Chetan Sharma

Chetan Sharma

Personal information
Born	3 January 1966 (1966-01-03) (age 45) Ludhiana, Punjab, India
Batting style	Right-handed
Bowling style	Right arm fast-medium
Role	Bowler
Relations	Yashpal Sharma (uncle)
International information
National side	India
Test debut (cap 167)	17 October 1984 v Pakistan
Last Test	3 May 1989 v West Indies
ODI debut (cap 45)	7 December 1983 v West Indies
Last ODI	11 November 1994 v West Indies
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1982/83–1992/93	Haryana
1993/94–1996/97	Bengal
Career statistics
Competition	Tests	ODIs	FC	List A
Matches	23	65	121	107
Runs scored	396	456	3714	852
Batting average	22.00	24.00	35.03	24.34
100s/50s	0/1	1/0	3/21	1/2
Top score	54	101*	114*	101*
Balls bowled	3470	2835	19937	4504
Wickets	61	67	433	115
Bowling average	35.45	34.86	26.05	31.42
5 wickets in innings	4	0	24	1
10 wickets in match	1	n/a	1	n/a
Best bowling	6/58	3/22	7/72	5/16
Catches/stumpings	7/–	7/–	71/–	20/–
Source: CricketArchive, 30 September 2008

Chetan Sharma  pronunciation (help·info) (born 3 January 1966) was a medium pace bowler who represented India at cricket.

Sharma was coached by Desh Prem Azad, a Dronacharya Award winner, who was also the mentor of Kapil Dev. Despite being only 5' 8" tall, the bearded Sharma was one of the fastest bowlers in India during the 1980s.

He made his first class debut for Haryana at the age of 16 and appeared in One Day Internationals a year later. Making his first appearance in Tests against Pakistan at Lahore in 1984, he bowled Mohsin Khan with his fifth ball - becoming the third Indian to take a wicket in his first over in Test cricket. He took fourteen wickets in the three Tests in Sri Lanka in 1985. Later that season in Australia, with India needing a win in the last match of the league to qualify for the final of the World Series Cup, he played a match-winning innings of 38*.

Sharma was an important member of the Indian team that defeated England 2-0 in 1986. He took sixteen wickets in the two Tests that he played. He took 10 wickets at Birmingham, including a career best 6 for 58 in the second innings. It remains the only ten wicket haul by an Indian in England. Though only twenty at this time, he picked up frequent injuries which restricted his career. When available, he was the first choice as the opening bowler with Kapil Dev for the next three years.

For his ability to get useful runs down the order that too at quick rate, Chetan was seen as a natural successor to Kapil Dev in the all-rounder category. By the early nineties, his bowling dropped in pace and its sharpness and his strike rate had dropped considerably especially on Indian grounds.

In the Reliance World Cup in 1987, Sharma took the first hat-trick in the history of tournament when he clean bowled Ken Rutherford, Ian Smith and Ewen Chatfield of New Zealand off consecutive balls. He played the most noted innings of his career against England in the Nehru Cup in 1989. Sent in at No.3 with India facing a target of 256, he scored a 101* in 96 balls, completing his hundred with the match-winning run. He made another important contribution in India's win against Australia in the next match, sharing an unfinished partnership of 40 runs with Manoj Prabhakar and ending the match with a six. But his bowling had waned considerably and he was excluded from the tour of Pakistan a few weeks later.

Sharma received few opportunities thereafter. In one of his last international appearances, against New Zealand in a three nations tournament in 1994 he ended up with figures of 1-0-23-0 after being hit for five fours off consecutive balls by Stephen Fleming. He moved from Haryana to Bengal in 1993 and stayed there till the end of his career in 1996.

Sharma is also infamously remembered for bowling the last over in the final of the Austral-asia cup in Sharjah in 1986. With Pakistan needing four runs off the last ball to win, he bowled a low full toss outside the leg stump, which was hit for six by Javed Miandad. That defeat exasperates many Indian cricket fans to this day.

After his retirement, Chetan became a cricket commentator. He opened a cricket academy in Panchkula in Haryana in 2004. Chetan is the nephew of the former Indian cricketer Yashpal Sharma.

Chetan contested the Lok Sabha (2009) polls from Faridabad on a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ticket.

Cricket Analyst Career

He was given a career as a cricket expert along with Anjum Chopra ,Vijay Dhayia ,Krishnamcharya Srikanth on DD National.Later On he started working with India Tv as well. He generally gives his views in Hindi. He is known for his outright thoughts on television but sometimes which gets extravagant.On one instance in a post match analysis of an ODI on DD national, he said he is better than Ajit Agarkar just on the basis of one bad performance in the match.He couldn't support is argument when a phone caller on the programme reminded him that Ajit is the third most successful bowlers in ODIs with highest number of 4 wickets haul,adding to it he has a test match century and a high score of 95 in ODIs. He has a perchance of bringing his ODI hatrick in discussion. He is often interviewed regarding his last ball full toss which was hit for a Six by javid Miadad ,when pakistan required 4 Runs to win the match on last ball. He has a passion for bicycles and owns a number of bicycles which were gifted to him during his cricket playing days. He is occasionally seen driving them to his office. He loves his cricket souvenirs and still wears the cricket shoes and vests those he wore in in the 1987 cricket world cup as a goodwill charm. He is often seen donating hundred of rupees to old age homes and orphanages. He has endorsed fairness creams advertisement papads, anti termite sprays and kids pads and shoes.

References

• Player Profile: Chetan Sharma from ESPNcricinfo
• Player Profile: Chetan Sharma from CricketArchive
• Christopher Martin-Jenkins, The Complete Who's Who of Test Cricketers

Persondata
Name	Sharma, Chetan
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	3 January 1966
Place of birth	Ludhiana, Punjab
Date of death
Place of death