Sourav Ganguly Played A Key Role In India Winning The 2011 World Cup: Manoj Tiwary

Manoj Tiwary, the Indian middle-order batsman, has heaped high praise on the former captain and the current president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India [BCCI] Sourav Ganguly for laying the foundation of the team that eventually went on to win the World Cup in 2011.

India became the first nation to win the 50-over World Cup on home soil when they defeated Sri Lanka by six wickets in the finals at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, nine years ago.

The MS Dhoni-led unit boasted of players like Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh [Player of the tournament], Harbhajan Singh, Ashish Nehra, Zaheer Khan and Gautam Gambhir, all of whom made their debut and transformed into match winners under the leadership of Sourav Ganguly.

Sourav Ganguly took over the reins of the Indian team in 2000. It was a time when Indian cricket was in great turmoil. The match-fixing saga had ripped apart its reputation into tatters and some of the experienced players were banned. It is at this time that Ganguly, along with the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble, set about making a team for the future by injecting fresh blood in the set-up.

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Manoj Tiwary on Sourav Ganguly’s role in India winning the World Cup

One of the many qualities of Dada was that he had an incredible eye for talent spotting and when he saw talent in someone, he made sure he backed them to the hilt. Under his leadership, players like Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan and others realized their true potential. Ganguly led Team India all the way to the finals of the 2003 World Cup but the team faltered at the final hurdle.

Eight years later, the core group that Ganguly had developed, coupled with the brilliant leadership of MS Dhoni, went on to play a crucial role in India lifting the cup after 28 years.

”Sourav Ganguly has played a big part in building that team over a period of time. If you go deeper and see, the players who performed well when we won the World Cup in 2011, all the players started when Sourav Ganguly was leading the country.” Manoj Tiwary told Sportskeeda.

“He gave so much of security to youngsters at that point in time, whether it be Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra or Gautam Gambhir. All that experience worked for us in 2011 under the brilliant captaincy of Dhoni,” he added.

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