Collaborated with Sachin, Azhar, and Dravid as leaders and shared responsibility, states Sourav Ganguly
Sourav Ganguly captained India in 146 ODIs and 49 Tests
|Sourav Ganguly has revealed that he collaborated with Sachin Tendulkar, Mohammad Azharuddin, and Rahul Dravid as leaders in his playing days which made them believe in his leadership. Ganguly is considered to be one of the finest captains with 21 Test wins and 76 ODI victories under his leadership.
Sourav Ganguly is known to be a successful and revolutionary leader. Along with having some impressive captaincy records his role in nurturing the young talent in the team was phenomenal. The credit for rise of Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan, and Harbhajan Singh in international cricket goes to his continuous backing to some extent.
Ganguly made his international debut in 1992 and was handed the captaincy in 2000. Reflecting on his own leadership, Ganguly revealed that he didn’t compete with Sachin Tendulkar, Mohammad Azharuddin, or Rahul Dravid but collaborated with them as leaders and shared the responsibility.
“There is a difference between being a captain and a leader, in a titular position as a captain, how did you make the seniors, and the youngsters believe in your leadership. Captaincy, to me, is leading a team on the ground, and leadership, to me, is building a team. So, whether I worked with Sachin, Azhar, or Dravid, I didn't compete with them; instead, I collaborated with them as leaders and shared responsibility," Ganguly said at an gathering by The Economic Times India Leadership Council.
Since retiring from the international cricket in 2008, Ganguly has been working in administrative roles. He is currently working as the BCCI President. Commenting on his stint as the president, the former Indian captain said that managing individuals is a common link between the role of a captain and a BCCI president.
"I believe that the common thing is managing individuals. This country has exceptional talent, ranging from young players to young corporate employee. I genuinely believed that if I wanted to be the captain of a successful team, I had to respect my colleagues so that they could become good players, and that it's never the other way around; you can't keep everything to yourself and expect good things to happen; it won't happen,” he explained.
