Why Sourav Best Captain

• Captain is born not made. Leadership is your trait –in your genre. Either you have it or you don't have. There is no in between. Sourav like England's Mike Brearley or Nasser Hussain should be in the team because of his leadership qualities. Unlike Brearley, whose Test batting averagewas under 23 or Hussain whose Test  average was 37, Sourav's average is nearly 41. In the 2003-04 series against Australia, Sourav's century at Brisbane set the tone for one of the best performance by India in  an away series. it is beyond doubt  that he has brought the killer instinctto the Indian team that was sorely lacking

• No wonder every Indian skipper goes through a bad phase. Azharuddin being a prime example .same goes for Dravid. Generally when he leads India, his batting nosedives. Consider this. In Tests, as a player he averages 60.46, as a skipper his average 17.25.
In one-dayers, as a player he averages 40.22, as a skipper 29.22. It's no different abroad. Take for example Michael Vaughan, England's highly successful skipper, as a player in Test his average is 50.98, as a captain it is down to 35.94, lower than even Ganguly's 37.03. All batsmen go through bad patches. Even Rahul Dravid has gone through this phase. In 1999-00 during a 13-month period he went through 16 innings without a fifty.

• Sourav  is an expert in "Man Management". Words such as 'Groups' and 'Camps' have vanished from the Indian dressing room. That is why we saw the name "Team India" because in Ganguly's era there is no in-fighting. The other great asset of Sourav is that he has risen over parochial interests and  backed players on their talent. That is indeed revolutionary when compared to the policies of the past skippers who made it open secret in picking their favourites. Mahendra Singh Dhoni, from Jharkhand, Kaif from Uttar Pradesh, but they are all equal in Ganguly's eye. The only thing he believes in is talent. 
Yuvraj Singh, Kaif, Sehwag, Irfan Pathan, Sanjay Bangar,  Murali Kartik, Harbhajan Singh, Dinesh Mongia, Parthiv Patel,  Zaheer Khan, Dinesh Kartik, Dhoni, Balaji, Nehra all have done India proud because Sourav have backed them through thick and thin. Even Players like Srinath gave his best while coming back to limited overs cricket under
Sourav Ganguly.

• Sourav has won six Test matches away from home, a huge improvement over any other skipper
 
Sourav as Captain for Team India  
There is no debate over the very fact that Sourav has rechristened Indian cricket in last five years—2000 to 2005. Indians have never had a captain who has looked at the opposition  in the eye and forced them on the backfoot even before a ball is bowled.Azhar, Sachin, Srikkanth, Kapil and Gavaskar did not have the sort of aggression which Sourav does! As a player and a captain he has given a new looked Men-in-Blue, a blend of youth and  experience. This team proved its merit as it raced to the  finals of the World Cup 2003. 
  
He has never shied away from responsibilities and always stood up  for his boys. Perhaps for the first time Indian cricket got a captain  whorose above petty parochial regionalism and fought with BCCI to selectthe best talents available in the country.  Few promising youngsterslike Juvraj ,Harvajan ,Pathan ,  Dhoni or player like Sehwag –all are mentored during the tenure  of  Sourav .   Below statistics vividly manifests the very fact that he is always a big tournament player and big challenge motivates him immensely.  He literally brandised Indian cricket with the help of  his Men -in -Blue. Let’s analyse his performance as captain  
 
Test: Captaincy data given in filtered one

Out of 49 test matches where Sourav played the role of Chieftain, 21 Victories by any standard (almost 43% win) is a glorious feat! Out of which in seven cases win by an innings (33% of all win --- that means out of 3 wins, one will be always by an innings!) quite impressive and comprehending victory over opponents. Statistics again reveal that Ganguly was keener on chasing the target to victory. Vis a vis other players, captaincy did not hamper Sourav’s batting average much(down from 40 to 37 range ).A very interesting fact is whenever India own the match,Ganguly played a very key role in the side to victory. His near about 50 batting average in those 21 matches ( where India won the test under his stewardship) clearly points out that Ganguly was very much instrumental in team success and led the side from the front in victory. All through these victories, Ganguly contribution as captain in batting was phenomenal.  In those 7 innings victories, his batting average is astounding 72.42 .even in those 11 matches where, India won by chasing target , Sorav’s contribution is healthy 42.57 !

Nevertheless such a lead-from-the-front approach, the critics still keep on making Noise! We really appreciate their audacity and no-cricket-sense stance!Sourav in test definitely did well in away tests in opponent soil! There is lot of hue and cry made by his critics that he can’t play fast bowler well. For them his performance as a captain against Aussies (batting average 47.33), England (58.50) and west Indies (53.66) is enough to shut their mouth!

We hoe that those three teams have more formidable fast

bowlers than spinners .Right?  

One Day :

The performance in one day is also comparable like test. Here also the same out of 147 matches where he led team India, in 76 matches India won and in those matches Sourav’s average 51.37, only re strengthen the very fact Sourav Ganguly can easily claim the lions share as batsman and captain in team’s success .His performance is quite magnificent in world cup and ICC championship where his average is resounding 58.12 and flabbergasting 83! I think after all these statistics there should not be any further argument over the fact –who is real mentor of Team India. As captain and as a batsman – it is Sourav Ganguly –“The Prince of Calcutta”.