Sourav Ganguly is rated as one of the best captains of Indian cricket despite the fact that India didn’t win any ICC trophy under his captaincy.
The reason why Ganguly is rated so highly was because the Indian cricket team was in tatters when he took over the captaincy. He built the team from scratch and helped the young cricketers grow.
Ganguly has not just been a wonderful captain for India, he has been equally impressive with the mike in hand as well after retiring from the game.
Here are the 5 most wonderful replies Ganguly gave to his fellow commentators on air –
#1 Ganguly to Nasser Hussain
Once on-air, Nasser Hussain took a dig at the Indian Football team asking Ganguly if there will be a time when India will feature in a Football World Cup.
Ganguly hit the nail on the head with his reply. Dada said if India were consistently participating in the Football World Cup for the last five decades (as the England team is), India would certainly have been able to qualify for the final of the World Cup at least once (which England haven’t so far).
#2 Ganguly on Mauka ad
Mauka ad is a very famous ad related to India-Pakistan matches. It shows the frustration of a Pakistani fan who is waiting to burst the crackers for many, many years, but every time when he thinks he has the mauka (opportunity) to burst the crackers, Pakistan lose to India in a world cup game.
Reacting to it, Ganguly said the mauka ad would forever remain the same as India would continue beating Pakistan in the World Cups.
#3 Ganguly to Geoffrey Boycott
After India’s famous victory in the final of the Natwest Trophy in 2002, Ganguly had taken his shirt off in the Lord’s balcony.
Once Geoffrey Boycott was commentating with Ganguly and he reminded the former Indian captain of that particular incident.
Ganguly was also quick to remind Boycott that one of his boys (Andrew Flintoff) had also taken his shirt off at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai.
Boycott said Lord’s is the mecca of cricket, to which Ganguly said Lord’s might be the mecca of England cricket, but the mecca of Indian cricket is Wankhede.
#4 Ganguly to Dravid
Once Rahul Dravid tried to tease Ganguly by saying if he was a little quicker and his fitness was a bit better, he might have won India the games with the ball as well.
Ganguly said if he was the Prime Minister of India, he could have done a lot of other things as well.
Dada was probably trying to suggest “ifs” and “buts” are irrelevant in sport.
#5 Ganguly on Dhoni
Some of the field placements of MS Dhoni always left Ganguly surprised and he never understood why Dhoni would put fielders in unusual positions.
While commentating on one of the games, Sourav Ganguly said Dhoni should perhaps write a book on his field placements after his retirement.