Former India captain and now BCCI President Sourav Ganguly is celebrating his 48th birthday today on July 8. One of the most loved cricketers, Ganguly is credited with turning the Indian team around during his captaincy stint from 2000-2005.
Lovingly known as ‘Dada’, Ganguly made his ODI debut in 1992 against West Indies but had to wait four more years to make an actual splash in international cricket, when he hit two centuries in his first two Tests in England, including the ton on debut at Lord’s in 1996.
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From then on, there was no looking back for the left-hander, who holds the record for the highest score by an Indian in a World Cup match- 183. He got the captaincy in the aftermath of the match-fixing scandal and Sachin Tendulkar giving it up to concentrate on his batting.
Ganguly captained India to the final of 2003 World Cup, 2000 Knockout Trophy, jointly won the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy and numerous other tri-series and bilateral series.
One thing that the Indian team started doing was performing better outside the subcontinent, drawing the series in Australia in 2003-04, playing competitive cricket in South Africa and West Indies.
His career took a break after he was dropped from the team in 2005 due to form and tiff with then-coach Greg Chappell. He made a brilliant comeback in 2006 and continued on until 2008. He retired from the game after 11363 runs in 311 ODIs with 22 centuries and 7212 runs in 113 Tests with 16 centuries.
Ganguly led Kolkata Knight Riders in the inaugural IPL 2008 and then played for Pune Warriors as well. He then won the election to become the Cricket Association of Bengal President and then became the BCCI President and is one of the top contenders for the ICC chief post as well.
Today, as he celebrates his 48th birthday, Team India members wished him on his special day on Twitter.
Here are some of the tweets:
