India won the 1983 world cup

On the eve of the third World Cup in England in 1983, lucrative odds of 66 to one were being offered on India to win the title. This did not seem to be overgenerous for in two competitions India had notched up just one victory and that against East Africa. There was hardly anything to suggest that this campaign would be any different from the previous two World Cups even though the Indians had played a lot more one-day games since 1979. But the results were not encouraging and but a 2-1 series victory at home against England in 1981-82 and a famous win over the West Indies at Berbice in March 1983 the overall balance sheet was still very much in the red.

Then the tournament started and the Indians took little time in making cricket fans all over the world sit up and take notice. In the very first match they shocked the West Indies by 34 runs to hand the two time reigning champions their first defeat in three competitions. Yashpal Sharma got the first of six man of the match awards that the Indians were to get during their campaign for his stroke filled 89. The Indians made it two out of two by beating Zimbabwe but then stumbled losing to Australia and then the return game against West Indies. Their campaign was floundering and an exit at the group stage looked imminent when they were 17 for five against Zimbabwe. Kapil Dev had walked in at nine for four and surveyed the damage as India slid to 78 for seven. This was the signal for the Indian captain to take charge. First with the help of Madan Lal and then Syed Kirmani, he scripted a rescue act without parallel. The spectators at Tunbridge Wells were privileged to watch one of the very great innings as Kapil finished with 175 not out – then the highest score in an ODI – and India ended up with 266 for eight in 60 overs.

The revival of the campaign was well and truly on. A shell-shocked Zimbabwe, still to recover from Kapil’s blistering knock that included 16 fours and six sixes, were beaten by 31 runs. And the Indians, by now an inspired lot, raised the level of their game in a virtual quarterfinal against Australia. West Indies had already qualified and India now joined them in the semifinals with an emphatic 118-run victory over the Aussies.

By now, India were the most talked about team of the tournament. Their surprise entry into the last four made them the darling of the media which had christened them ``Kapil’s Devils’’. The team had a mix of everything in experience (Gavaskar, Mohinder Amarnath, Dilip Vengsarkar), ebullient stroke players (Srikkanth, Sandip Patil, Yashpal Sharma) and utility cricketers (Roger Binny, Madan Lal, Ravi Shastri) all led by the incomparable Kapil Dev. It was a unit bubbling with enthusiasm and expertise, skill and substance and not one to be taken lightly. Finishing second in group ‘B’ they had to play a confident England side that was brimming with confidence having finished with a record of five wins and one loss and topping group ‘A’. Despite their splendid showing, the Indians were rated as no hopers particularly as they had lost all five matches to them in England.

But again the Indians pulled a rabbit out of the hat. England’s top order batted solidly and at 141 for three they were poised for a big total. Inexplicably they collapsed to 213 all out in 60 overs. The Indians had a glorious opportunity for a crack at the title and did not squander it. A methodical approach at the start by Gavaskar and Srikkanth followed by timely knocks by Amarnath, Yashpal and Patil saw India home with six wickets and 5.2 overs to spare. A great victory meant that the Indians now were only one steep step away from the summit.

Again, the Indians were given little chance despite their victory in the opening game. And the match seemed over at the halfway stage when the Indians were bowled out for 183. Srikkanth top scored with a typically swashbuckling knock of 38 that included seven fours and a six and India seemed to be progressing along the right lines at 90 for two. But the rest of the batting crumbled in the face of the relentless pressure applied by the pace quartet of Holding, Roberts, Garner and Marshall.

And when the West Indies were 50 for one in reply with Vivian Richards in regal form, it seemed only a matter of a couple of hours before Clive Lloyd would be on the podium to receive the Prudential Cup for a third time. Instead there was a sensational collapse. Richards when 33 was out to an outstanding catch by Kapil Dev off Madan Lal and the medium pacer took two more quick wickets. Within next to no time West Indies had slid sharply to 76 for six.

The large Indian contingent at Lord’s barely believing what they were seeing shouted themselves hoarse with excitement. The West Indian tail did offer some resistance but India did not falter. The West Indies were bowled out for 140 and the third World Cup that started with a couple of sensations – Zimbabwe had also stunned Australia – ended in the biggest shock of all. It was a great victory, a notable triumph and a truly meritorious one for not only had India beaten the formidable West Indians not once but twice but they also added strong England for good measure.

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Sunil Gavaskar

Sunil Manohar Gavaskar (born July 10, 1949 in Mumbai, Maharashtra), nicknamed Sunny, was a cricket player during the 1970s and 1980s for Bombay and India. Widely regarded as one of the greatest opening batsmen in the Indian Test history, Gavaskar set world records during his career for the most runs and most centuries scored by any batsman. He held the record of 34 Test centuries for almost two decades before it was broken by Sachin Tendulkar in December 2005. He was widely admired for his technique against fast bowling, with a particularly high average of 65.45 against the West Indies, who possessed a four-pronged fast bowling attack regarded as the most vicious in Test history. His captaincy of the Indian team, however, was less successful. The team at one stage went 31 Test matches without a victory. There were incidents like crowd displeasure at Eden Gardens in Calcutta leading to multiple matches being disrupted, in response to the poor performance of the Indian team. Turbulent performances of the team lead to multiple exchanges of captaincy between Gavaskar and Kapil Dev, with one of Gavaskar's sackings coming just six months before Kapil led India to victory at the 1983 Cricket World Cup.

Domestic debut

Growing up in Mumbai, Gavaskar was named India's Best Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year in 1966. After scoring 246*, 222 and 85 in school cricket in his final year of secondary education, before striking a century against the touring London schoolboys. He made his first-class debut for Vazir Sultan Colts XI against an XI from Dungarpur, in 1966/67, but remained in Bombay's Ranji Trophy squad for two further years without playing a match. He made his debut in the 1968/69 season against Karnataka, but made a duck and was the subject of derisive claims that his selection was due to the presence of his uncle Madhav Mantri, a former Indian Test wicketkeeper on Bombay's selection committee. He responded with 114 against Rajasthan in his second match, and two further consecutive centuries saw him selected in the 1970/71 Indian team to tour the West Indies. He is the first batsman to score 10,000 runs.

Test debut

A diminutive player, Gavaskar stood at just 163cm. After missing the First Test due to an infected fingernail, Gavaskar scored 65 and 67 not out in the second Test in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, hitting the winning runs which gave India its first ever win over the West Indies. He followed this with his first century, 116 and 64* in the Third Test in Georgetown, Guyana, and 1 and 117* in the Fourth Test in Bridgetown, Barbados. He returned to Trinidad for the fifth Test and scored 124 and 220 to help India to its first ever series victory over the West Indies, and the only one until 2006. His performance in the Test made him the second player after Doug Walters to score a century and double century in the same match. He also became the first Indian to make four centuries in one Test series, the second Indian after Vijay Hazare to score two centuries in the same Test, and the third after Hazare and Polly Umrigar to score centuries in three consecutive innings. He was the first Indian to aggregate more than 700 runs in a series, and this 774 runs at 154.80 remains the most runs scored in a debut series by any batsman.
Gavaskar’s arrival in England in 1971 for a three Test series generated substantial publicity in light of his debut series. He was unable to maintain his performance, making only two half centuries. He was involved in controversy when taking a quick single from the bowling of John Snow. They collided and Gavaskar fell over. Snow was suspended. Gavaskar’s 144 runs at the low average of 24, led some to question Gavaskar’s worthiness in international cricket.
In 1972-73, England toured India for a five Test series, Gavaskar’s first on home soil. He was ineffective in the first three Tests, accumulating only sixty runs in five innings as India took a 2-1 lead. He scored some runs in the final two Tests which India drew to complete consecutive series wins over England. His first home series was largely disappointing, aggregating 224 runs at 24.89. His English critics were placated when India returned in 1974 and Gavaskar scored 101 and 58 in the First Test at Old Trafford. He managed 227 runs at 37.83 as India were whitewashed 3-0.
Gavaskar’s 1974-75 Indian was interrupted, playing in only the First and Fifth and final Test of the series against the West Indies. He scored 108 runs at 27, with an 86 at Mumbai the closest the Indian public got to seeing a century. The Test was the start of a world record streak of 106 Test appearances.
The 1975-76 season saw three and four Test tours of New Zealand and the West Indies respectively. Gavaskar led India in a Test for the first time in January 1976 against New Zealand during the First Test in Auckland when regular captain Bishen Bedi was suffering from a leg injury. Standing in despite having scored only 703 runs at 28.12 since his debut series, Gavaskar rewarded the selectors with 116 and 35*. As a result, India secured an eight wicket victory. He ended the series with 266 runs at 66.33. On the West Indian leg of the tour, Gavaskar scored consecutive centuries of 156 and 102 in the Second and Third Tests, both in Port of Spain, Trinidad. These were his third and fourth centuries at the grounds. In the Third Test, his 102 helped India post 4/406 to set a world record for the highest winning fourth innings score. The Indians’ mastery of the Caribbean spinners on a turning track reportedly led West Indian captain Clive Lloyd to vow that he would rely on pace alone in future Tests. Gavaskar totalled 390 runs at 55.71 for the series.
Gavaskar was not to score a century on home soil until November 1976. In an eight Test summer, three and five against New Zealand and England respectively, Gavaskar scored centuries in the first and last Tests of the season. The first was 119 in front of his home crowd at the Wankhede Stadium in Bombay, helping India to a victory. Gavaskar scored another half century in the Second Test to end the series with 259 at 43.16. In the First Test against England at Delhi, he was mobbed upon becoming the first India to reach 1000 Test runs a calendar year. A steady series saw him finish with 394 runs at 39.4 with a century coming in Fifth Test at Mumbai and two half centuries.
In 1977-78 he toured Australia, scoring three consecutive Test centuries (113, 127, 118) in the second innings of the first three Tests at Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne respectively. India won the third but lost the earlier two. He finished the Five Test series with 450 runs at 50, failing twice as India lost the final Test and the series 3-2.
1978-79 saw India tour Pakistan for the first series between the arch rivals for 17 years. For the first time Gavaskar faced Pakistani captain and pace spearhead Imran Khan, who described him as “The most compact batsman I’ve bowled to.” Gavaskar scored 89 in the First Test and 97 in the Second, which India drew and lost respectively. Gavaskar saved his best for the Third Test in Karachi, scoring 111 and 137 in the Third, but was unable to prevent a defeat and series loss. His twin centuries made him the first Indian to score two centuries in one Test on two occasions, and saw him pass Umrigar as India’s leading Test runscorer. Gavaskar had finished the series with 447 runs at 89.40.

