Getting to 2003 World Cup final almost unbeaten was great achievement, proclaims Sourav Ganguly

07/05/2020

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Sourav Ganguly has revisited India’s final appearance in the 2003 World Cup and stated that apart from the final, the way the team went about the business was a great achievement. The BCCI president has further added that he would have changed his game to suit the demands of T20 cricket.

India were utterly dominant in the 2003 World Cup, sans the league game and the final against the Australians, winning nine matches otherwise. Against big teams like Pakistan, New Zealand, and Sri Lanka, the Men in Blue didn’t leave any stone unturned and bought their A-game to the fore, winning by convincing margins. Ganguly, the leader of the pack, revisited the glorious journey in a BCCI conducted chat between Ganguly and Mayank Agarwal and spoke about the fun the team had during the journey.

“The World Cup final has a special place; we got smashed by Australia. They were the best team in that generation. Getting to the World Cup, winning every game hands down except Australia, I thought, was a great achievement,” Ganguly said, reported Sportstar.

A year before that, powered by the young guns like Yuvraj Singh and Mohammed Kaif, India secured one of the most remarkable wins in their history, when they decimated England to secure the Natwest final. Ganguly’s passionate celebration has forever been a part of Indian cricket lore, and the BCCI president has stated that that was one of the great cricket matches he had been part of.

“It was a great moment. We all got carried away, but that’s what sport is, when you win a game like that, you celebrate even more. That was one of the great cricket matches I have been part of,” he said.

After plying his trade for three years with Kolkata Knight Riders, the franchise had to do away with the Bengali icon as the former Indian skipper turned up for Pune Warriors for three more seasons. In 59 matches he played in the IPL, Ganguly averaged 25.45, striking at 106.81 with seven half-centuries. Talking about that, Ganguly said he would have loved to remodel his game for T20 Cricket.

“I would have loved to play T20, although I did play for the first five years of the IPL. I think I would have enjoyed T20,” he said.