NEW DELHI: The Indian cricket fraternity extended wishes to former India skipper Ganguly as he turned 50 on Thursday. Taking to Twitter, BCCI wrote, “Here’s wishing former #TeamIndia Captain and current BCCI President @SGanguly99 a very happy birthday.”
Former India spinner Harbhajan Singh wrote, “A great player, a superb leader, the @BCCI President, and my captain. Wish you a very happy birthday @SGanguly99, Dada Have a wonderful year ahead. Love always!”
“Happy Birthday Dada! You’ve been a great friend, an impactful captain and a senior any youngster would want to learn from. Wishing you good health and happiness on your special day lots of love and best wishes always @SGanguly99,” tweeted former India batter Yuvraj Singh.
Former India batter Wasim Jaffer wrote, “Time to raise the bat, Happy 50th birthday dada @SGanguly99. Wish you a healthy and prosperous year ahead.”
Popularly known as ‘Dada’, Ganguly made his Test debut against England in the summer of 1996. He immediately made headlines as he went on to score a century in his maiden Test at Lord’s.
Ganguly first led India to the finals of the 2000 ICC Knockout Trophy. In 2001, Team India achieved another milestone as the Ganguly-led side defeated Australia 2-1 in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Ganguly also guided India to the finals of the 2003 World Cup where the side just fell short in the summit clash against Australia.
The former skipper then went on to become president of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) and is now president of the BCCI.
Dada had a career consisting of 113 Tests and 311 ODIs for India. The left-handed batsman scored 18,575 runs across all formats in his international career. He had led India in 195 matches across all formats and managed to win 97 matches out of those. (ANI)