Champions Trophy: Why India’s 2002 triumph under Sourav Ganguly lies in shadow

Talk about India’s record in the chequered history of the ICC Champions Trophy, and Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his men are often hailed as the 2013 champions in England.

What often drops below the radar is that the Men in Blue had won it once before too, back in 2002 — albeit as joint winners with Sri Lanka — under the leadership of Sourav Ganguly.  

The Dada of Indian cricket — whose success as a captain is often appraised through the prism of his success rate in Tests — is largely regarded as the leader of a star-studded team that finished runners-up to Ricky Ponting’s mighty Australia in the 2003 ICC World Cup final in South Africa. The 2002 Champions Trophy success is often glossed over.

But even before that, the 2000 edition in Nairobi was another case of so-near-yet-so-far, when Chris Cairns stole India’s thunder for the Black Caps in the final with a resilient century.

A closer look reveals that this marquee ODI tournament boasts of some of Ganguly’s less-celebrated records — where he finished with 11,363 runs from 311 ODIs and shared a prolific opening partnership with Sachin Tendulkar.

Possibly not many remember that Ganguly still ranks fifth among the all-time highest run-getters in Champions Trophy, with his impressive rally of 665 runs at an average of 73.88 from 11 innings in 13 matches. (The top four positions above him belong to Chris Gayle, Mahela Jayawardene, Shikhar Dhawan and Kumar Sangakkara.)

A brainchild of the late Jagmohan Dalmiya, the former ICC president and the BCCI strongman, that was designed to whet cricket fans’ apetite for white ball cricket in the pre-T20 days, the 2002 edition of the Champions Trophy took place in Colombo in mid-September.

This was certainly poor planning on part of the ICC, as the monsoon is known to play havoc on the island nation around that time of the year — and it was a pity that India and the hosts had to be declared joint winners after persistent rain disrupted the final as well as its reserve day.

It was also certainly an anti-climax of the worst sort, especially after the quality fare over three weeks from the 12 teams in the fray, including the 10 Test-playing nations, Kenya (ODI status holder and semi-finalists of the 1999 World Cup) and the Netherlands (2001 ICC Trophy winners).

It was held across two venues in Colombo: the R. Premadasa Stadium and the Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC) ground. Historically, it was also held for the first time in the round robin-cum-knockout format.

That regrettable final match, though, saw Sri Lanka restricted to 222 for 7, with Jayawardene a top scorer with 77 and all-rounder Russell Arnold chipping in with a valuable 56.

Zaheer Khan was the most successful bowler, with figures of 9-1-44-3, while Ajit Agarkar, Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble picked up one wicket apiece.

The target may look modest per today’s scale, but it was a tricky ask at the time and India had crawled to a mere 38 for 1 after 8.4 overs, with a number of rain interruptions.

The match was pushed to the reserve day — but the rains never relented. The game had to be abandoned, with both teams declared joint winners.

The manner of that ‘win’ — such as it was — may not have been to Ganguly’s liking. But he did leave his mark in the tournament both as a captain and batter, scripting two unbeaten centuries.

His highest score came in the second edition in Nairobi, where he smashed an unbeaten 141 off South Africa and helped India qualify for the final of the 2000 edition.

His other notable knock was an unbeaten 117 against England in Colombo.

Now, the countdown has begun for yet another edition of the ICC Champions Trophy — being revived after a long gap since the 2017 edition that saw Pakistan beating India in the final at The Oval.

The tournament, set to run from 19 February to 9 March across Pakistan and the UAE, is expected to be quite the feast for lovers of this format.

Top five run-getters of CT

1.     Chris Gayle (WI) 791 runs

2.     Mahela Jayawardene (Sri Lanka) 742 runs

3.     Shikhar Dhawan (India) 701 runs

4.     Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka) 683 runs

5.     Sourav Ganguly (India) 665 runs