The worst stigma of Indian cricket! Years later, why did Ganguly ask Sachin-Dravid, ‘Did anyone approach you for match fixing?’

New Delhi: After the fixing controversy in 2000, when Sourav Ganguly got the captaincy of Team India at the age of 27, he himself was unaware of the truth of this entire matter. Recently, in Raj Shamani’s podcast, Dada revealed that as soon as he became the captain, the first thing he asked a direct question to Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble was, “Has anyone ever contacted you to fix the match?”

Sachin and Dravid gave this answer 

Let us tell you that during this time Sourav Ganguly also told that the answer of all three giants was the same: ‘No’. Dada said, “I didn’t know anything about betting or fixing. I kept asking Sachin and Rahul whether this really happens? Because no one had contacted me.” Anil Kumble also repeated the same thing. At that time Ganguly was playing both Test and ODI formats, but the issue of fixing was completely new to him.

Difficult period of Indian cricket   

This was the period when the Hansie Cronje scandal shook the world. Mohammad Azharuddin banned for life in India, Ajay Jadeja suspended for 5 years. The trust of the fans had been broken. In such a situation, the challenge before Ganguly was not only to make the team win but also to bring back the credibility of cricket.

first day of captaincy   

Sourav Ganguly admitted that getting captaincy at such a young age was scary. He was nervous to speak in the team meeting before the first match in Kochi. He had told his wife Donna, “Azhar, Sachin has been my captain. What should I tell him?” So he ended the meeting in 15 minutes. India won the next day and Ganguly himself scored a century in Jamshedpur. From there the team’s graph started going up.

New era of Team India   

It is noteworthy that under the captaincy of Ganguly, India started winning abroad. In 2003-04, he drew the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia, won the historic Test series in Pakistan, won the 2002 NatWest Trophy and Champions Trophy. The credit goes to Ganguly for uniting the disintegrated team after fixing and giving opportunity to youngsters like Yuvraj, Harbhajan, Sehwag. This team later wrote the golden era of Indian cricket.