Sourav Ganguly decides to call it a day

Zeenews Bureau

Bangalore, Oct 07: Sourav Ganguly, the most successful player to captain the Indian cricket team, announced he would be retiring after the Test series against Australia. The announcement puts to a close a magnificent career spanning 16 years, filled with milestones that place him among the greats of international cricket.

“I have informed my team-mates that this series would be my last,” an emotional Sourav Ganguly told reporters at a special press conference.

“Thank you all for your support. Hopefully I’ll go on a winning note,” he added.

On being asked about pressure before the series, he said, “Every series has pressures attached to it, you have to play well every time. No one can start as favourites in this series, both have the skills to win.”

He said that when he was a youngster, there were greats of the game like Azharuddin, Ravi Shastri and Kapil Dev and youngsters had to earn their place in the squad. The same is true today. He commended the younger players for doing a great job.

Ganguly, 36, has had a stupendous cricketing career, having scored 6888 runs in 109 Tests including 15 magnificent tons. Besides, he also scored 11363 runs in 311 ODIs with 22 centuries at an outstanding average of 41.02. The southpaw also captained India in 147 ODIs.

Having captained the country in most number of Tests (49), he led India to the most number of victories (21) by any Indian captain with a win percentage of over 40.

Since smashing a hundred on debut at Lord’s, Ganguly has had a phenomenal Test average that has never dipped below the 40 mark.

Head of India’s selection panel Kris Srikkanth said that he felt the former captain made the right decision in the present circumstances.

Talking to a cricket website, Srikkanth said, “I think Sourav Ganguly has been an excellent player. He has brought so many laurels as captain and player.”

"He had a good chat with me and Narendra Hirwani. He wants a peaceful series without any troubles on his mind. I hope he goes out with a couple of hundreds. Ganguly was one of the best captains the world has ever produced and I think he deserves it," Srikkanth added.

Ganguly’s cricketing future had been undecided after the Indian selectors dropped him from the Irani Trophy squad and hinted at his possible exclusion from the Australia series.

Ganguly, however, was picked in the 15 member squad at a selection committee meeting held last week in Mumbai.

Ganguly’s achievements also include being one of only three players to complete the treble of 10000 runs, 100 wickets and 100 catches in one-day internationals.

Ganguly had been in tremendous form with the bat since his comeback in 2006 scoring over one thousand five hundred runs at a staggering average of 50.67. The speculation on his future began after a dismal series in Sri Lanka.

Sourav may be the greatest of cricketers, but the way be cringed before everyone, specially Sharad Pawar, to get his place back in the team showed his lack of character. Now he has finally seen the writing on the wall that the selectors would henceforth go in for the youngsters, he is making a virtue out of a necessity - to retire. Will he back off from his 3 year contract with IPL? No way. Not when there is moolah to be made there!