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‘Sourav Ganguly played a big part’: Manoj Tiwary explains former India captain’s contribution in 2011 World Cup win
India, led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni, went on to beat Sri Lanka in the 2011 World Cup final at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai to lift the trophy.
The 2011 World Cup win was a momentous occassion for Indian cricket. It marked the first time legendary India batsman Sachin Tendulkar had won the trophy in his stellar career, the one he truly deserved. Led by MS Dhoni, and with match-winning contributions from Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Virat Kohli, Zaheer Khan, and Virender Sehwag among others, India went on defeating top oppositions in the world to lift cricket’s most prized possession for the 2nd time in history.
The final saw India beating Kumar Sangakkara-led Sri Lanka by 6 wickets to win the tournament. The Indian team paid homage to Sachin Tendulkar at his home ground Wankhede Stadium, as they carried him on their shoulders and took a lap around the stadium.
But veteran cricketer Manoj Tiwary believes that there is one more person who played a crucial role in the World Cup win, without even being part of the team. That person is none other than former India cricketer Sourav Ganguly.
Ganguly had retired from international cricket by the 2011 World Cup, but Tiwary said that the players that led the Indian team to win were all players groomed by Ganguly during his captaincy reign.
“Sourav Ganguly has played a big part in building that team over a period of time. If you go deeply and see, the players who performed well when we won the World Cup in 2011, all the players started when Sourav Ganguly was leading the country,” Tiwary told Sportskeeda in a Facebook live interview.
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“He gave so much of security to youngsters at that point of time, whether it be Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra or Gautam Gambhir. All that experience worked for us in 2011 under the brilliant captaincy of Dhoni,” Tiwari further added.
Ganguly, during his career, had also led Indian to the World Cup final in South Africa in 2003, where his team had lost to Australia in the final.
