Sourav Ganguly Credits Pakistan's Imran Khan For Helping Him During His Toughest Phase

The beginning of 21st century for Indian cricket was all about Sourav Ganguly and his men. Sourav Ganguly was named the captain of the Indian cricket team in 2000 after Sachin Tendulkar stepped down from the post after the match-fixing scandal. He enjoyed massive success as a captain and is one of the India’s most celebrated captains ever. Likes of Yuvraj Singh, Mohammed Kaif, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra and many more, they all bloomed under Ganguly’s captaincy.

Despite building such a strong core, the Indian team bowed out of the 2007 cricket World Cup losing to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in the group stage. India reached the finals of the World Cup prior to this one and was tipped as the favourites to win the tournament but did not even progress to the second round of the tournament.

The period around 2006/07 was the lowest for the Indian team mainly due to the internal conflicts in the management during Greg Chappell’s tenure. Sourav Ganguly lost his captaincy, form and place in the squad during Chappell’s tenure and he marks that duration as one of the darkest phase of his life.

However, Ganguly has credited former Pakistani World Cup winning captain Imran Khan for motivating and helping him during that period. He said:

“I once met Imran Khan in Lahore during that period. He was actually following Indian cricket. We have a fantastic relationship, Imran and myself. He said something to me which I always remember in life. When you fly high and see dark clouds, you find a way to fly higher. I remembered those words during that (tough) period.”

Despite all the tensions between the two countries, players from both the countries share a great bond off the field which can be seen in this situation. Ganguly made a comeback to the national team following these words and scored a fifty in against South Africa in a Test match in Johannesburg.