On February 24, 2010, Sachin Tendulkar broke a major barrier in ODI history. He became the first player to score a double hundred in the format and while many more have achieved it now, he got there before anyone else.
AFP
But it would not have been the case if not for Sourav Ganguly. Not directly, but as fate would have it, he thwarted not one, but two attempts of batsmen who tried getting to the 200 mark.
The first instance was in 1997 when Saeed Anwar was carting our bowlers all over the park. He went past Viv Richards’ 189* to become the highest scorer. Then on 194 he skied the ball and Ganguly running backwards took a good catch and despite hitting his head hard, he held on. The bowler just happened to be Sachin himself.
Then in 2000 Sanath Jayasuriya was tearing India to pieces and looking good to make it into uncharted territory. He had made it to 189 when Ganguly bowled it wide, induced him to step out, miss the ball and be stumped. A golden opportunity lost.
Charles Coventry got close in 2009 when he made 194* but ran out of balls. However, without a doubt if Ganguly had not played his part, Sachin would have eventually missed out on making history.
Of course at that time, nobody would know who would get there first, if anyone would at all. But as fate would have it, the Master Blaster made it there first and coincidentally Ganguly had a role to play in preventing two other prominent players of the same era from reaching that milestone.