The prince who was almost king

Sourav Ganguly was the captain when India last played in the World Cup and after Kapil Dev he is the only Indian captain to have taken India to the World Cup final. His leadership style was unique and Ganguly is credited with having brought in some very good young talent into the Indian team. And it was these factors that helped him well when he led India in 2003.

It wasn't an easy campaign, but Ganguly shone through both as batsman and leader. With three centuries, he was one of the tournament's top scorers and only the winning captain from Australia had performed both duties better!

Ganguly has played in two World Cups for India. In 1999, he was the spearhead of the Indian batting and instrumental in the annihilation of Sri Lanka in Taunton scoring 183 out of a total of 373. He has scored 844 runs in 18 World Cup appearances at an impressive 56.26 per innings in addition to taking 9 wickets. Interestingly, he has passed a score of fifty on five occasions in World Cups and four time he has converted these to hundreds. The only time he could not do this was against South Africa when he fell for 97!

Ganguly has gone through much turmoil in the last two years and when most people had written him off, he never gave up hope. He returned to the Indian team in style and is now piling on the runs. He has also announced he has no more aspirations of being captain and is happy to be one of the senior players and main batsmen.

Ganguly hasn't had much cricket since 2006 and made his comeback only this year in January. But in seven matches leading up to the tournament, he has aggregated 347 runs at 69.40 per inning with a top score of 98 against the West Indies.

Most definitely back in form, he can be the perfect foil to the new crop of players in the team and the reliable senior for captain Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar. He also enjoys the support of many of the younger players like Yuvraj and Harbhajan and what he could not do as captain, he could perhaps achieve as main batsman.

In 2003, Ganguly almost lived every Indian cricketer's dream. But for one bad day, he could have been immortalised in India's cricketing history. This year's team is just as good as last time's and Ganguly is being looked upon as one of the batting mainstays. Can he go one better this time?

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