“Combined success of me and MS Dhoni has put the East zone on the map of Indian cricket,” says the former skipper Sourav Ganguly. God of the off-side was happy for the success that Dhoni has seen and showered praises on him for being such a good captain for Indian team. He also also in praise for how Captain Cool handles things around him right from wicket-keeping, batting and most importantly the captaincy of national team.
Dhoni has tasted the success all round the world and with all the world titles in his cabinet, has somewhat eclipsed the success of the classy left-hander and Ganguly feels that his success is really commendable, says a report in The DNA. He brushed away the thought of drawing a comparison between him and Dhoni and was quoted by Times of India saying, "We both have come from the East zone which has put focus in this part. It really feels great that we both hail from the same zone."
Ganguly rated the success of Dhoni as the success story for the young lads who are from small-town. He was quoted by Deccan Chronicle saying, "I've not seen such a meteoric rise. It's quite inspirational. I've earlier seen many one-day players and played with many but as a package of batting, wicket-keeping and captaincy, Dhoni has been outstanding for India. As far as one-day cricket is concerned, Dhoni is one of the greatest ODI captains of all times in India.”
"He's definitely one of the best finishers' of the game. Dhoni possesses tremendous match finishing ability. It's really wonderful to see the kind of ice cool nerve as well as temperament he showed in the final," Ganguly added.
According to a report in Indian Express, Ganguly picked his three all-time greatest cricket memories of India. "The 1983 World Cup win, which I had heard in the commentary; the 2004 Pakistan series win (under his captaincy) and the 2011 World Cup triumph (under Dhoni) will undoubtedly be the three greatest Indian cricket memories," Ganguly said.
Exactly 11 years ago, Ganguly had become famous for his shirt twirling incident at the Lord's balcony after winning the NatWest final.
Ganguly said he does not remember much about the incident but added: "what I remember more of that day was we had played well to win the NatWest Trophy. It was quite a memorable day."