Captaincy

Gavaskar was captain of the Indian team on several occasions in the late 1970s and early 1980s, although his record is less impressive. Often equipped with unpenetrative bowling attacks he tended to use conservative tactics which resulted in a large number of draws. During his tenure Kapil Dev emerged as a leading pace bowler for the country. He captained India to nine victories and eight losses, but most of the games were drawn, 30.
His first series in charge was a West Indian visit to India for a six Test series. Gavaskar’s several large centuries contrasted with several failures. His 205 in the First Test in Bombay made him the first Indian to score a double century in India against the Caribbeans. He added a further 73 in the second innings of a high scoring draw. After failing to score in the Second Test, he scored 107 and 182 not out in the Third Test at Calcutta, another high scoring draw. This made him the first player in Test history to achieve centuries in both innings of a Test three times. He managed only 4 and 1 in the Fourth Test in Madras as India forced the only win of the series. He posted a fourth century for the series, scoring 120 in the Fifth Test at Delhi, becoming the first Indian to pass 4000 Test runs. He aggregated 732 runs at 91.50 for the series, securing India a 1-0 win in his first series as captain.
Despite this, he was stripped of the captaincy when India toured England in 1979 for a four Test tour. The official reason given was that Srinivas Venkataraghavan was preferred due to his superior experience on English soil, but most observers believed that Gavaskar was punished because he was believed to be considering defecting to World Series Cricket. He started consistently, scoring four half centuries in five innings of the first three Tests.[2][broken footnote] It was in the Fourth Test at The Oval that he produced his finest innings on English soil. India were 1-0 down needed to reach a world record target of 438 to square the series. They reached 76/0 at stumps on the fourth day. Led by Gavaskar, India made steady progress to be 328/1 with 20 overs remaining on the final day with a record breaking victory still possible. An Ian Botham lead fightback saw Gavaskar removed, with India still needing 49 runs from 46 balls. With three balls left in the match, all four results were possible. India ended nine runs short with two wickets in hand when stumps were drawn. According to Sanjay Manjrekar, it was “Vintage Gavaskar, playing swing bowling to perfection, taking his time initially and then opening up. Nothing in the air, everything copybook.” He ended the series with 542 runs at 77.42 and was named as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year.
Gavaskar was restored to the captaincy for the gruelling 1979-80 season, with six Test home series against both Australia and Pakistan. The first two Tests against Australia were high scoring draws where only 45 wickets fell, with India taking a first innings lead in both after making scores over 400. India broke through for a 153 run win in the Third Test at Kanpur, where Gavaskar scored 76. He made 115 in the Fourth Test in Delhi, where India were unable to convert a 212 run first innings lead, resulting in a draw. After another stalemate in the Fifth Test, Gavaskar scored 123 in the Sixth Test in Bombay, where Australia collapsed by an innings after India posted their fourth first innings in excess of 400 for the series. The series against Pakistan was similarly high scoring, with four draws, three of which did not reach the fourth innings. India won the Third and Fifth Tests in Bombay and Madras. At Madras, he made 166 in the first innings and was unbeaten on 29 when India brought up the winning runs. Having secured the series 2-0, Gavaskar was stepped down as captain for the drawn Sixth Test. This occurred because Gavaskar had refused to tour the West Indies for another series immediately afterwards, asking for a rest. As a result, Gundappa Viswanath was appointed so that he could prepare his leadership skills for the tour. In the end the tour did not go ahead as the West Indian board were not interested in a team without Gavaskar. The season ended with a one off Test against England in Mumbai, which India lost. In the 13 Tests that season, he made 1027 runs at 51.35 with three centuries and four half centuries. This ended a 14 month span in which Gavaskar played in 22 Tests and the 1979 Cricket World Cup. In the time, he scored 2301 Test runs including eight centuries.
The 1980-81 season saw Gavaskar returned as captain for the Australasian tour, but it was to be the start of an unhappy reign for Gavaskar and India. He managed only 118 runs at 19.66 in the three Tests against Australia, but his impact in Australia was a controversial incident. At the Melbourne Cricket Ground, when Gavaskar was given out by the Australian umpire Rex Whitehead, he ordered his fellow opener Chetan Chauhan off the field. Instead of abandoning the match, the Indian manager, SK Durani persuaded Chauhan to return to the match which India went on to win by 59 runs as Australia collapsed to 83 in their second innings. India drew the series 1-1 but the following three Test series in New Zealand were to signal the start of a barren run of 19 Tests under Gavaskar of which India were to win only one and lose five. India lost to New Zealand 1-0, with Gavaskar managing 126 runs at 25.2. He finished the Oceania tour with 244 runs at 22.18, with only two half centuries, making little impact.
The 1981-82 Indian season saw a hard-fought 1-0 series win over England in six Tests. India took the First Test in Mumbai, before five consecutive draws resulted, four of which did not even reach the fourth innings. Gavaskar made 172 in the Second Test at Bangalore and reached a half century on three further occasions to compile 500 runs at 62.5. India reciprocated England’s visit in 1982 for a three Test series, which was lost 1-0. Gavaskar made 74 runs at 24.66 but was unable to bat in the Third Test.
The 1982-83 subcontinental season started well for Gavaskar on an individual note, as he made 155 in a one off Test against Sri Lanka in Madras. It was the first Test between the two nations, with Sri Lankan having only recently been awarded Test status. Despite this, India were unable to finish off their novice opponents, the draw heralding a start of a winless summer. India played in twelve Tests, losing five and drawing seven. The first series was a six Test tour to Pakistan. India started well enough, drawing the First Test in Lahore, with Gavaskar scoring 83. Pakistan then defeated India in three consecutive matches. In the Third Test in Faisalabad, Gavaskar managed an unbeaten 127 in the second innings to force Pakistan into a run chase, but the other two losses were substantial, both by an innings. Despite holding on for draws in the last two Tests, Gavaskar was replaced by Kapil Dev as captain after the 3-0 loss. Despite his team’s difficulties, Gavaskar remained productive with 434 runs at 47.18 with a century and three half centuries. Gavaskar went on to the West Indies for a five Test tour purely as a batsman, but could not reproduce the form that he had shown in the Caribbean in 1971 and 1976. He managed only 240 runs at 30, as India were crushed 2-0 by the world champions. Apart from an unbeaten 147 in the drawn Third Test in Georgetown, Guyana, his next best effort was 32.
The 1983-84 season started with a home series against Pakistan, with all three matches being drawn. Gavaskar scored an unbeaten 103 in the First Test in Bangalore, and made two further half centuries to total 264 runs at 66. This was followed by a six Test series against the touring West Indies at the height of their powers. The First Test was held in Kanpur and India were crushed by an innings. Gavaskar had his bat knocked out of his hand by a hostile delivery from Malcolm Marshall before being dismissed. In the Second Test in Delhi, Gavaskar delivered his riposte to Marshall, hooking him for a consecutive four and six to start his innings. Gavaskar, unwilling to be dictated to by the Caribbean pacemen, hooked the short pitched barrage relentlessly, reaching his half century in 37 balls. He then went on to score 121, his 29th Test century in 94 balls, equalling Don Bradman’s world record. He also passed 8000 Test runs in the innings, and was personally honoured by Indira Gandhi, the Prime Minister of India at the ground. The match was drawn. Gavaskar’s 90 in the Third Test at Ahmedabad saw him pass Geoff Boycott’s Test world record of 8114 career runs was insufficient to prevent another defeat. During the Fifth Test in the series, India were defeated by an innings at Calcutta to concede a 3-0 series lead. India had won only one of their 32 most recent Tests and none of their last 28. The Bengali crowd singled out the Marathi Gavaskar, who had made a golden duck and 20. Angry spectators pelted objects onto the playing arena and clashed with police, before stoning the team bus. In the Sixth Test in Madras, he compiled his 30th Test century, with an unbeaten 236 which was the highest Test score by an Indian. It was his 13th Test century and third double century against the West Indies. He had aggregated 505 at 50.50 for the series.
With India having failed to win for 29 successive Tests, Kapil was sacked as captain and Gavaskar resumed leadership at the start of the 1984-85 season. The two Test tour of Pakistan resulted in two further draws, with Gavaskar compiling 120 runs at 40. The First Test against England in Bombay saw India breakthrough for its first Test victory in 32 matches. It proved to be a false dawn, with England squaring the series 1-0 in Delhi before another controversial Third Test at Eden Gardens in Calcutta. The hostile crowd watched as India batted for over two days to reach 7/437 after 203 overs. Angry with the slow pace of India’s innings, the crowd chanted “Gavaskar down! Gavaskar out!” blaming him for India’ performance. The local police chief reportedly asked Gavaskar to declare to placate the angry crowd. When Gavaskar led his team onto the field, he was pelted with fruit. Gavaskar vowed never to play at Eden Gardens again, and duly withdrew from the team for India’s next fixture at the Bengali capital two years later, ending his record of 106 consecutive Tests. The match was drawn, but India conceded the series after losing the Fourth. The series ended 1-2, and with a poor display of 140 runs at 17.5, Gavaskar resigned, although he had already announced his into to relinquish the leadership before the series. The change of captain improved the form of neither Gavaskar nor India as they toured Sri Lanka for a three Test series. India were embarrassed 1-0 by the Test minnows, with Gavaskar managing only 186 runs at 37.2.

International farewell

In 1985-86, India toured Australia, playing against a team widely regarded as the worst in Australian history. India were unable to capitalise as all three Tests were drawn, but Gavaskar did. He scored an unbeaten 166 in the First Test in Adelaide and 172 in the Third Test in Sydney, ending the series with 352 runs at 117.33. A three Test tour of England saw him score only 185 runs at 30.83, which India won 2-0 despite his unproductivity. In 1986-87, Gavaskar’s final season in Test cricket, India faced a long season of eleven home Tests. Against a team as the worst to leave Australian shores, Gavaskar made 90 in the second innings of the First Test in Madras, giving India a chance of reach the target of 348, which ended in a tie. He scored 103 in the Third Test in Bombay to end the series with 205 runs at 51.66. The First Test against Sri Lanka in Kanpur saw Gavaskar’s 34th and final Test century of 176. He scored 74 and 5 in the next two Tests as India won the three match series 2-0. The five Test series against arch enemies Pakistan was to be his last. Gavaskar scored 91 in the drawn First Test in Madras before withdrawing from the Second Test in Calcutta as he had promised. In the Fourth Test in Ahmedabad, Gavaskar’s 63 made him the first batsman to pass 10,000 runs. With the teams locked 0-0 leading into the final Test in Bangalore, there was to be no fairytale. Gavaskar was dismissed for 96 in the second innings as India were bowled out to give Pakistan a 1-0 series win.

