Sourav Ganguly took over the Indian captaincy at a time when it was reeling under allegations of corruption. The match-fixing scandal of 1999/2000 had dented the image of the sport and India were labelled "Tigers at home, Lambs abroad." Ganguly changed India's fortunes completely and under his leadership, India started to win abroad.
During his captaincy, India won a Test in England, Australia and a series against Pakistan. India were no longer home-town bullies. Under his tenure, the team saw the flourishing of several outstanding players like Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and Zaheer Khan. The addition of these young and talented players made the team a dominant outfit.
With success came pressure. The likes of Sehwag were under constant pressure because the world's top bowlers gunned for their wickets. How did Ganguly's men conquer pressure? Ganguly revealed a few team secrets during the NDTV Support My School Program last weekend.
"When chasing a total of 325, Sehwag would sing a song. Somebody as great as a Sunil Gavaskar would never have dreamt something like this in his life...If the team is chasing 300, Tendulkar would turn on the music on," Ganguly remarked on some "outstanding characters" in the dressing room.
During the All Stars Twenty20 series in the USA in November, Sehwag sang a song as he smashed Allan Donald into the stands during the third match in Los Angeles.
However, the person who felt the pressure most was Tamil Nadu opener Sadagoppan Ramesh. Ganguly recounted a funny incident.
"Ramesh was so spooked by Brett Lee's pace that he once walked out of the dressing room wearing spiked shoes on one foot and rubber soles on the other," he said.
'It was easy to cope with match-fixing'
When it came to the match-fixing saga, Ganguly said he had to cope with the negative environment for a short time because of the presence of outstanding talent which helped the side overcome the menace.
"Lots of young players came in the side and the situation was automatically sorted out. We had the support of Sunil Gavaskar, who guided the side during that tough time.
"We had outstanding players like Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Anil Kumble and Tendulkar. It was the period which produced the greatest talents," Ganguly said.