his studies and not to play cricket, he was inspired to do so by his brother Snehasish Ganguly,an accomplished left-handed batsman for Bengal.Though he was actually right-handed, he batted left-handed so that he could use his brother's equipment.After he showed some promise as a batsman, he was enrolled in a cricket academy.An indoor multi-gym and concrete wicket was built at home for him and his brother, and he would often watch cricket videos, especially those of David Gower, whom he admired. After he scored a century against the Orissa U-15 side, he was made captain of St Xavier's School's cricket team,where several of his teammates complained against what they perceived to be his arrogance. One anecdote was that during a tour with a junior team, it was Ganguly's turn to be the twelth man, a substitute who can only field and whose role is usually to raise morale by supporting the playing XI by organising their spare equipment and drinks, and ferrying messages from the dressing room to the players. Ganguly purportedly refused to do such tasks as he considered it beneath his social status to assist his teammates in such a way.

Debut and early career

Following a prolific Ranji season in 1990-91, Ganguly made his One Day International debut for India against West Indies in 1992, and scored three runs.He was dropped immediately since he was perceived to be "arrogant" and his attitude towards the game was openly questioned. He toiled away in domestic cricket, scoring heavily in the 1993–94 and 1994–95 seasons Following an innings of 171 in the 1995–96 Duleep Trophy,he was recalled to the national side for the tour of England in 1996 amidst intense media scrutiny.He played in one ODI,[19] but was omitted from the team for the first Test. However, after Navjot Sidhu left the touring party citing ill-treatment by the then captain Mohammed Azharuddin,made his Test debut at Lord's alongside Rahul Dravid, in what was umpire Dickie Bird's last Test.He scored a century, becoming only the third cricketer to score a century on debut at Lord's, after Harry Graham and John Hampshire. Andrew Strauss and Matt Prior have since accomplished this feat, but his 131 still remains the highest by any batsman on his debut at Lord's. In the next Test match at Trent Bridge he made 136, thus becoming only the 3rd batsman to make a century in each of his first two innings (after Lawrence Rowe and Alvin Kallicharran). He shared a 255 run stand with Sachin Tendulkar, which became at that time the highest partnership for India against any country for any wicket outside India.

Opening in ODIs

In 1997 Ganguly scored his maiden ODI century, opening the innings he scored 113, in his side's 238, against Sri Lanka. Later that year he won four consecutive man of the match awards in the Sahara Cup with Pakistan, the second of these was won after he took 5/16 off 10 overs, his best bowling in an ODI. After a barren run in Test cricket his form returned at the end of the year with three centuries in four Tests all against Sri Lanka two of these involved stands with Sachin Tendulkar of over 250.

Ascension to captaincy

In 2000, after the match fixing scandal, Ganguly was named the captain of the India team. In the Champions Trophy of that year he scored 2 centuries but his second in the final was in vain as New Zealand won by four wickets. In 2003 under his captaincy India reached the World Cup Final, where they lost to the Australians.