Style

Gavaskar was also a fine slip fielder and his safe catching in the slips helped him become the first Indian (excluding wicket-keepers) to take over a hundred catches in Test matches. In one ODI against Pakistan in Sharjah in 1985, he took four catches and helped India defend a small total of 125. Early in his Test career, when India rarely used pace bowlers, Gavaskar also opened the bowling for a short spell on occasions if only one pace bowler was playing, before a three-pronged spin attack took over. The only wicket claimed by him is that of Pakistani Zaheer Abbas in 1978-79.
While Gavaskar could not be described as an attacking batsman, he had the remarkable ability of keeping the scoreboard ticking with unique shots such as the "late flick". His focus of technical correctness over flair meant that his style of play was usually less suited to the shorter form of the game, at which he had less success. He infamously scored an ignominious 36 not out carrying his bat through the full 60 overs against England in the 1975 World Cup, leading Indian supporters to storm the field and confront him. Gavaskar almost went through his career without scoring a one-day century. He finally managed his first (and only ODI century) in the 1987 World Cup, when he hit a blistering 103 not out against New Zealand in his penultimate ODI innings at Vidarbha Cricket Association Ground, Nagpur.

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Navjot Singh Sidhu - Sixer Sidhu

Navjot Singh Sidhu ( born October 20, 1963) is former Indian cricket batsman, who took up television commentary and, more recently, politics following his retirement from the game. He was born in Patiala, Punjab. Sidhu was elected to the Lok Sabha as the member from Amritsar in 2004 on a Bharatiya Janata Party ticket; he later resigned, following his conviction for culpable homicide. After the Supreme Court stayed his conviction, he successfully contested the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat, defeating his Congress rival, State Finance Minister Surinder Singla, by 77,626 votes.

Cricketing career

Navjot Singh Sidhu had a volatile career of a cricketer from 1983 to 1999
He made an uneventful international debut against the West Indies at Ahmedabad in 1983 scoring just 19 runs in his debut Test match. He was given another chance in that series but failed again. He was selected for the 1987 cricket World Cup in India scoring 73 on his One Day International debut in a losing effort against Australia. He scored 50s in 4 of the 5 World Cup 1987 matches in which he batted, failing in the semifinal against England. His first ODI century came against Pakistan in Sharjah in 1989 while his 134 against England at Gwalior in 1993 was his highest ODI score and the innings which he called his best when he retired in 1999.
He scored over 500 Test runs in a year thrice (1993, 1994 and 1997). His only Test double century came during India's 1997 tour of West Indies. In 1994, he scored 885 ODI runs.
Sidhu's finest moment in Tests was his 201 against West Indies in 1996-97, a defiant knock lasting 11 hours. Known for his tendency to attack spinners, he cracked eight sixes in 124 against Sri Lanka in 1993-94, and four fifties in five innings against the Australians in 1997-98, deliberately singling out Shane Warne.
He announced his retirement from all forms of cricket in December 1999. He played over 50 Test matches and over 100 ODIs scoring over 7,000 international runs. He has 27 centuries to his credit in an 18 year career.
Some of the nicknames he earned were "Sixer Sidhu", Sherry and "Jonty Singh" (with respect to his improved fielding in his late career, Jonty Rhodes being the best fielder at that time.)

Commentator and TV Personality

Sidhu started his career as a commentator for NIMBUS when India toured Sri Lanka in 2001. He however later became a commentator with ESPN-Star. He became famous for his funny quotes, which have come to be known as Sidhuisms. Subsequent to his sacking, Sidhu took his act to commentate for Ten Sports. He also regularly appears as a "cricket analyst" on various local Indian channels. Of late he also figured as a judge on a television program - "The Great Indian Laughter Challenge". Later he also appered in some more similar programs like "Funjabi Chak De". Cyrus Sahukar hosts a program on MTV "Piddhu the Great" where he is disguised as Piddhu, a lookalike of Sidhu. The one-liners in the program, similar to Sidhuisms, are called "Pidhuisms".

Politics

Sidhu won on a Bharatiya Janata Party ticket from the Amritsar seat in the Indian general elections, 2004.
He has been found guilty of manslaughter by the Punjab & Haryana High Court, he has been convicted under Sec 304 of IPC for causing the death of a Gurnam Singh on December 27, 1988. Earlier on 22 September 1999, the district and sessions judge at Patiala had acquitted Sidhu in the same case registered under Section 304 and 34 IPC. Later he recontested on Bharatiya Janata Party ticket from Amritsar and won handsomely. He is being groomed for a longer innings in Indian politics and his mentor is a noted lawyer and politician Arun Jaitley. [edit] Court case

In December 2006, a court in India has found the former Indian cricketer and member of parliament guilty of culpable homicide. Sidhu had beaten up a man in 1988 over a petty dispute over parking vehicles in Patiala. The victim, a 65-year old man named Gurnam Singh, subsequently succumbed to the injuries that were inflicted on him. The former cricketer has resigned as a Member of Parliament after the court decision. On 6 December 2006, he was sentenced to three years in prison by the Punjab and Haryana High Court . However he has not been detained and his sentence has been suspended till January 31, 2007 for him to appeal to the Supreme Court of India.


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Mohammad Azharuddn

Mohammad Azharuddin (born 8 February 1963, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh) is a former captain of the Indian cricket team. He was an elegant right-handed batsman and usually batted at five in Test cricket. He was caught in a match-fixing scandal.
In his prime, he had a graceful, fluid batting style, comparable to that of his English contemporary, David Gower. The wrist flick was his most characteristic shot and he fared best against spinners. The grace and fluidity of his wrist once prompted John Woodcock, a noted cricket writer, to say, "It's no use asking an Englishman to bat like Mohammad Azharuddin. For, it would be like expecting a greyhound to win the London Derby!"

Early Life

Azhar, as he is popularly known, grew up in Hyderabad and attended a catholic convent boys school All Saints High School. Incidentally, a lot of other cricketers from Hyderabad - Venkatpathy Raju, Noel David - also attended the same school.

International career

Highlights

Azhar scored a total of 22 centuries in Test cricket at an average of 45, and 7 in ODIs at an average of 37. He scored a century in each of his first three Tests which is a record. An excellent fielder, he took a world record 156 catches in ODI cricket.
He was given LBW out for 199 in a test match against Sri Lanka and it was his highest Test Score.
In 1991 he was named Wisden Cricketer of the Year and was for many years an inspirational figure in the Indian team with his athletic fielding and leadership.

Captaincy

Azhar was captain of the Indian team for most of the 1990s. Statistically he is one of India's most successful captains. He won a record 103 ODI matches as the captain of the Indian team. His 14 Test Match wins as captain, was a record until it was bettered by Sourav Ganguly.

Match fixing scandal

Towards the end of his career Azharuddin was accused of match-fixing [3]; South African captain Hansie Cronje in his confession for match-fixing had indicated that Azharuddin was the one to introduce him to the bookies. This led the BCCI to ban him from the game of cricket for life in 2000.
The BCCI lifted the ban on Azharuddin in 2006 and even honoured him along with other Indian Test captains in a ceremony in Mumbai during the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy. The ICC, however, claimed that it alone had the right to revoke the ban despite playing no role in handing out the original ban.
In one of his interviews, he claimed that he was being targeted because he was from a minority community. However, this statement backfired badly and invited severe criticism from all parts of the country and even from prominent minority community organisations in India. Ultimately, Azharuddin had to apologise publicly and retract his statements.
The ban cost him a chance of joining the 100 Test club, in the end finishing stranded on 99 Test matches.

Life after cricket

Since 2004 Azhar has run a Physical Education Centre in Hyderabad. He is married to Sangeeta Bijlani, a Bollywood actress after divorcing his previous wife.


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Kapil Dev

Kapil Dev Ramlal Nikhanj (born 6 January 1959, Chandigarh), better known as Kapil Dev, is a former Indian cricketer regarded as one of the greatest all-rounders to have played cricket. Kapil Dev was named by Wisden as the Indian Cricketer of the Century in 2002 for captaining India to their maiden and only Cricket World Cup in 1983 and holding the record for the most Test match wickets between 1994 and 1999. Kapil Dev had a rather prosaic stint as India's national cricket coach for 10 months between October 1999 and August 2000.
Kapil was a right-arm pace bowler noted for his graceful action and potent outswinger, and was India's main strike bowler throughout most of his career. He also developed a fine inswinging yorker during the 1980s which he used very effectively against tail-enders. As a batsman he was a natural striker of the ball who could hook and drive effectively. A naturally aggressive player, he often helped India in difficult situations by taking the attack to the opposition. His nickname was The Haryana Hurricane — he used to represent the Haryana cricket team.

