Ganguly to Retire by CricketArchive Staff Reporter

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Scorecard:	India v West Indies, England v India, England v India, South Africa v India
Player:	SC Ganguly

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DateLine: 7th October 2008

 

Saurav Ganguly announced his retirement from international cricket after the series against Australia. After the practice session in Bangalore he addressed the media and informed them that he would be ending his career at the end of this series. Saurav said that he had a chat with his teammates before coming to Bangalore. Saurav has been India's most successful captain. Saurav has captained India in 49 test matches winning 21 with the highest win percentage of 40. Saurav is one of the 3 cricketers to score 10000 runs take 100 catches and 100 wickets in Odis, others being Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya. At test level he is 112 runs short of 7000.He has played 109 tests and 311 Odis. He has 15 test and 22 Odi hundreds. His major achievements as captain were winning test and Odi series in Pakistan for the first time. He also helped india reach the finals of the 2003 world cup.

 

Champion of umpteen comebacks Saurav made his debut in Australia in 91-92. He played one Odi match and got dropped. He made a comeback after 5 years against England In 1996 and made a century on debut at Lords. He followed it up with a century in Trentbridge. He again got dropped in 2005 only to make a comeback in October 2006 with a match winning half century against South Africa in Johannesburg.

 

Saurav would always be remembered for his aggressive captaincy. Collecting a group of matchwinning and talented youngsters especially after the match fixing saga he forged an aggressive team without any zonal bias. He would always be remembered for giving it back to Australia in their own coin. He looked into their eye made their captain Steve Waugh wait for the toss and won that extraordinary series 2-1 at home. Saurav can be defined as a fighter who never gave up. He fought against all odds and deserves a fitting farewell. The best gift would be a series win against Australia, thereby regaining the Border Gavaskar trophy.