Ganguly - The man who changed Indian cricket

Finally the day has come. Dada announced his retirement from cricket and the Australian series will be his last. It has been a wonderful career for the man who changed the Indian cricket. He was the best captain India has ever produced. Under his captaincy, India won test matches abroad especially on bouncing tracks like Australia, West Indies and England. Lets look at some of his achievements.

• He is the most successful test captain of India by winning 21 tests and losing 13.
• During his captaincy, India reached the finals of the cricket world cup and also were the joint winners of champions trophy held at Sri Lanka.
• After being dropped from the national side, he made a strong comeback and was the leading run scorer last year for India in tests at an average of 50.
• His 183 against Sri Lanka at Taunton during the 1999 world cup is still one of the greatest knocks at the world cup.
  
• His bowling skills too is not short of glory. His performance at Toronto during the Sahara Cup against Pakistan where he averaged 10 is evident enough.
  
• He is only the third cricketer after Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya to take 100 wickets and score more than 10,000 runs in one day international.
• He scored back to back test century in debut against England at Lords and Trent Bridge.
• Have scored more than 6500 runs in test cricket with 15 centuries.
• He along with Sachin Tendulkar, formed a formidable opening pair in one day international averaging more than 50.
• His 141 against Australia at Brisbane on a green top pitch showed that he too can play on bouncy and swinging tracks, when many people criticised him for his weakness.
• Rahul Dravid called him "the God on the off side"
• He is one of the most elegant left hander in the modern day cricket.

I guess, losing a man of Ganguly's calibre is a great loss for every team but everything has its end. I am sure he will be given a fitting farewall by the BCCI and the people of India especially West Bengal. Lets hope he finishes his career on a winning note and good performance against the Aussies.