Personal life

Kapil Dev was born to Ram Lal Nikhanj and Raj Kumari Lajwanti (maiden name) on 6 January 1959. He was the sixth of seven siblings. Kapil's parents emigrated from a village near Rawalpindi during Partition. Ram Lal Nikhanj settled in Chandigarh and settled into a prosperous building and timber business. Kapil Dev was a student at D.A.V. School and in 1971 joined as a pupil to Desh Prem Azad. He was introduced to Romi Bhatia by a common friend in 1979 and proposed to her in . Kapil Dev married Romi in 1980 and the couple have a daughter Amiya Dev who was born in 1996

Domestic performance

Kapil Dev made his debut for Haryana in November 1975 against their neighbors Punjab and impressed with a debut 6/39 innings haul, restricting Punjab to just 63 runs and helping Haryana to a victory. However, Kapil finished the season with only 12 wickets in 3 matches.
In the 1976-77 season opener against Jammu & Kashmir, he had a match haul of 8/36 to win the match for his team. While his contributions for the rest of the season was ordinary, Haryana qualified for the pre quarterfinals. Kapil Dev achieved his then best innings haul of 7/20 in just 9 overs in the second innings to skittle Bengal for 58 runs in under 19 overs. Facing powerhouse Bombay (now Mumbai) in the quarter finals, Haryana were exposed as pretenders with future team mate Karsan Ghavri taking 7 wickets in the first innings. Haryana lost the match when Bombay's batting piled up the pressure by scoring over 500 runs. However, the season made the nation sit up and notice the speedster from Haryana.
Kapil Dev didn't disappoint his growing legion of fans when he improved on his bowling record by taking 8-38 in the first innings against Services in the 1977-78 season. With 3 wickets in the second innings, he took his maiden 10-wicket haul in first-class cricket, a feat he would later achieve twice in Test cricket. With 23 wickets in 4 matches, he was named for his maiden Irani Trophy, Duleep Trophy and Wills Trophy matches though he did not have a stand-out performance.
For the 1978-79 season, Haryana had a repeat encounter with Bengal in the pre-quarterfinal match after a lackluster bowling season from Kapil Dev (12 wickets from 4 matches), riding on the performance of the season's leading wicket-taker - Rajinder Kaul. Kapil Dev however scored 2 half-centuries in the group stage matches. In the pre-quarterfinal match, he showed his big-match attitude by taking a 5-wicket haul in the first innings. Poor batting by Haryana in the second innings meant Bengal could avenge their loss from 2 seasons back by scoring the required 161 runs for the loss of just 4 wickets. Kapil Dev stood out in the Irani Trophy match scoring 62 runs coming in at number 8. He also took 5 catches in the game where Karnataka was defeated by the Rest of India XI. Kapil Dev arrived in the national spotlight with a trademark standout performance in the finals of the Duleep Trophy taking a first innings haul of 7/65 in 24 overs. Kapil Dev was included in the North Zone squad for Deodhar Trophy and Wills Trophy for the first time. Kapil played his first Test match in the season against Pakistan
In the 1979-80 season, Kapil Dev showed his batting talent with a maiden century against Delhi when he scored his career best 193. In the pre-quarterfinal match, where he captained Haryana for the first time against Uttar Pradesh, he took a five wicket haul in the second innings to advance to quarter finals where they lost to Karnataka. With Kapil Dev cementing his place in the

Haryana:1990-91 Ranji champions

In the 1990-91 Ranji season, Haryana rode into the semi-finals on the back of the bowling performance of Chetan Sharma and the batting performance of Amarjit Kaypee. Kapil Dev took centre stage in the semi-final against Bengal where he led his team to a mammoth score of 605 runs by scoring 141 as well as taking 5 wickets.
The finals of the 1991 season will be remembered for the number of international cricketers who were part of the match with Kapil Dev, Chetan Sharma, Ajay Jadeja and Vijay Yadav turning up for Haryana and Bombay cricket team represented by Sanjay Manjrekar, Vinod Kambli, Sachin Tendulkar, Dilip Vengsarkar, Chandrakant Pandit, Salil Ankola and Abey Kuruvilla. Deepak Sharma (199), Ajay Jadeja (94) and Chetan Sharma (98) helped Haryana to a score of 522 while Yogendra Bhandari (5 wickets) and Kapil Dev (3 wickets) restricted Bombay to 410 runs in the first innings. A crucial 41 from Kapil and top scorer Banerjee (60) took Haryana to 242 runs, setting Bombay a target of 355 runs. After the initial wickets, Vengsarkar (139) and Tendulkar (96) fought back for the Bombay team. After Tendulkar's dismissal, Haryana took the final 6 wickets for 102 runs and Vengsarkar and Bombay were stranded 3 runs short of the target. Kapil Dev won his maiden and only Ranji Trophy championship.

International career

Early Years (1978 - 1982)

Kapil Dev made his Test cricket debut in Faisalabad, Pakistan on 16 October 1978 and though his match figures were unimpressive, the numbers did not convey any measure of Kapil's contribution in the match. With his speed and bounce, he bought glee to the Indian players when Pakistani batsmen were startled with bouncers that clanged the helmet on more than one occasion. Kapil Dev also captured his maiden wicket of Sadiq Mohammad with his trademark outswinger. Kapil Dev showcased his all-rounder talent when he scored India's fastest Test half-century off 33 balls and 2 sixes in each of the innings during the 3rd Test match at National Stadium, Karachi, though India lost the match and the series 2-0. In the ensuring series against a visiting West Indies team, he scored his maiden Test century (126) at Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi in just 124 balls and had a steady bowling performance (17 wickets at 33.00). Ominous signs of Kapil Dev's liking for England showed up in the ensuring series, Kapil's first outside the sub-continent. Kapil Dev picked up his first 5-wicket haul and all of England's wickets, though it came at a huge cost (48 overs and 146 runs conceded) as England scored a mammoth 633 and won the match comfortably. Kapil Dev finished the series with 16 wickets though his batting haul of 45 runs (Average: 7.5) was unimpressive. Kapil Dev's debut in ODI Cricket happened in the earlier tour of Pakistan where his individual performance was ordinary and it stayed the same as both Kapil Dev and India had a poor campaign at the 1979 Cricket World Cup.
Kapil Dev established himself as India's premier fast bowler when he took two 5-wicket hauls and ended the home series against Australia with 28 wickets (Average: 22.32) and also 212 runs that included a half-century. Kapil Dev gained fame in the 6-Test home series against Pakistan in the 1979-80 season when he led India to 2 victories against the visitors - once with the bat (69) at Wankhede Stadium, Bombay (Now Mumbai) and the second time with bat and ball (10-wicket haul in match - 4/90 in the first innings and 7/56 in the second innings, 84 in 98 balls with his bat) at Chepauk, Madras (Now Chennai). Kapil Dev rates his all-round performance in this match as his best bowling effort in his career and his second innings figure of 7/56 was his best to-date. During the series, he also became the youngest Test player to achieve the all-round double of 100 Wickets and 1000 Runs and in 25 matches (although Ian Botham took just 21 matches to achieve the same feat) and finished the series with 32 wickets (Ave: 17.68) and 278 runs that included 2 fifties.
India's tour of Australia in 1980-81 had the looks of the familiar Indian series as India were 1-0 down and were defending a meager 143 runs and Kapil Dev virtually ruled out with a groin injury. When Australia finished the fourth day at 18/3, Kapil willed himself to play the final day with pain-killing injections and removed the dangerous Australia middle order. Kapil won the match for India with the innings bowling performance of 16.4-4-28-5, a bowling performance that figures in his five best bowling performance the Australian tour, he scored his first fifty in ODIs against New Zealand at Brisbane. Somehow India's Test cricket sensation was unable to adjust to ODI cricket and had a career start of 278 runs (Average: 17.38) and 17 wickets after 16 ODI matches.
A dismal New Zealand tour later, Kapil Dev was ready for the 1981-82 home series against England where his five-wicket haul won the first test at Wankhede Stadium, Bombay (Now Mumbai). Kapil Dev scored 318 runs (Average: 53, 1 century, 1 fifty) and took 22 wickets (2 5-wicket hauls) and walked away with the Man of the Series honours. England saw more of Kapil in the ensuing series at home against the Indian cricket team in the 1982 season when Kapil opened with a 5-wicket haul and 130 runs in a losing cause at Lord's. Kapil Dev finished the 3-match series with 292 runs (Ave: 73, 3 fifties) and 10 Wickets and bagged the Man of the Series again.
Facing Sri Lanka for the first time, Kapil Dev helped himself to a five-wicket haul to kick start the 1982-83 season. In the following tour to Pakistan, Kapil Dev along with Mohinder Amarnath were the only bright spots in a series dominated by rival all-rounder Imran Khan (40 wickets and 1 century). Kapil Dev took a 5/102 haul in the second Test at National Stadium, Karachi, 7/220 in the third Test at Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad and 8/85 at Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore while he received little support from other team members. After this disastrous tour, Kapil Dev was made the captain of the Indian cricket team in place of Sunil Gavaskar.

Captain: 1983 World Cup Champions (1982 - 1984)

Kapil Dev debuted as India's captain in the 1982-83 season against Sri Lanka (before the Pakistan tour) when Sunil Gavaskar was rested. Kapil Dev's first assignment as the regular captain was the tour of West Indies where the biggest accomplishment was a lone ODI victory. Kapil Dev (72) and Sunil Gavaskar (90) led India to a huge score - 282/5 in 47 overs and Kapil's 2 wickets aided India to restrict West Indies for 255 and a victory that Indian cricketers claim gave them the confidence to face the West Indies team in 1983 Cricket World Cup. Overall, Kapil Dev had a good series in West Indies as he scored a century to save the second test match as well as picking up 17 wickets (Average: 24.94).

1983 World Cup Performance

Kapil Dev entered the World Cup with an ordinary individual record - 32 Matches, 608 Runs (Average: 21), 34 wickets. India's solitary victory in the previous two World Cups was against East Africa in 1975. Riding on Yashpal Sharma (89 Runs), Roger Binny and Ravi Shastri (3 wickets each), India inflicted the West Indies' first-ever defeat in the World Cup. Following a victory against Zimbabwe, India lost the next two matches - Australia (despite Kapil Dev's best career figures of 5/43) and West Indies. Needing victories against Australia and Zimbabwe to advance to semi-finals, India faced Zimbabwe at Nevill Ground, Tunbridge Wells on 18 June 1983
Under overcast conditions, India won the toss and elected to bat. Disaster struck as the top order started a procession back to the dressing room as Sunil Gavaskar (0), Kris Srikkanth (0), Mohinder Amarnath (5) and Sandeep Patil (1) leaving India at a precarious 9/4 that turned to 17/5 when Yashpal Sharma (9) was dismissed. Batting with the lower order batsmen, Kapil Dev stabilized the side with a 60-run partnership with Roger Binny (22 runs) and a 62-run partnership with Madan Lal. When Syed Kirmani walked in at 140/8, Kapil Dev had scored his half-century and went on to score his century off just 72 balls - establishing the then record for fastest ODI century. Together with Kirmani (22 runs), Kapil put on an unbeaten 126 runs for the 9th wicket - a current world record. Kapil Dev finished not out with 175 runs off 138 balls, an innings that included 16 boundaries and 6 sixes. The innings figures in the Top 10 ODI Batting Performances compiled by Wisden in February 2002 at No. 4. India won the match by 31 runs. After a win against Australia, India entered the semi-finals.

