Former Indian captain and BCCI President Sourav Ganguly is celebrating his 48th birthday today. Affectionately knows as 'Dada' among the admirers of the sport, Ganguly is regarded as one of India's greatest captains. He took over the side when it was going through a turmoil - both, on and off the field. However, Ganguly not only took the team out of the bad phase but led the side to famous victories at home and overseas tours throughout his career as a captain.
Ganguly is credited with bringing about a revolution in the Indian team, and many players who went on to become legends for the team, made their debut under the captaincy of 'Dada'. Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Virender Sehwag, and MS Dhoni are some of the players who were given their first international game by Sourav Ganguly.
Apart from his captaincy, Ganguly was also an incredibly-gifted player. A left-handed batsman, Ganguly was popularly known as the 'God of off-side'. During a 12-year long career, he played 311 ODIs, scoring 11,363 runs. He is currently the third-highest run-scorer for India in ODIs, and eighth-highest in the world.
Sourav Ganguly's opening partnership with batting great Sachin Tendulkar is a sight which hardly an Indian fan in the 90s would ever forget. The duo holds the record for most number of runs by an opening duo (6,609 runs). With 22 centuries and 72 half-centuries to his name, Ganguly is one of the select few batsmen in the world to breach the five-figure mark in the fifty-over format.
In Test matches, Sourav Ganguly averages 42.17 in 113 matches, scoring 7,212 runs. Under his captaincy, India famously ended Australia's incredible winning streak during the home series in 2001, beating the side 2-1.
A year later, he led the side to a memorable win in the NatWest series in 2002. He famously took off the shirt while celebrating the win in the Lord's balcony. In 2003, India reached the final of the World Cup for the first time since its tournament-winning campaign in 1983 under his captaincy. The side lost the final against Australia.
Ganguly made an impressive comeback to the side after losing his place due to highly publicized spat with the-then coach Greg Chappell in 2006. In 2007, even as India's campaign ended in utter disaster in the World Cup, Ganguly ended as the side's highest scorer. In the same year, he produced impressive performances in the tour to England.
Ganguly retired from all the formats of cricket in 2008. In his final Test, he scored 85 in the first innings against Australia, and was also at the receiving end of a fantastic gesture from then-captain MS Dhoni, who asked him to lead the side for the final few overs of the match.
After many stints in commentary post-retirement, Ganguly entered cricket administration and became the president of the Cricket Association of Bengal in 2015. He served the board for four years, before becoming the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) last year in October.
