Sourav Ganguly gives special mention to late BCCI chief Jagmohan Dalmiya on his birthday

Former Team India skipper and the reigning Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) President Sourav Ganguly remembered his predecessor i.e. the late Jagmohan Dalmiya on the occasion of his 81st birthday on Sunday.

Jagmohan Dalmiya was one of the pioneers of Indian cricket who changed the face of the game in the country forever. During his reign as a cricket administrator, Dalmiya had served as the BCCI President,  and as the President of Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) as well as the International Cricket Council (ICC).

'Birth anniversary of a wonderful person': Sourav Ganguly

Taking to the micro-blogging site, Sourav Ganguly went on to post a couple of images of Jagmohan Dalmiya supposedly during the ex-Indian skipper's playing days. Dada went on to caption it as 'Birth anniversary of a wonderful person who loved the game immensely...'

Even the passionate fans of the game came forward to remember the late BCCI boss. Here's what they all had to say.

Jagmohan Dalmiya's contribution to Indian Cricket

The late Jagmohan Dalmiya served as the BCCI President for two stints. His first tenure from 2001 to 2004 and the second one was in 2015. Ironically, Dalmiya passed away while he was in office. The Bengal giant also served as the ICC President from 1997 to 2000. He was responsible to bring the World Cup to the Indian subcontinent in 1987 and 1996 and generating the maximum revenues from it. It was his visionary ideas that have made BCCI the richest and arguably, one of the most influential sports organisations in the world. Some of them include introducing Bangladesh as a Test-playing nation in 2000, allowing more endorsements for Indian cricketers as well as appointing the current President Sourav Ganguly as Indian captain in the early 2000s.

Sourav Ganguly's illustrious cricketing & captaincy career

In his illustrious career, the southpaw went on to represent India in 113 Tests and 311 ODIs where he amassed 7,212 and 11,363 runs respectively. Even though he had made his international debut in 1992, it took him four years to establish himself as a player at the highest level after he scored an outstanding century on Test debut against England at the 'Mecca of Cricket' Lord's in June 1996.

Ganguly was handed over the captaincy in 2000 when the Indian Cricket was in turmoil after that infamous match-fixing scandal broke out that included star cricketers Ajay Jadeja and former skipper Mohammad Azharuddin. Under Dada's captaincy, India had reached the finals of ICC Knockout Trophy 2000, won the Natwest tri-series in England by beating the hosts in the final that was led by Nasser Hussain, joint-winners of ICC Champions Trophy 2002 along with Sri Lanka, runners-up in the 2003 World Cup, drawing the Test series in Australia in 2003/04 and registering a historic ODI as well as Test series win against arch-rivals Pakistan in Pakistan, etc.

Sourav's captaincy reign ended abruptly in 2005 after his fallout with former Australian cricketer/captain-turned coach Greg Chappell. 

'Dada' played the last match of his international career during the fourth and final Test match between India and Australia at Nagpur's VCA Stadium in November 2008. He signed off on a high note as India won the series 2-0 to regain the iconic Border-Gavaskar Trophy.