Kapil Dev helped curtail the lower-order after England lost regular wickets to Roger Binny and Mohinder Amarnath. Kapil took 3 wickets as India limited England to 213 and the middle order of Mohinder Amarnath (46 runs), Yashpal Sharma (61), Sandeep Patil (51*) ensured victory and entry into the finals to take on the mighty West Indies cricket team who were looking for a hat-trick of World Cup titles. West Indies restricted India for 183 runs, with only Kris Srikkanth (38 runs) providing some scoring relief. Despite losing Gordon Greenidge, West Indies steadied their innings to 57/2 on the back of quick scoring by Viv Richards and looked comfortable. Richards played one too many aggressive shots when he skied a pull shot from Madan Lal that Kapil caught at deep square leg after running for over 20 yards. The catch is attributed as the turning point in the 1983 WC Final and is regarded as one of the finest in ODI Cricket. West Indies collapsed from 50/1 to 76/6 and finally were bowled out for 140 with Kapil picking up the wicket of Andy Roberts Dev had upset Clive Lloyd's West Indies to win their maiden and to-date only World and he led from the front with 303 runs (Average: 60.6), 12 wickets (Average: 20.41) and 7 catches in 8 matches - a truly all-round performance.

Post World Cup

After the World Cup, India hosted the West Indies cricket team and felt their fury as the West Indies won the Test series 3-0 and the ODI Series 5-0. Kapil Dev achieved his best test bowling performance in a loss at Motera Stadium, Ahmedabad with a return of 9/. His bowling performance in the test and ODI series was let down by his poor batting performance. The selectors ended the reign of Kapil Dev and reappointed Sunil Gavaskar as captain.

Difficult captaincy

Kapil lost the captaincy in early 1984 to Sunil Gavaskar. He regained it in March 1985 and guided India on a Test series win over England on their tour in 1986. This period saw one of the most famous matches played during his reign, the second Tied Test in which he was named joint-man of the match with Dean Jones.
Kapil was retained as India's captain for the 1987 Cricket World Cup. In their first match of the World Cup, Australia scored 268 against India. However, after the close of innings, Kapil Dev agreed with the umpires that the score should be increased to 270 as one boundary during the innings had been mistakenly signalled as a four and not a six. In their reply, India scored 269 falling short of Australia's score by one run. In the Wisden Cricketer's Almanack, it was reported that "Kapil Dev's sportsmanship proved the deciding factor in a close-run match".
India went on to reach the semi-final of the 1987 World Cup, where they lost to England. Kapil faced the blame for India's defeat as he holed out to deep mid-wicket triggering a collapse that led to the unexpected loss. He did not captain India again.
The captaincy period was on the whole a difficult one for him as it was mired with reports of differences with Gavaskar, as well as his own inconsistent form as a bowler. However, both men have since insisted that these reports were exaggarated.

Playing Style

Batting: Always an entertainer

At his best, Kapil was one of the world's most destructive batsmen.

• During the Test match series against Pakistan in 1982-83, he demolished Abdul Qadir's leg spin, which the English and Australian batsmen had great difficulty in reading earlier in the same year.

• He was also fearless in attacking the world's best fast-bowlers. During a World Cup match against the West Indies in 1983, he drove Michael Holding straight over his head for a six, a shot that would have been considered unimaginable by most against a bowler of Holding's pace.

• In a match on route to the World Cup final of 1983, Kapil smashed a captain's knock of 175 not out against Zimbabwe helping India recover from an extremely poor start. India had collapsed to 9/4 when Kapil came in to bat, and were reduced further to 17/5. His 175 not out turned the game completely in India's favour and was at the time the highest-ever individual score in ODI cricket. It was also the first ODI century by an Indian. Surprisingly, it was also Kapil's only ODI hundred.

• Another memorable incident relates to a Test match against England in 1990. When India needed 24 runs to save the follow-on with only one wicket remaining, Kapil met that target by hitting four consecutive sixes off Eddie Hemmings. This proved to be the right decision, as in the next over itself, the number 11 batsman Narendra Hirwani was dismissed with no further addition to the score.

• A further example of his competitive spirit was during a match against West Indies at Sharjah in November 1986, when he tried to cajole Viv Richards into bowling the last over of the match with India needing 36 runs to win. Unsurprisingly, Richards did not give in to his request.

• Kapil's batting talent and competitive spirit were evident until as late as 1992, when during a Test match against South Africa, he counter-attacked Allan Donald and the rest of the South African pace attack on his way to his final Test century, an outstanding 129 out of a total of 215. The next highest score was only 17 and none of the top six batsmen got into double figures.

Bowling Style

By the end of 1983,Kapil already had about 250 Test wickets in just five years and looked well on his way to becoming one of the most prolific wicket-takers ever. However, following knee surgery in 1984, his bowling declined as he lost some of his majestic jump at the crease. He continued to be effective, if not devastating, for another ten years and became the second bowler ever to take 400 wickets in Test cricket in 1991-92 when he took Mark Taylor's wicket in a home series versus Australia.

Post retirement

India's National Cricket Coach

Main article: Kapil Dev as Indian National Cricket Coach

Kapil Dev was appointed coach of the Indian national cricket team in 1999 succeeding Anshuman Gaekwad In his term, India won just one test match (at home against New Zealand) and had two major series losses in Australia (3-0) and at home against South Africa (2-0) and in general considered a disappointment. the height of the match fixing allegation by Manoj Prabhakar a charge that was dismissed later, Kapil Dev resigned from his position as national coach. Stung by the betting controversy, he announced farewell to the game stating that "I bid adieu to the game that gave me so much and then took a great deal of it away on the mere hearsay of a third party".

Return to Cricket

After a period of silence and away from the public eye, Kapil Dev returned to cricket when Wisden announced Kapil Dev as one of the sixteen finalists for the Wisden Indian Cricketer of the Century award in July 2002. Kapil Dev piped long time team-mate Gavaskar and crowd favourite Tendulkar to win the award and claimed the award as "my finest hour".
Kapil Dev slowly returned to cricket as a bowling consultant and was the bowling coach in the preparatory camp prior to India's tour of Pakistan in March 2004. In October 2006, Kapil Dev was nominated as the chairman of National Cricket Academy for a 2 year period.
In May 2007, Kapil Dev joined the upstart Indian Cricket League (ICL) floated by Zee TV as the chairman of executive board and defended his decision as complimenting BCCI's structure rather than opposing it - "We are not looking to create a rival team but helping the Indian board to find more talent". In June 2007, BCCI responded by revoking the pension for all players who have joined ICL, including Kapil. on 21 August 2007, Kapil Dev was removed from the chairmanship of theNational Cricket Academy, a day after he addressed a formal press conference of the new Indian Cricket League.

Records

Test cricket

• In early 1994, he became the highest Test wicket-taker in the world, breaking the record held by Sir Richard Hadlee. Kapil's record was broken by Courtney Walsh in 1999.

• Kapil is the only player to have achieved the all-rounder's double of 4,000 Test runs and 400 Test wickets.

ODI cricket

• In 1988, Kapil overtook Joel Garner to become the highest wicket-taker in ODI cricket. His final career tally of 253 wickets remained a record until it was broken by Wasim Akram in 1994

• According to the ICC cricket ratings for all-rounders in ODI cricket Kapil's peak rating of 631 is the highest rating ever achieved. He reached this mark on 22 March 1985 after a World Series final against Pakistan in Australia.

Achievements

Awards

• 1979-80 - Arjuna Award
• 1982 - Padma Shri
• 1983 - Wisden Cricketer of the Year
• 1991 - Padma Bhushan
• 2002 - Wisden Indian Cricketer of the Century

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Dada Ganguly - Bengal Prince

Sourav Chandidas Ganguly ( born 8 July 1972), is an Indian cricketer. Ganguly lives in Behala in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta).
Ganguly is a left-handed batsman and a right-arm medium-pace bowler. He is the seventh Indian cricketer to have played 100 Test matches. He is currently the 5th highest overall run scorer for India in Tests. He is the fourth Indian to have played in more than 300 One Day Internationals. terms of overall runs scored in ODIs, Ganguly is the second among Indians after Sachin Tendulkar (who has the highest ODI runs in the world) and the fourth in the world. Ganguly has scored 15 centuries in Test matches and 22 in ODIs. He is one of only seven batsmen to score more than 10,000 runs in ODIs.
Ganguly was the captain of the Indian cricket team from 2000 to 2005. He led India in a record 49 Test matches and is the most successful Test captain of his country (India won in 21 of the 49 test matches that Ganguly led). He also led India to the 2003 World Cup final.
Following an exit from the national team in early 2006, Ganguly was recalled to the Indian test side in December, staging a successful comeback in the 2006 - 2007 Indian tour of South Africa.
Ganguly has earned various nicknames over the years. He is affectionately called Dada (which means elder brother in Bengali), and sometimes Dadi, by his team-mates. Former England captain Geoffrey Boycott named him The Prince of Calcutta. During Ganguly's stint at English county cricket, some English sports journalists conferred upon him the highly sarcastic title Lord Snooty for his apparent aloofness from his county teammates.

Early Life

The youngest son of Chandidas and Nirupa Ganguly, Ganguly was born on July 8, 1973 in Kolkata<. His father, who would go onto to be the treasurer and secretary of the Cricket Association of Bengal , ran a flourishing print business and was one of the richest men in Kolkata.[10] He had a luxurious childhood, living with over 45 relatives in a joint family in their palatial bungalow in the Kolkata suburb of Behara. As a child, he was nicknamed 'Maharaja', meaning 'king'.Though he was asked to concentrate on his studies and not play cricket, he was inspired to do so by his brother Snehasish Ganguly, an accomplished left handed batsman for Bengal. Though he was acutally right handed, he batted left handed so that he could use his brother's equipment. After he showed some promise as a batsman, he was enrolled in a cricket academy. An indoor multi-gym and concrete wicket was built at home for him and his brother, and he would often watch cricket videos, especially those of David Gower, his hero. After he scored a century against the Orissa U-15 side, was made captain of the prestigous St Xavier's School's cricket team. His stint there was controversial as several of his teammates complained against his arrogance.

