Ganguly nearly quit as captain over April Fool prank

Harbhajan Singh has revealed an elaborate April Fool's Day prank in 2005 that almost made Sourav Ganguly resign as India captain. The prank, orchestrated by Harbhajan and Yuvraj Singh, involved fake newspaper clippings showing Ganguly had criticised teammates like Yuvraj, Harbhajan, Ashish Nehra and Zaheer Khan as party animals. The clippings looked so convincing that Ganguly was flummoxed.

Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, who were in on the joke, played along and told Ganguly his supposed comments were wrong. A panicked Ganguly swore he had not made the statements and offered to give up the captaincy. The prank escalated when Harbhajan and a few others picked up their kits and started walking out of the dressing room, causing Ganguly to run after them and plead them to stay for the match the next day.

The prank ended when someone broke character and laughed. Harbhajan recalled that Ganguly, whom he described as a big brother, was the kind of captain who could be fooled that day. He said such pranks help lighten the dressing room mood and foster team bonding. Coach John Wright was waiting outside with fielding cones, unaware of the drama inside.