Sourav Ganguly was known for his fearless leadership, strong personality and ability to handle pressure but one prank by his own teammates reportedly left the former India captain completely rattled.
The incident happened in 2005, just a day before India were scheduled to play a high-profile ODI against Pakistan. Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh decided to pull an April Fool’s Day prank on Ganguly, who was leading the Indian team at the time.
With the intense India-Pakistan match approaching, the two players decided to create some drama inside the dressing room. They approached Ganguly with fake newspaper clippings that supposedly contained controversial comments made by him about several of his teammates.
Yuvraj started the act by asking Sourav Ganguly about the alleged statements. The fake reports claimed that Ganguly had described Yuvraj as a party animal and had made unflattering comments about Harbhajan, Ashish Nehra and Zaheer Khan. Sourav Ganguly was stunned and immediately asked when he had supposedly made such comments. Harbhajan and Yuvraj then showed him the fabricated newspaper clippings.
The prank became even more convincing when senior players Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid joined in. Harbhajan had already spoken to the senior players and asked them to play along. Tendulkar acted serious and suggested that if Ganguly had really made such comments, it was wrong. Dravid also supported the act and questioned Ganguly over the alleged statements.
With two senior members of the team appearing to believe the reports, Sourav Ganguly became convinced that the situation was genuine. He then strongly denied making the comments and even said that he would step down as captain if it was proved that he had actually made those statements. Even Ganguly’s offer to quit captaincy did not immediately end the prank.
Harbhajan Singh and a few other players picked up their kit bags and pretended to leave the dressing room. Sourav Ganguly, who was already worried about the situation, reportedly rushed after them and asked them to stop. He reminded them that India were due to play Pakistan the very next day and appeared confused about why his teammates were suddenly leaving. At that point, someone finally broke character and the April Fool’s prank was exposed.
Looking back at the incident, Harbhajan admitted that the players eventually felt they had gone too far with their prank. He said Sourav Ganguly was the kind of captain they could fool that day because of his trusting and approachable nature. Harbhajan also joked that another captain might have reacted much more harshly and actually ordered the players to pack their bags and leave.
Instead, Sourav Ganguly took the prank in the spirit of the team environment. Harbhajan described him as being like an elder brother to the players.
What started as a simple April Fool’s joke therefore became one of the most memorable dressing-room stories from Ganguly’s captaincy, with the pranksters managing to make one of India’s most fearless captains panic just one day before an India-Pakistan clash.
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