International career

Debut and early career

Following a prolific Ranji season in 1990-91, made his One Day International (ODI) debut for India against West Indies in 1992, and scored just 3 runs.He was dropped immediately since he was percieved to be "arrogant" and his attitude to the game was openly questioned. He toiled away in domestic cricket, scoring heavily in the 1993-94 and 1994-95 seasonsFollowing an innings of 171 in the 1995-96 Duleep Trophy, he was recalled to the national side for a tour of England in 1996 amidst intense media scrutiny.. He played in one ODI , but was omitted from the team for the the first test. However, after Navjot Sidhu left the touring party citing ill-treatment by the capatin Mohammed Azharuddin, made his Test debut at Lord's alongside Rahul Dravid, in what was umpire Dickie Bird's last test. scored a century, becoming only the third cricketer to score a century on debut at Lord's, after Harry Graham and John Hampshire. Andrew Strauss and Matt Prior have since accomplished this feat, but his 131 still remains the highest by any batsman on his debut at Lord's.. In the next Test match at Trent Bridge he made 136, thus becoming only the 3rd batsman to make a century in each of his first two innings (after Lawrence Rowe and Alvin Kallicharran). He shared a 255 run stand with Sachin Tendulkar, which became at that time the highest partnership for India against any country for any wicket outside India.

Opening in ODIs

In 1997 Ganguly scored his maiden ODI century, opening the innings he scored 113, in his side's 238, against Sri Lanka later that year he won four consecutive Man of the match awards in the Sahara Cup with Pakistan the second of these was won after he took 5/16 off 10 overs, his best bowling in a ODI. After a barren run in Test cricket his form returned at the end of the year with three centuries in four Tests all against Sri Lanka two of this involved 250+ stands with Sachin Tendulkar.
In January 1998, he had one of his most memorable performances in the final of the Independence Cup at Dhaka against Pakistan he scored 124 as India successfully chased down 315 off 48 overs, winning the Man of the match award. In March 1998 he was part of the India team that beat Australia his biggest impact came in Calcutta as he took three wickets having opened the bowling with his medium pace.
In the 1999 World Cup Ganguly smashed 183 against Sri Lanka at Taunton, the innings took 158 balls and included 17 fours and 7 sixes. It is the second highest in World Cup history and the highest by an Indian in the tournament. His partnership of 318 with Rahul Dravid is the highest ever in the World Cup and is the second highest in all ODI cricket.
In 1999/00 India lost series to both Australia and South Africa in the five Tests Ganguly struggled scoring 224 runs at 22.40. However his ODI form was impressive with five centuries over the season taking him to the top of PwC One Day Ratings for batsmen.

Ascension to captaincy

In 2000, after the match fixing scandal Ganguly was named the captain of the India team. In the Champions Trophy of that year he scored 2 centuries but his second in the final was in vain as New Zealand won by four wickets.
In 2003 under his captaincy India reached the World Cup Final, where they lost to the Australians.
While he has achieved significant success as captain, his individual performance deteriorated during his captaincy, especially after successes in the World Cup, the tour of Australia in 2003 and the Pakistan series in 2004. Following indifferent form in 2004 and poor form in 2005, he was dropped from the team in October 2005. He remained active on the first-class cricket scene in hopes of a recall, but his performance was a mixed bag - he hit a couple of centuries in domestic cricket, but his English county stint in 2005 and subsequent appearances in the Challenger Trophy were failures.
Ganguly has 22 centuries in ODIs, in terms of number of centuries in ODIs, he is only behind Sachin Tendulkar, Sanath Jayasuriya and Ricky Ponting. Sourav, along with Sachin Tendulkar, formed by far the most successful opening pair in One Day Cricket, having amassed the highest number of century partnerships (26) for the first wicket. Together, they have scored more than 7000 runs at an average of 48.98, now with Sachin he is a world record holder for creating most no. of 50 run partnership in the first wicket(44 fifties)
Ganguly is the fourth player to cross 11,000 ODI runs and third player to cross 10,000 ODI runs and so far the fastest in ODI history, after Sachin Tendulkar. He also reached 6000, 7000, 8000 and 9000 ODI runs milestones in the fewest number of matches. Sourav can bowl medium-pacers as well, but has under-achieved in this aspect in Test matches, taking 31 wickets in 99 matches, at an average of 52.47. As of 2006, he is the only Indian captain to win a Test series in Pakistan (although two of the three tests of that series was led by Rahul Dravid). He is also one of the 3 players in the world to achieve amazing treble of 10,000 runs, 100 wickets and 100 catches in ODI cricket history, the others being Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya.
In 2004, he was awarded the Padma Shri.
His older brother Snehasish Ganguly played first-class cricket for Bengal.
Ganguly's international cricket career could be bisected into 2 halves, the pre and the post Y2K eras. The significance of the year 2000 lies not only in the fact that he became the captain of the Indian team but also in the fact that the ICC introduced the one bouncer per over rule in ODIs starting from that year. This introduction of the rule by the ICC had a negative impact on Sourav Ganguly's batting average, which plunged from a high 45.5 before the year 2000 to a low 34.9 between the 5 year period of 2001-2005 . Also, against Test playing nations (which included Zimbabwe and Bangladesh), his overall average plunged further down to 30.66, as did his 'away' average which fell to 29. He managed to score only (6) centuries between 2001-2005, of which 3 centuries were against Kenya & 1 was against Namibia. This sudden drop in his batting average against Test playing nations after 2001 was clearly a result of the short pitched bowling he had to encounter from opposition bowlers. As S.Rajesh, the assistant editor of Cricinfo analyzes, Ganguly has been dismissed numerous times fending off the short ball.
Also, Ganguly's Test career had been riddled with lean patches, the first of which stretched for 3 years from Dec 1999 to Dec 2002 , during which his batting average fell to 31.77 in 36 consecutive Test matches over 60 innings. The next biggest lean patch of his career occurred after the 2003 World Cup, when his ODI average fell to 28 and this was when his place in the team was questioned by numerous Indian cricket fans. He averaged 24.95 in 25 ODI matches between August 2004 and September 2005 , before being finally dropped from the ODI side.
It was, however, as captain of the Indian team that Ganguly's biggest achievements occurred. He led India in 49 Test Matches, winning 21 of those, including 12 of them outside India. All three figures are records for Indian Test captains. He also led India to their first series wins in both Tests and ODIs in Pakistan, a feat that had eluded India for over 50 years. Ganguly also led India to more Test wins (12) outside India between 2000 and 2005 than all Indian captains had done between 1980 and 2000. He led India to victory over Steve Waugh's Australia in the 2001 Border-Gavaskar trophy which is considered one of the greatest in Indian cricket history.
Rahul Dravid once commented, "On the off-side, first there is God, then there is Ganguly”.

Comeback

Following India's poor batting display in the ICC Champions Trophy 2006 and the ODI series in South Africa, in which they were whitewashed 4-0,, Ganguly made his comeback to the test team. Wasim Jaffer, Zaheer Khan and Anil Kumble had earlier been selected for the one-day squad, in what was seen as an indictment of coach Greg Chappell's youth-first policy.Coming in at 37/4, he scored 83 in a tour match against the Rest of South Africa, modifying his original batting style and taking a middle-stump guard, an innings that set up a victory for India. In his first test innings since his comeback, against the Proteas in Johannesburg, he scored 51 in a low scoring game, an innings that helped India win a test match in South Africa for the first time. Though India went on to lose the series, he topped the run scroing charts for his side. After his successful Test comeback he was recalled for the ODI team, as India played host to West Indies and Sri Lanka back to back ODI tournaments. In his first ODI innings in almost 2 years, he scored a matchwinning 98. He performed creditably in both series, averaging almost 70 and won the Man of the Series Award against Sri Lanka.

2007 World Cup and aftermath

Following his good performance, Ganguly was named in the squad for the 2007 Cricket World Cup. He was the leading scorer for India in their first round defeat against Bangladesh. After India were knocked out of the tournament in the group stage, there were reports of a rift between certain members of the Indian team and their coach Greg Chappell. Ganguly, allegedly, ignored instructions from the team managment to score quickly.After Sachin Tendulkar issued a statement saying that what hurt the team most was that "the coach has questioned our attitude", Chappell decided not to renew his contract with the Indian team.
On December 12, 2007, Ganguly scored his maiden double century of his career while playing against Pakistan in the first innings of the third and final test match of the series. He was involved in a 300 run partnership for the 5th wicket along with Yuvraj Singh - a much needed partnership that saved India which was struggling at 61 for the fall of four wickets. He later went on to score 239 before being dismissed by Danish Kaneria.
On April 18,2008, Ganguly led the Kolkata Knight Riders team owned by Shah Rukh Khan in the IPL Twenty20 cricket match to a 140 run victory over Bangalore Royal Challengers led by Rahul Dravid and owned by Vijay Mallya. Ganguly opened the innings with Brendan McCullum and scored 10 runs while his partner Brendan McCullum remained unbeaten blasting his way to a record 158* runs in 73 balls. On May 1st in a game between the Knight Riders and the Rajasthan Royals, Ganguly made his highest score of the season and his second T20 half century, scoring 51 runs off of 39 balls at a strike rate of 130.76. In his innings, Ganguly hit four 4s and two sixes, topping the scorers list for the Knight Riders.
Ganguly has been prolific in both Test and ODI cricket in the year 2007. He scored 1106 Test runs at an average of 61.44 (with three centuries and four fifties) in 2007 to become the second highest rungetter in Test matches of that year after Jacques Kallis. He is the fifth highest rungetter in 2007 in ODIs, where he scored 1240 runs at 44.28.

Playing Style

Sourav Ganguly is a left-handed batsman who favors to get most of his runs on off-side. Throughout his career, he has played off-side shots such as square cut, square drive and cover drive with elegance and complete command. Initially in his career he was not very comfortable with hook and pull shots, often giving his wicket away with mistiming such shots. He was also criticized for having difficulty in handling short pitched balls and bouncers. However, after his comeback, he has worked upon these weaknesses to a large extent. He can hit powerful shots to off-side on both front foot and back foot with equal ease.
In One Day Internationals, where he usually opens the innings, he tries to take the advantage of fielding restrictions by advancing down the pitch and hitting the seam bowlers over extra cover and mid-off to get quick boundaries. He also likes to go after left arm spin bowlers. Due to excellent hand-eye coordination, he can pick the length of the ball early and plays his most trademark shot which is "charging down the wicket against left-arm spinners and hitting the ball over mid-on or midwicket". However, he is not good in terms of running between the wickets and judging quick singles. There has been few incidences where batsman at other end being out due to Ganguly's calling for a run and then sending him back halfway through the run.
Ganguly is a right arm medium pace bowler. He can swing the ball in both ways and often chips in with useful wickets to break partnerships. In spite of not being very athletic as a fielder, Ganguly has taken 100 catches in one-day Internationals.

