Sourav Ganguly to Be Inducted Into ICC Hall of Fame

Sourav Ganguly is set to be inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame. The formal ceremony takes place on July 11, at the conclusion of the ICC's annual conference in Edinburgh. The announcement came on his 54th birthday. It makes him the 12th Indian overall, and the 10th Indian men's cricketer, to receive the honour.

Ganguly joins a list of Indian greats already in the Hall of Fame: Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Vinoo Mankad, Bishan Singh Bedi, Virender Sehwag, Diana Edulji, Neetu David and MS Dhoni. He thanked the ICC and chairman Jay Shah on social media soon after the news broke. He called it a huge honour to be part of such a list.

Across a career spanning 3 formats, Ganguly scored 18,575 international runs with 38 centuries. In Tests, he made 7,212 runs from 113 matches at an average of 42.17, with 16 hundreds. In ODIs, he piled up 11,363 runs in 311 games at an average of 41.02, including 22 centuries. His opening partnership with Tendulkar remains the most productive in ODI history.

It's his captaincy, though, that changed the course of Indian cricket the most. He took over in 2000, in the aftermath of the match-fixing scandal. Ganguly led India in 196 matches and won 97 of them. Under him, India won the Border-Gavaskar Trophy at home in 2001. India also reached the final of the 2003 ODI World Cup, and the final of the inaugural ICC KnockOut Trophy in 2000. He backed a generation of young players too, including MS Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan and Virender Sehwag. Many of them went on to become key figures in India's later ICC title wins.

Ganguly retired from international cricket in 2008. He now serves as president of the Cricket Association of Bengal. He is also head coach of the Pretoria Capitals in SA20.