Former Indian cricket team captain Sourav Ganguly received a special gift on his 54th birthday on Wednesday. As per a decision taken at the International Cricket Council’s annual meeting held in Edinburgh, Ganguly has been inducted into the prestigious ‘ICC Hall of Fame’. With this honour, he becomes the 12th Indian cricketer to be conferred the recognition.
Expressing gratitude to the ICC for the recognition, Ganguly also thanked ICC Chairman Jay Shah. Calling it a “matter of immense pride”, the former captain wrote on social media platform ‘X’ (Twitter), “Thank you to the ICC and Chairman Jay Shah for inducting me into the Hall of Fame. It is a great honour to be named alongside the greats of world cricket in this list.”
Ganguly’s biggest contribution to Indian cricket was during his captaincy from 2000 to 2005. Following the match-fixing scandal, he rebuilt a demoralised Indian team and instilled a fighting spirit in it.
The left-handed batting star scored 7,212 runs in 113 Test matches and 11,363 runs in 311 One Day Internationals. He played his last Test against Australia in November 2008 before retiring from international cricket.
After retiring from cricket, he joined cricket administration and served as BCCI President from October 23, 2019 to October 18, 2022. He is currently the President of the Cricket Association of Bengal.
The other 11 Indian cricketers honoured before Ganguly are: Bishan Singh Bedi, Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Vinoo Mankad, Diana Edulji, Virender Sehwag, Neetu David and Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