Controversies

County Cricket

Ganguly's County cricket career in England was not a success. In "The Wisden Cricketer" [2] it was described as follows: "The imperious Indian - dubbed 'Lord Snooty' - deigned to represent Lancashire in 2000. At the crease it was sometimes uncertain whether his partner was a batsman or a batman being dispatched to take his discarded sweater to the pavilion or carry his kit bag. But mutiny was afoot among the lower orders. In one match Ganguly, after reaching his fifty, raised his bat to the home balcony, only to find it deserted. He did not inspire at Glamorgan or Northamptonshire either. At the latter in 2006 he averaged 4.80 from his four first-class appearances."

The Chappell - Ganguly controversy

His dispute with then coach Greg Chappell resulted in many headlines during 2005 and early 2006. Greg Chappell emailed the BCCI stating that Ganguly was unfit to lead India and that his "divide and rule" behaviour was damaging the team. This email was leaked to the media and resulted in huge backlash from Ganguly's fans. Eventually due to his poor form and differences with the coach he was stripped of his captaincy and dropped from the team. However 10 months later, during India's tour to South Africa, Ganguly was recalled after his middle order replacements Suresh Raina and Mohammad Kaif suffered poor form. Shirt take-off at Lords

During the final match of the 2002 Natwest Trophy held in Lords after a stunning performance by team mates Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif, Sourav Ganguly took off his shirt in public and brandished it in the air to celebrate India's winning of the match. He was later strongly condemned for tarnishing the gentleman's game image of cricket and disrespecting Lords protocol. Ganguly said that he was only mimicking an act performed by the English all-rounder Andrew Flintoff during a tour of India.

Other controversies

Ganguly is an aggressive player and has often attracted controversy. He has attracted the wrath of match referrees quite a few times, the most severe of which was a ban for 6 matches by ICC match referee Clive Lloyd for slow over rates against Pakistan and therefore his tour to Sri Lanka for the Indian Oil Cup 2005 was uncertain. These circumstances led to Rahul Dravid being made captain for the tour. Later, Justice Albey Sachs reduced the punishment from 6 matches to 4, and this permitted Ganguly to join the team, but as a player and not captain. In his opening match he made the highest score of the side (51) taking (110) balls. He was again named captain for the Zimbabwe tour of August-September 2005. With this, he has captained India in the highest number of Tests (49).
During the 2003 World Cup final against Australia, Ganguly won the toss and decided to field. This decision raised eyebrows but Sourav remained confident that there would be moisture on the pitch that would help his bowlers, however the bowlers flopped and Sourav performed poorly with the bat. India went on to lose by 125 runs, a staggering defeat.
Ganguly's performance in the last couple of seasons has been really poor. This put his place in the Indian team under pressure. In the tour of Zimbabwe, in which he was newly reinstated as skipper, Ganguly ground out a painfully slow century, against what is regarded as one of the weakest bowling attacks in international cricket. During the match he told reporters that newly-appointed coach Greg Chappell had asked him to stand down as captain - a comment which Chappell later played down. However, forty-eight hours after saying that he respected the Indian captain and looked forward to working with him in the future, Chappell sent an email to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Both Ganguly and Chappell were summoned to a BCCI board meeting in which they agreed to work together for the good of the team. Rahul Dravid was appointed captain for the series against Sri Lanka and South Africa after Ganguly was not selected for the opening games due to injury. When the two series got over, Rahul Dravid was asked to continue as skipper.
On November 22, 2005, Ganguly stepped down as captain of Bengal cricket team after being replaced as captain of the Indian Test team. He played in the first two Test matches in the three-Test series against Sri Lanka. However, on December 14, he was controversially dropped, for the third Test at Ahmedabad, to make way for Wasim Jaffer, an opening batsman for Mumbai. Jaffer was picked by the selectors as they wished to build up a player selection pool with sufficient experience to succeed at international level.
Despite this, he retained his A-grade contract from the BCCI, in December 2005. Following the drop, fans blocked roads and railway tracks in Kolkata, burning effigies of chief selector Kiran More and Indian coach Chappell, and the urban development minister of West Bengal, Asoke Bhattacharya, said Ganguly was a victim of the internal politics of the BCCI. Cricinfo editor Sambit Bal wrote in a commentary that this was in all probability ... the end of the road for him. However, it was announced on December 25, 2005 that he was selected as part of the Indian team to tour Pakistan. Kiran More cited his experience as the key reason, with Mohammed Kaif being dropped. He was in the playing XI in the Lahore and Karachi Tests, but was dropped for the Faisalabad match. He was unable to play in the England home series and the West Indies tour. He was also not selected for the following Tri-series in Sri Lanka. However, he was chosen amongst 30 probables for the ICC Champions Trophy after being left out in the dark for almost close to a year. Ganguly failed in the Challenger Trophy, however, managing less than 30 runs in two games, and so the chances of recall to the ODI side look bleak. Ganguly later sent an email hitting out at his one time mentor saying that Jagmohan Dalmiya did not deserve to become CAB president as he had played with his career and that Ganguly was a victim of internal politics within the BCCI. This was in the backdrop of the CAB elections which Jagmohan Dalmiya won.

Records

Test

• Captained India in a record 49 Test matches
• Led India to a record 21 Test wins
• His test average has never never been less than 40.

ODIs

• Hold the record of most 200+ ODI partnerships (6 times) along with Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting.
• Holds the record, shared with Sachin Tendulkar, for most 1st wicket ODI partnerships of 175+ runs (7 times).
• Holds the record, shared with Mahendra Singh Dhoni, for the second highest score by an Indian cricketer in an ODI — 183, against Sri Lanka in 1999.
• Held the record, shared with Sachin Tendulkar, for the highest first wicket partnership for India in a ODI match, 258, against Kenya in 2001. This record was bettered by Sri Lankan opening pair of Jayasuriya and Tharanga in 2006 at Headingley.
• Was involved in the first 300 run ODI partnership with Rahul Dravid.
• Sixth on the all time list with 31 man of the match awards.
• He is also the only player to win 4 consecutive man of the match awards in ODIs.
• India's most successful ODI captain.
• First Indian to score a ODI century against Australia in Australia.
• Highest ODI runs scorer in the world (in a calendar year) in 1997,1999,2000.
• Third in the list of hitting maximum number of sixes in ODIs.
• Second in the list of highest number of centuries in a single calendar year ever. 7 centuries in 2000.

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M S Dhoni - Indian Team Captain

Mahendra Singh Dhoni or MS Dhoni (born July 7, 1981 in Ranchi, Jharkhand) is an Indian cricketer and the current captain of the Indian Twenty20 and ODI team.[1] Under his captaincy, India won the 2007 ICC World Twenty20 and CB Series of 2007-8.
Dhoni is an aggressive right-handed batsman and wicket-keeper. Dhoni is one of the wicket-keepers who have come through the ranks of junior and India A cricket teams to represent the national team - Parthiv Patel, Ajay Ratra and Dinesh Karthik being the others. Dhoni, referred to as 'Mahi' by his friends, debuted in the Bihar cricket team during the 1998/99 cricket season and was selected to represent India-A for a tour to Kenya in 2004. Along with Gautam Gambhir, Dhoni made multiple centuries against the Pakistan-A team in a tri-nation series and was selected in the Indian national team later in that year.
Dhoni scored 148 against Pakistan in his fifth ODI match in 2005 - then the highest score by an Indian wicketkeeper. Later in the year, he broke his own record as well as set the current world record for the highest score in the second innings in ODI matches as he scored 183* against Sri Lanka. Dhoni's success in the limited overs format secured him a place in the test team and coincidentally he made his maiden test century in his fifth Test match, when he scored 148 against Pakistan. Consistent performances in ODI cricket through the end of the 2005/06 season saw Dhoni ranked as the No. 1 batsman in the ICC ODI ratings briefly.
Dhoni's form dipped through 2006 as India lost matches at the ICC Champions trophy, DLF Cup, away bilateral series against West Indies and South Africa. A return to form in the home series against West Indies and SriLanka in early 2007 proved to be an inaccurate indicator of Dhoni's form as India crashed out of the first round in the 2007 Cricket World Cup. Dhoni was out for duck in both India's losses. After the World Cup, Dhoni won the Man of the series award in the bilateral ODI tournament against Bangladesh. For the tour of England, Dhoni was named the ODI team vice-captain.
A batter, Dhoni has shown the maturity to restrain his aggressive nature and play a responsible innings when the situation requires. from traditional shots, Dhoni has two very unorthodox but effective cricket strokes. Since his entry into the Indian cricket team, Dhoni's aggressive batting style, success on the field, personality, and long hair have made him one of the most marketable cricketers in India.

Personal life

Dhoni was born in (Almora) Uttarakhand[citation needed].His paternal village Lvali is in the Lamgarha block of the Almora District of Uttarakhand. Pan Singh and Devaki Dev, Dhoni's parents, moved from Uttarakhand to Ranchi where Pan Singh worked in junior management positions in Mecon. Dhoni has a sister Jayanti and a brother Narendra. Dhoni had long hair which he has now shortened; he cut it because he wanted to look like his favourite film star John Abraham. is a fan of Adam Gilchrist, and his childhood idols were cricket teammate Sachin Tendulkar, Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan and singer Lata Mangeshkar.
Dhoni studied at DAV Jawahar Vidya Mandir, Shyamali, Ranchi, where he initially excelled in badminton and football and was selected at district and club level in these sports. Dhoni was a goalkeeper for his football team and was sent to play cricket for a local cricket club by his football coach. Though he had not played cricket, Dhoni impressed with his wicket-keeping skills and became the regular wicketkeeper at the Commando cricket club (1995 - 1998). Based on his performance at club cricket, he was picked for the 1997/98 season Vinoo Mankad Trophy Under-16 Championship and he performed well. focused on cricket after his 10th standard.
Dhoni was voted as MTV Youth Icon 2006 and he also joins cricketers Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar in winning the award. He is the amazing icon of the Pogo TV amazing kids awards.

Domestic career

Junior cricket

Dhoni was included in the Bihar U-19 squad for the 1998/99 season and scored 176 runs in 5 matches (7 innings) as the team finished fourth in the group of six and did not make it to the quarter finals. Dhoni was not picked for the East Zone U-19 squad (CK Nayudu Trophy) and Rest of India squad (MA Chidambaram Trophy and Vinoo Mankad Trophy). Bihar U-19 cricket team advanced to the finals of the 1999-2000 Cooch Behar Trophy where Dhoni made 84 to help Bihar post a total of 357. Bihar's efforts were dwarfed by Punjab U-19's 839 with Dhoni's future national squad teammate Yuvraj Singh making 358. Dhoni's contribution for the tournament included 488 runs (9 matches, 12 innings), 5 fifties, 17 catches and 7 stumpings. MS Dhoni made it to the East Zone U-19 squad for the CK Nayudu trophy but scored only 97 runs in four matches as East Zone lost all four matches and finished last in the tournament.

