DEBATE on who is the greatest Indian captain ever:Dhoni or Ganguly?

IMO Dhoni is the better captain than Ganguli

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❶ World cups> Well leave out all the T20 world cups bcz let's face it, T20 is more about luck and it's not a real format as tests or ODIs where you need much better skills.

So that leaves both men leading India is one world cup each where Dhoni won his one. Don't try to devalue a world cup win at home. Do you know how tough to win a world cup at home with the pressure of 600 million fans? I can assure you that if it was Ganguly who lead India in 2011 world cup he would have choked in the the final!

Why? Let me explain......

❷ Ganguly has choked in many finals during the time he lead India while Dhoni won most of the finals India was in. I remember the days Ganguly lead India whenever SL plays India in a final it was all Sri Lanka! SL came victorious most of the times and it was a common scene Ganguly's disappointed face at the end of the final. Ganguly's India has never defeated SL in a final.

But Dhoni it's a complete different story. Whenever we SL played India in a final with Dhoni in their side we got less chance of winning!

Asia cup 2010 final India won

2011 WC final India won

During Ganguly's captaincy Indian team was known to lose in finals. They lost many finals. While Dhoni lead his team towards the victory in many finals

❸ During Ganguly's time India failed to win a test series at overseas for a long time. They couldn't even defeat Zimbabwe. But Dhoni has accomplished it several times.

All in all I'll rate Dhoni marginally ahead of Ganguly as a leader....

Yes 8:0 losses count as a black mark in Dhoni's career as a leader but that's all. No one can take away his accomplishments as a leader which are better than Gangu.

Ok if you are not happy with my explanation I'll quote it like this....

❤Dhoni is a better ODI captain than Gangu while Gangu is a better test leader than Dhoni!❤

No one can argue that. isn't it?

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Edit:- Ok... I will stand with my above statement... Dhoni is a better leader in ODIs while Gangu was the better leader in tests. Yes I give credit for Gangu for the way he lead India in tests while Dhoni looked clueless especially in unfavorable conditions.

❹Dhoni averaging 100 in ODIs matches where he lead India to the victory as a leader.

❺You said Dhoni failed to get India to the semi finals in 3 T20 WCups but if Ganguly was the leader could he do that? We all know Gangu is not an aggressive player/batsman. He can't play T20s. Take IPL and KKR for example.

❻When India clashed for 8:0 every major batsman failed. Sachin, Laxman, Dravid, Sehwag..all. But when Gangu lead India to win in Australia all of the major batsmen delivered. There is a limit of what captain can do. If other batsmen fail what does he suppose to do?

❼You speak highly on 2003 world cup. But see this.

-India won 5 out of 6 matches in the first round. Ok fine. But they lost to Australia by huge margin. India crushed for 120 and Aus. chased it in less than 20 overs for one wicket! Now yes Australia were invincible those days but losing like that is disastrous even without a fight.

-And Kenya who got very lucky(nothing else) to be in super 6 and SF, surely helped India on their way through to the final. India met Kenya once in Super 6 and also in SF. If it was not Kenya who met India in SF there was a good possibility of Ganguly getting choked there as he used to get choked in KO stages.(see ❷nd point). Now see even what happened in the final. He won the toss and took a very bad decision to bowl first which cost the match. He was pressurized.

-Ganguly also lost to Nz in the final of 2000 ICC champions trophy.

-But Dhoni had much harder challenges in 2011 world cup. His team met 3 best teams at KO stage. Aus, Pak and SL! And he still came on top!

▲ Ok I have nothing but respect for Ganguli for the way he carried a broken team since 1999. Yes he inspired the team. He brought Indian team in to a whole new level. So this comparison is more like asking who is the better leader Arjuna or Mahela from a Sri Lankan. Mahela surely has the better winning % but we can't forget that it was Ranatunga who turned a minnow in to a wold champion team.

All in all both have been part of different roles in different times. Both should be credited for team India's success in last decade. From a personal point of view I see Dhoni as a better ODI captain while Gangu's leadership skills are higher than Dhoni in tests especially at overseas....

▄Last Edition▄

This is the longest question I've seen for a while my friend!

