Sourav Ganguly has been one of the greatest cricketers to ever play for India and after his retirement he has served as an administrator in various capacities like being the Cricket Association of Bengal President for 5 years and he served 3 years as BCCI President and so he has had his fair share of controversies in his life. We will talk about some of them here.

I would like to say that this type of an article is new for me so I hope you all like reading it and knowing about the darker side of cricket. Let’s get into some of the controversies in the life of the great Sourav Ganguly

The Greg Chappell Incident

Perhaps the biggest controversy in the career of Sourav Ganguly was his fiasco with former Indian coach Greg Chappell. It all happened in 2005 when Greg Chappell came on board and initially everything was going well until Greg told Sourav that he had to resign because his captaincy was affecting his form. After that he was dismissed as captain and even removed from the side and for 1 year Sourav Ganguly had to toil hard to regain his place in the Indian side. There was a test match in Kolkata where the crowd cheered for the South Africa team and it all went downhill from.there and after the 2007 World Cup Greg Chappell was sacked. Sourav Ganguly has not been able to forgive Greg Chappell even today.

Also Read | Sourav Ganguly Profile, Stats and Records

Unhappy time at Lancashire

Sourav Ganguly played County Cricket for Lancashire in 2000 and it is safe to say that it did not go well. Sourav Ganguly was accused of having an attitude and treating other players below him like asking Michael Atherton to carry his bags and other players to do other things for him. Andrew Flintoff said that having Sourav Ganguly in the team was like having Prince Charles in your team. This was one of the earliest controversies in the career of Sourav Ganguly.

Making Steve Waugh wait at the Toss

It was the much famous series of 2001 and Sourav Ganguly was a young captain but he was very smart as well as he started playing mind games even before the toss as he used to get late for the toss on purpose and Steve Waugh did not like that and said it showed a lack of respect for the game whereas Sourav said that he was unable to find his blazer that’s why he was late for the toss but those from the outside say that Dada did this in purpose to get in the head of Steve Waugh and the Australians.

Waving the shirt at Lord’s

This is not a controversy for the Indian fans but for the outside world as what Sourav did that day at Lord’s by waving his shirt was not right but Dada said that Flintoff waved off his shirt in Mumbai earlier so he answered it by doing it at Lord’s . The English press said that this was Lord’s so Sourav said that Mumbai was our Lord’s so it’s all the same.

The bitter KKR exit

Sourav Ganguly was the icon player for KKR in 2008 and everything was going well but in 2009 John Buchanan said that KKR will have multiple captains and Brendon McCullum was made captain and this angered not only Sourav but the Kolkata fanbase and KKR had a horror of a year and in 2011 he was not retained so the anger was far more that how can you leave out the prince of Kolkata from KKR? It was one of the most bitter farewells.

Sourav Ganguly vs Ravi Shastri and Virat Kohli

Sourav Ganguly has had major issues with Ravi Shastri over a long time and they have been in public about it. It all happened during the coach meeting in Kolkata where Ravi Shastri had applied and Sourav Ganguly did not want him to become the coach of the Indian team so he did not attend his presentation and Ravi Shastri was upset about it and publicly spoke about it and Dada replied and the bad blood continued and it finally looks to have died down a bit.

The most recent controversy is of Sourav Ganguly vs Virat Kohli and it happened in 2021 when the captaincy of Virat Kohli was removed. Kohli claimed he was not consulted about the decision and only informed shortly before the selection meeting. While there have been no further major public confrontations, the relationship between Kohli and Ganguly remains strained.