SOURAV GANGULY'S BIOGRAPHY

Sourav Chandidas Ganguly made his entry into this world on July 08, 1973 in Calcutta, the ‘City of Joy’, now Kolkata. He was born into a sports loving family and was the second of two sons born to Chandidas and Nirupa Ganguly.
He was born into immense wealth, unlike many Indian cricketers, with the exception of royalty.
His parents gave him the nickname of ‘Maharaj’ meaning ‘Prince’. Perhaps, they knew that their son was born to lead.

For someone who is one of the best cricketers of contemporary times, it would come as a surprise to many of Sourav’s fans that cricket was not his first love. Like all people who dwell in the city of Kolkata, Sourav’s first sporting passion was football.
But like most Indian kids, he had to make the difficult choice between academics and sport and his mother wasn’t very supportive of Sourav taking up cricket or any sport as a career.But Snehashish, who was an established cricketer for Bengal only strengthened his brother’s resolve to be a cricketer and he asked his father to get Sourav enrolled in a cricket coaching camp during Sourav's class ten holidays.
For a young man who used his brother's cricket gear during practice, it was indeed ironical that he replaced his brother in the Bengal cricket team and consequently, Snehashish was dropped. And thus, Sourav began a glorious cricketing career.

Some More About Sourav...

* A typical Cancerian, Sourav was very mischievous as a child.

* He is a very quiet, almost aloof person.

* He is a natural right hander and does everything, except bat with his right hand. Sourav learned to play with his left hand from his elder brother, Snehasish, from whom he learned to play cricket.

* Sourav was first selected in the Bengal Ranji team, at the expense of his brother, Snehashish.

* His home in Behala, Kolkata has 48 rooms and his family owns 32 cars (wow, that's a lot)!

* He was petrified of dogs as a kid!

* Sourav earns around 7 crores a year just from endorsements and charges 1 crore for each advertisement!

* Sourav and Sachin are one of the most successful opening pairs ever in one-day cricket!

* Dada changes the numbers on his ODI jersey based on his mother's insistence.

* There is an apartment complex in Kolkata, India which is named after Sourav. It is called the ‘Sourav Housing Complex'.

* Sourav’s first love was not cricket. In fact, it was football and he admits, that even today, he’d rather watch football than cricket on TV.

* Sourav wanted to be a football player, but he took up cricket because his elder brother was a cricketer.

* Sourav’s favorite football position is that of a striker. He was in the football team instead of the cricket team till he was 13.

* The first thing he does after checking into a hotel room is place a photo of his wife and daughter on the side table.


* Sourav maintains a diary in Bengali.

* Sourav is a very religious person and prays before every match.

* His mother, Nirupa fasts innumerable times in a week for his well-being. She is a very strict displinarian but she always doted on her sons.

* Sourav’s first coaching camp was when he was 15 years old, in the summer vacation.

* Sourav still lives in a joint family that has over 50 members.

* He loves his city, Calcutta especially during the Durga Festival.

* A 1.5 km road in Rajarhat in the North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal is named after Sourav. He himself unveiled a plaque containing the new name of the road, Sourav Ganguly Avenue, at a function organized by the Rajarhat Gopalpur Municipality.

* Sourav calls his brother, “dada bhai” which means elder brother in Bengali.

* It upsets Sourav to hear people use the word “arrogant” against him. “I’m not at all arrogant,” he says.

* After playing in two or three ODIs, Sourav was dropped from the Indian side, because of his “arrogant attitude".

* Sourav doesn’t know what he would be if he wasn’t a cricketer. When asked about it, he just smiled at a loss of an answer.

* When Sourav was young, his parents thought to make him an engineer or a doctor!

* Sourav was in South Africa when his daughter was born. But thanks to the new technology, the proud father was able to download a picture of his wife and new born baby the end of the day.

* Sourav eats only vegetarian food on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

* Sourav is is very fond of Alu Posto and Chingri Macher Malaikari, both typically Bengali dishes.Whenever he returns after a tour, he insists on having Alu Posto—a preparation of poppy seeds and potatoes—at his first lunch home. He is also very fond of the prawns in coconut milk preparation. Dona makes it a point to serve him this dish during his stays at home.

* Following Sachin's footsteps, Sourav opened a three-storey restaurant, Sourav's - The Food Pavilion in Calcutta's posh Park Street. It was inaugurated by Sachin Tendulkar in 2004.

* India have never lost a Test match in which Sourav scored a century.

* Sourav's daughter's name, Sana means 'praise'.

* Sourav loves his city, Kolkata and cannot even think of living anywhere else.

* Sourav feels Kolkata's pride is the city's chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

* It is Dada's dream to bring Reliance's Anil Ambani and Sahara's Subrato Roy to Kolkata.