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.