Former Indian spinner and commentator Pragyan Ojha believes that the former captain Sourav Ganguly had a huge role in India’s historic 2011 World Cup triumph after 28 years when the country won their maiden title under the legend Kapil Dev in 1983.
When MS Dhoni took over the captaincy, former India captain had great bench strength and enough talented players to bring the glory for the country, winning T20 World Cup 2007 and 2011 World Cup.
As India completed 10 years of World Cup 2011 triumph on Friday (April 2), Ojha believes that the current BCCI President Ganguly should be also lauded for his years of contribution to Indian cricket that enabled Dhoni to win the coveted trophy 10 years ago.
He feels Ganguly has also an immense contribution to India’s ICC World Cup 2011 triumph as he had nurtured players like Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan, and Ashish Nehra who played key roles in the team’s famous title win in Mumbai.
Ojha said on Sports Today: “And one man, I feel, who had contributed even if he was retired was Sourav Ganguly. If you see there were 5-6 members from the team that Sourav Ganguly had nurtured. That’s why I say, always believe in the process.”
He added, “Mahi Bhai finished the game with the last-ball six but the contribution that everyone made was superb. Like if you talk about Zak, to me the most important part was breaking those partnerships in the middle overs, that is where the game is decided and that’s what he did to perfection. Then we had Munaf Patel, then we had Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Sachin paaji, Viru paa, Gauti bhai and who can forget Yuvi paa. Who can forget the way he was the Man of the tournament. It was a collective effort.”
The former cricketer further said that the 2011 World Cup win was one of the best memories and is so special for him, saying he will forever cherish it even though he wasn’t a part of the dressing room.
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Ojha further explained, “No different than others [the feeling of watching India win]. As an Indian, seeing India win the World Cup. Any game that they win is special but the World Cup in India and in Mumbai, it cannot be better than that. I think everyone had come out and celebrated on the streets. It’s one of the best memories because when India won the World Cup in 1983, I was not even born.”
He signed off by saying, “So 2011 win is something that I can tell my kids and grandkids and this was when India won the World Cup and I was part of it. Even if we were not in the dressing room but all of us were part of it. That is why this World Cup is so special for all of us.”