Bihar team

Dhoni made his Ranji Trophy debut for Bihar in the 1999-2000 season as an eighteen year old. He made a half century in his debut match scoring 68* in the second innings against Assam cricket team.[12] Dhoni finished the season with 283 runs in 5 matches. Dhoni scored his maiden first-class century against Bengal in the 2000/01 season in a losing cause. Apart from the century, his performance in the 2000/ did not include another score over fifty and in 2001/02 season he scored just five fifty in each season in four Ranji matches.'s performance for the 2002/03 season in the Ranji Trophy included three half centuries in the Ranji Trophy and a couple of half-centuries in the Deodhar Trophy competition as he started winning recognition for his lower-order run contribution as well as hard hitting batting style.
In the 2003/04 season, Dhoni scored a century (128*) against Assam in the first match of the Ranji ODI trophy. He was part of the East Zone squad that won the Deodhar Trophy for the year and contributed with 244 runs in 4 matches. In the Duleep Trophy finals, Dhoni was picked over International cricketer Deep Dasgupta to represent East zone. He scored a fighting half century in the second innings in a losing cause.

India A team

He was recognized for his efforts in the 2003/04 season, especially in the ODI format and was picked for the India A squad for a tour of Zimbabwe and Kenya the Zimbabwe XI in Harare Sports Club, Dhoni had his best wicket-keeping effort with 7 catches and 4 stumpings in the match. In the tri-nation tournament involving Kenya, India 'A' and Pakistan 'A', Dhoni helped India 'A' chase their target of 223 against Pakistan 'A' with an half-century. Stressing on his performance, he scored back to back centuries - 120 and 119* against the same squad. Dhoni scored 362 runs in 7 matches (6 innings, Ave:72.40), and his performance in the series received attention from the then captain - Sourav amongst others. However, the India 'A' team coach Sandeep Patil recommended Karthik for a place in the Indian squad as wicket-keeper/batsman.

ODI career

The Indian team in the 2000s saw the use of Rahul Dravid as the wicket-keeper to ensure that the wicket-keeper spot didn't lack in batting talent. The Indian cricket establishment also saw the entry of wicket-keeper/batsmen from the junior ranks with talents like Parthiv Patel and Dinesh Karthik - both India U-19 Captains in the test squads. With Dhoni making a mark in the India-A squad, he was picked in the ODI squad for the Bangladesh tour in 2004/05. Dhoni did not have a great start to his ODI career, getting run out for a duck on debut. spite of an average series against Bangladesh, Dhoni was picked for the Pakistan ODI series. In the second match of the series, Dhoni in his fifth one-day international, scored 148 in Vishakapatnam off only 123 deliveries. Dhoni's 148 erased the earlier record for the highest score by an Indian wicketkeeper, a record that he would re-write before the end of the year.
Dhoni had few batting opportunities in the first two games of the Sri Lankan bilateral ODI series (October-November 2005) and was promoted to No. 3 in the third ODI at Sawai Mansingh Stadium (Jaipur). Sri Lanka had set India a target of 299 after a Kumar Sangakkara century and in reply. India lost Tendulkar early. Dhoni was promoted to accelerate the scoring and ended the game with an unbeaten 183 off 145 balls, winning the game for - an innings described in Wisden Almanack (2006) as 'Uninhibited, yet anything but crude'. The innings set various records including the highest score in ODI cricket in the second innings, a record that still stands. Dhoni ended the series with the highest run aggregate (346) and was awarded the Man of the series award for his efforts. In December 2005, Dhoni was signed by BCCI to a B-grade contract, skipping the initial C-grade level due to his performance on the cricketing field.

India scored 328 in 50 overs with Dhoni contributing 68 in their first match of 2006 against Pakistan. However the team finished poorly, scoring just 43 runs in the last eight overs and lost the match due to Duckworth-Lewis method. the third match of the series, Dhoni came in with India in a precarious situation and scored 72 runs off just 46 balls that included 13 boundaries to help India take a 2-1 lead in the series. final match of the series had a repeat performance as Dhoni scored 77 runs off 56 balls to enable India win the series 4-1. In recognition of his consistent ODI performances, Dhoni overtook Ricky Ponting as number one in the ICC ODI rankings for batsmen on April 20, 2006. His reign lasted just a week as Adam Gilchrist's performance against Bangladesh moved him to the top spot.
Two canceled series in Sri Lanka, one due to the withdrawal of South Africa from the Unitech Cup due to security concerns the replacement 3-match ODI bilateral series against Sri Lanka washed due to rain, was India's prelude to another disappointing tournament - DLF Cup 2006-07. Dhoni scored 43 runs as the team lost twice in three games and did not qualify for the finals. India's lack of preparation showed in the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy as they lost to West Indies and Australia, though Dhoni scored an half-century against West Indies. The story of the ODI series in South Africa was the same for both Dhoni and India as Dhoni scored 139 runs in 4 matches and India lost the series 4-0. From the start of the WI ODI series, Dhoni had played 16 matches, hit just two fifties and averaged 25.93. Dhoni received criticism on his wicket keeping technique from former wicketkeeper Syed Kirmani.
Preparations for the 2007 Cricket World Cup improved as India recorded identical 3-1 victories over West Indies and Sri Lanka and Dhoni had averages in excess of 100 in both these series. However, India unexpectedly crashed out the World Cup after losses to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Dhoni was out for a duck in both these matches and scored 29 runs in the whole tournament. Dhoni put behind his disappointment in the World cup by scoring 91* against Bangladesh after India were left in a tight spot earlier in the run-chase. Dhoni was declared the man of the match for his performance, his fourth in ODI cricket. He was also later adjudged the man of the series after the third game of the series was washed away. Dhoni had a good Afro-Asia Cup, getting 174 runs in 3 matches at an average of 87.00, with a blitzkrieg 139 not out of 97 balls, a Man Of The Match innings, in the 3rd ODI.
Dhoni was nominated as the vice-captain of the ODI team for the series against South Africa in Ireland and the subsequent India-England 7-match ODI series. Dhoni, who received a 'B' grade contract in December 2005, was awarded an 'A' grade contract in June 2007. And also he was elected as captain of Indian Twenty-20 Cricket Team for the World Twenty20 in September 2007. On 2 September 2007 Mahendra Singh Dhoni equalled his idol Adam Gilchrist's international record for the most dismissals in an innings in ODI by catching 5 English players and stumping one. He led India to the ICC World Twenty 20 trophy in South Africa with a victory over arch rivals Pakistan in an intensely fought final on 24 September 2007, and became the second Indian captain to have won a World cup in any form of cricket, after Kapil Dev.

Test career

Following his good one-day form against Sri Lanka, Dhoni replaced Dinesh Karthik in December 2005 as the Indian Test wicket-keeper. Dhoni scored 30 runs in his debut match that was marred by rain. Dhoni came to the crease when the team was struggling at 109/5 and as wickets kept falling around him, he played an aggressive innings and was the last man dismissed. Dhoni made his maiden half-century in the second Test and his quick scoring rate (half century came off 51 balls) aided India to set a target of 436 and the Sri Lankans were bowled out for 247.
India toured Pakistan in January/February 2006 and Dhoni scored his maiden century in the second Test at Faisalabad. India were left in a tight spot as Dhoni was joined by Irfan Pathan with the team still 107 away from avoiding follow-on. Dhoni played his typical aggressive innings as he scored his maiden test century in just 93 balls after scoring his first fifty in just 34 deliveries.

Dhoni followed his maiden test century with some prosaic batting performances over the next three matches, one against Pakistan that India lost and two against England that had India holding a 1-0 lead going into the test match. Dhoni was the top scorer in India's first innings in the third test at Wankhede Stadium as his 64 aided India post a respectable 279 in reply to England's 400. However Dhoni and the Indian fielders dropped too many catches and missed many dismissal chances including a key stumping opportunity of Andrew Flintoff Dhoni failed to collect the Harbhajan Singh delivery cleanly as Flintoff went on to make 36 more runs as England set a target of 313 for the home team, a target that India were never in the reckoning. A batting collapse saw the team being dismissed for 100 and Dhoni scored just 5 runs and faced criticism for his wicket-keeping lapses as well as his shot selections.
On the West Indies tour, Dhoni scored a quick and aggressive 69 in the first Test at Antigua. The rest of the series was unremarkable for Dhoni as he scored 99 runs in the remaining 6 innings but his wicket-keeping skills improved and Dhoni finished the series with 13 catches and 4 stumpings. In the test series in South Africa, Dhoni's scores of 34 and 47 were not sufficient to save the second test against the Proteas as India lost the test series 2-1, squandering the chance to build on their first ever Test victory in South Africa (achieved in the first Test match). Dhoni's bruised hands ruled him out of the third test match. Indian Premier League

M.S.Dhoni was bought by the Chennai Super Kings for 1.5 Million USD. This made him the most expensive player in the IPL Auctions which was closely followed by Andrew Symonds. Dhoni is the present captain of the Chennai Super Kings team.

Controversies

Walk-off: On the fourth day of the first test match at Antigua Recreation Ground, St John's, Antigua during India's tour of West Indies, 2006, Dhoni's flick off Dave Mohammed to the midwicket region was caught by Daren Ganga. As the batsman started to walk back, captain Dravid declared the innings when confusion started as the umpires were not certain if the fielder stepped on the ropes and Dhoni stayed for the umpire's verdict. While the replays were inconclusive, the captain of the West Indies side, Brian Lara, wanted Dhoni to walk-off based on the fielder's assertion of the catch. The impasse continued for more than 15 minutes and Lara's temper was on display with finger wagging against the umpires and snatching the ball from umpire Asad Rauf. Ultimately, Dhoni walked-off and Dravid's declaration was effected but the game was delayed, and Lara's action was criticized by the commentators and former players. Lara was called by the match referee for explanation of his actions but was not fined by the match referee.
Home Vandalized: After the loss to Bangladesh in 2007 Cricket World Cup, the house that Dhoni was constructing in his home-town Ranchi was vandalized and damaged by political activists of JMM. local police arranged for security for his family as India exited the World cup in the first round.


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