Australia has produced a number of world-class cricketers and Ricky Ponting certainly falls into that bracket.

Celebrating his 42nd birthday today, his potential was there to see when he hit 96 on his Test debut against Sri Lanka in 1995.

The batsman continued to go from strength to strength with the bat and was later given the captaincy in 2001.

The then-skipper led the Aussies to World Cup glory in 2003 and 2007, while his Test side continued to dominate in the longer format.

Although they lost the Ashes in 2005, his men regained the urn in style with a 5-0 series whitewash in 2006-07.

Having retired in 2012, he goes down as one of the most successful captains of all time, with 48 victories in 77 Tests, and is one of four players to have scored 13,000 Test runs in 168 matches.

1966: Alberto Tomba, ex-World Cup alpine ski-racer and three-time Olympic champion (50).

1979: Rafael Soriano, former pitcher, who played for Seattle Mariners and Chicago Cubs (37).

1987: Karim Benzema, French footballer who plays for Real Madrid (29).

1988: Alexis Sanchez, Arsenal and Chile forward and two-time Copa America winner (28).