Sourav Ganguly has opened up on the fear, confusion and uncertainty that surrounded Indian cricket during the infamous 2000 match-fixing scandal, revealing that he personally asked Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble whether they had ever been approached by bookmakers.
Speaking on Raj Shamani's podcast, Ganguly recalled how unprepared he was for the scale of the crisis engulfing Indian cricket before he took over the captaincy.
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“The issues that the Indian team faced just before I became captain, betting, match-fixing, I didn't even know about these things,” Ganguly said.
“I kept asking Sachin and Rahul Dravid, ‘Does it actually happen? Has anyone approached you?' Because no one had approached me.”
Ganguly then revealed he directly questioned Tendulkar and Kumble about the issue.
“So, I spoke to Sachin, ‘Tujhe kisi ne puucha?' He said no. Asked Anil too, he said, ‘No. Nobody asked me.' So, I wasn't too sure what it even was.”
The comments revisit one of the darkest periods in Indian cricket history. The scandal exploded in 2000 after South African captain Hansie Cronje admitted to links with bookmakers, triggering investigations across multiple countries. Former India captain Mohammad Azharuddin was handed a life ban by the BCCI, while Ajay Jadeja and others also faced suspensions.
Amid the chaos, Ganguly inherited a fractured dressing room and a team battling a massive credibility crisis.
The former India captain admitted he was nervous addressing senior players during his first team meeting before an ODI in Kochi.
“I told Dona that many of these guys, Azhar, Sachin, had been my captains. How was I supposed to tell them what to do?”
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India won the next day, Ganguly scored a century in the following match, and the rebuild slowly began.
Over the next five years, Ganguly transformed India into one of the world's most competitive sides, leading them to the 2003 World Cup final and historic overseas successes while backing a generation that included Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh and MS Dhoni.
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