It Can Probably Not Be Something That We Have Inherited....Because Our Inheritance Consists Of Some Wrong Thoughts...Like Opposing The Birth Of A Girl Child And So On, Am Totally Not Against Our Indian Institution,Being An Indian I can Also Not Be. It Is Actually The Mindsets Of The People That Spoil Our Holy Institution. But The Actual Reasons, As To How The Indians Have Flourished To Such A Height Are Primarily: a) Our Tolerance Power; Yes, The Indians Today Living In The Prevailing Conditions Of Our Country Have Matured To Such A Height That Their Tolerance Power Can Surely Be Rated The Highest. b)The Second Reason Can ONLY Be The Little, But Yet Existing Goodness In The Hearts Of People.The Crime, Corruption, Poverty etc. Have Crushed So Many People, That Now There Are Only A Few Good People Left And That Also Only In A few Corners Of Our Countries, And THEY Are The Mean Support Due To Which Several Other Indians Are Inspired, Nourished And Led To A Successful Path In Their Lives. Yes, Our System Is Rated Corrupt At A Huge Scale, But In This Storm Of Corruption Did We Notice The Good And Efficient Workers, Still Serving Our Country? Some Of Us Didn't And Those Who Did Notice; Have SURELY Been Successful Indians, Because They Have A Patriotic Will In Their Hearts To Lead Our Very Own India To A Great Extent In This World....To Touch Up The Sky...Like No Other Country Did....

No matter what the debate is all about, what all I can say is Dhoni is the best limited overs captain, and Ganguly is the best test captain. I always had a feeling that why India fail to win in the finals after all they fight hard to make it thus far to the finals and lose in that?

Well, in this case Dhoni did changed the course of Indian One Day cricket with his capaincy skills, batting dominance and that is the reason probably why he's called as best finisher. I agree to the fact that Ganguly made huge contributions, but what he lacks in is not having a player who can finish the game for him. Here in Dhoni's case, he himself took that role as a finisher and produced many victories for team India.

His average in ODIs tells you all. He plays at that moment when it most matters. This is what is needed.

When it comes to Ganguly, when I was in my 6th standard and half day schools were started because of summer and the India vs Aus matches used to start at 5 am in the morning. When I return back home day would have got completed and I had to look at the stats or highlights again early in the morning before match starts. That was the series where India scored 705, tendulkar made double, highest partnership for India in overseas between Dravid and Laxman, brilliant spell from Agarkar, and Parthiv Patel doing the keeper job at the very young age. The only excitement created in my mind was India winning the game or drawing it, not DADA's captaaincy. This doesn't mean that I dont have respect towards Ganguly, I do have great respect towards him, but those were my early days in cricket and what all I know at that time was India playing Australia, India has Ganguly, Sachin, Dravid, and Laxman.

Later, when I realized what test cricket is all about, that actually made the difference. Ganguly did bring some revolutionary changes and put his side at least away from overseas defeats for a while. That's the greatest achievement ever to any player.

Dhoni did the same thing in ODIs which Saurav did in TESTs for team India. Indians are not cowards outside sub-continent and proved that several times. After all, not having an century overseas, and not having the world cup under one's captaincy, both are not the same

In my view, both captains share the equal space in history books, but Dhoni slightly ahead of Dada for his achievements in ODIs as captain and as a batsmen.

It would be a great debate to conclude who is a better captain. Or in other words, I can say, it is like comparing a person who has won amazing accolades such as T-20 Champions, WC champions, Champions Trophy, Test Rank 1, captain cool Dhni would be noted for his achievements, but Ganguly, what to say, Dada will remain Dada and King of hearts of Indian Cricket fans.

I would just say, Ganguly was the one changed the Indian Team to Team India. The Men in Blue were mighy losers which greats like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravis, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan, Javagal Srinath, Zaheer and so many. The Indian team was infected with a habit to just to appreciate Sachin even if India loses. The thrust for win was not there in Indian team. It was a literal dark phase when Ganguly took over as a captain. He had to build a team from scratch and he made it phenomenal. A opening pair of Sachin and Sehwag, Ganguly at No. 3, followed by other greats. It was under his leadership, Bhajji made a comeback, Yuvraj shined, Mohd Kaif arose, Zaheer became the Zak, Raina and even Dhoni got into helm.

No comparison, but according to situations I would say- Ganguly was a better captain, On accolades and achievements , for sure MS is the best!!!!

Ganguly inspired his players and not let their shoulders drop even in the most hostile defeats. He knew how to extract the best out of his players. Check the statistics of Dravid, Laxman, Sehwag, Kumble, Gambhir, Tendulkar, Harbhajan or for that matter even Zaheer Khan. Their best performances have been under the tenure of Ganguly's captaincy. Also, he didn't mince words when his players faltered. Dhoni also seems to have an excuse up his sleeve.

Dhoni hasn't had a single win in Australia, England, South Africa or New Zealand. These are the countries where the conditions typically favour fast bowling, something the Indian batsmen aren't too comfortable against. To be fair to Dhoni, there is still a long way to go. it doesn't take long for statistics to change.

Ganguly is one of the world best captain , not in india because he is very confidence than other captain.

i am talking at that time Ganguly is very Famous For his Captaincy , he Score More When He is Captain.

