When Sourav Ganguly Asked His Teammates To Sledge Opposition

Former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly led a team of gentlemen and thus sledging the opponents was out of the question. Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Anil Kumble and Rahul Dravid always played the game in the right spirit and asking them to sledge the opponents was a waste of time. In fact, Sourav Ganguly revealed that Harbhajan Singh will always take his commands seriously and he would do whatever Ganguly asked him to.

On the other hand, sledging the opponents was never a cup of tea for the legendary Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid. Ganguly revealed that these three legendary players came up with some excuses or the other when he asked them to get under the skin of the opposition.

It was a impossible task.

“That was very hard in that team because we had too many gentlemen. If you tell Rahul Dravid to do that, he will come back and kindly say no. And if you asked VVS Laxman, he would say I am concentrating on my batting. If you tell Sachin to do that, he will stand at mid on and tell the midwicket fielder to say things to Steve Waugh and himself not do it”.

“So there were a lot of issues with that team. The only ones holding the Indian flag were Harbhajan Singh and Sourav Ganguly because Sardarji did everything I asked him to,” Ganguly told ICC World Cup 2019’s official broadcaster.

India is in a commanding position in first semifinal.

Meanwhile, Sourav Ganguly was able to get the best out of his players and led the team with aplomb. Ganguly gave confidence to rookie players like Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, MS Dhoni and Zaheer Khan. Hence, these players flowered under the captaincy of Sourav Ganguly.

Ganguly used to back his players to the hilt and the Indian team record in overseas conditions blossomed under his captaincy reins.

Meanwhile, India had put their noses ahead in the first semifinal against New Zealand. The match was called off on 9th July due to rain and the Kiwis will commence their innings from 211-5.