Compare to Other Captain They Came into Pressure.

it Not Winning World cup Means good Captain .

what Effort HAve done by Ganguly to team came at top it is very enormous , what he try at that is very much more than now .

at that indian team is depend on some of the player that sachin, dravid,etc. but now days any player came winning the match or take match. at that time we hoping that sachin,dravid,ganguly will came and make century then only india win.

we can't accept from others.

ganguly have done great efforts or successfull captain for india.

his record as captain was great no one captain can break it

I will Blindly say , Sourav Ganguly is the greatest Indian captain ever . He showed us how to win test matches abroad .

He is not only the captain of the ship but also he bult that ship where dhoni is now captain of that bulit ship and taking advantage .

Dhoni will be always remembered as 0-8 loss in tests but ganguly never lost like this .

When Dada took captaincy in 2000s India was at 8th position in Test Rankings but when he left , India was 2nd , this showed how he improved the strong team .

Dhoni took captaincy and when India was at 2nd position , he brought it up to 1st but after white washes it dumped down to 5th .

So Dada is best captain for India and will remain as forever even though dhoni achieves more test or ODI wins .

No need of debate on this. Ganguly is the Greatest captain

Sourav Ganguly did the bulk of the hard work to build Team India after the shameless episode of Azharuddin fiasco, Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble added the much-needed boost to the growth process. Dhoni didn't had to do anything like that. Ganguly was never afraid of criticisms and he backed the players he wanted and they had full confidence in him. He was aggressive and he had vision for the team. He looked at the future and had plans for it which was clearly not present with the old captains of India.Some of the masterstroke decisions taken by Ganguly were asking VVS Laxman to bat at no.3 in the second innings of Kolkata test, asking Sehwag to open the batting in test matches, asking Srinath to come out of retirement to play in the 2003 World Cup and backing Yuvraj and Harbhajan during their tough times and make them an integral part of them team and asking Dravid to keep wickets in the One Day matches to balance the team composition.Without any doubt, Ganguly will be remembered for changing India’s face in test cricket while traveling abroad. Till 2000, India were considered as lions at home but poor travelers. But ever since Ganguly took over, the respect which Indian team demanded overseas was enormous. India moved from world no.8 to world no.2 under his captaincy.

Ganguly injected a sense of a self-confidence inside the team, a never say die-attitude, under him the team never gave up. They team had an attitude made of hard steel; they would just not be intimidated by the foreign conditions. Dhoni on the other hand, is a bit cool, I can’t term it bad, but certainly at abroad you need to like Ganguly, a bit more aggressive. The team should have an attacking mentality at all times; this is what Ganguly used to do very well.

I am a fan and admirer of Ganguly. But I also liked MSD until WC 2011. Not because India won matches and tournaments but they used to look like a team,celebrate when a wicket falls or when they win a match .

When Sourav was the captain,every happy moment was like a bachelor's party on and off the field and it usually brought interest in the game for everyone. Agression and Love for the game is more than anything.

It continued even when Dravid and MSD ware captains until WC 2011.

After this so called 0-8 whitewash overseas, sacking of players, MSD bringing personal interests into the team , cricket became very boring. Even though giving chances to new players is good, everyone on the field are more concerned about their place in the team rather than about the game. Its even more disgusting to see MSD giving more than enough chances to players he like, even if they don't perform for many matches.

But this is definitely true....CRICKET IN INDIA NOW, IS NOT AS GOOD AS IT USED TO BE.

Ganguly was a pioneer and laid the foundation for Indian team to go up^ ! Ganguly was captain during a time when BCCI was still building its power in the cricketing world, but now in Dhoni's reign the Bcci ARE world cricket so dhoni gets alot of things get done for him even before he takes the charge on the field. Dhoni is luckiest captain ever , he gets the rules (e.g. DRS) bent the way they suit his team, he gets icc's FTP scheduled as such that India gets to host teams more often ~

@MBIOF

-"Why Ganguly failed to won world cups?"

Ganguly took India to the finals of the world cup 2003, if the final was to be held in India like in Dhoni's case then i'm pretty sure you would not be asking this.

-Why Ganguly failed to make India number one (in Test and Onedays)?

Ganguly was captain in an era when the Aussie team had McGrath, Warne, Hayden, Gilly etc. Dhoni is getting to play the weakest aus team ever~

-"Why Ganguly failed to win series overseas when he had inform Sehwag, Dravid, Laxman, Sachin, Zaheer and Kumble?"

He did level test series in Aus 1-1 (the same grounds where dhoni went down 0-4), won test series in Pak, and won test series in England so I dont know what you are on about.

"If MSD win one test against Australia in Australia and wins a series in England then it will put Dhoni miles ahead of Ganguly."

- let it happen first and then you can talk.

edit:

just to add one more thing @MBIOF "Sourabh had inform Sehwag" you are wrong there MBIOF , actually Ganguly knew how to get the best out of Sehwag (you can also name Harbhajan for that matter) , Ganguly adjusted himself in the middle order to settle Sehwag into opening the batting with Sachin . And those are the sort of moves that make a captain a "pioneer"!