Chetan Sharma: More About Retired International Cricketer!

Chetan Sharma is a former Indian international cricket player and Chairman of the selection committee of India’s national cricket team. He is also active in politics and contested the Lok Sabha elections in 2009.

An allrounder, Chetan Sharma was a right-handed batsman and a right-arm fast-medium bowler. He holds the world record of being the first bowler to take a hat-trick in the One Day International world cup.

Chetan Sharma achieved this feat in a stunning performance at the 1987 Reliance World Cup match against New Zealand. In domestic cricket, he used to represent the state of Punjab.

Physical Stats

Chetan Sharma Family

Chetan was born on 3 January 1966. He is the nephew of former Indian cricket player Yashpal Sharma who was a member of the national squad that won the cricket world cup in 1983. Chetan’s wife’s name is Ramni and no further details about the cricketer’s family in the public domain are available.

Education

Regarding Chetan’s school and college education, there is no information available in the public domain.

Controversies

In a major sting operation conducted on 14th February 2023, television channel Zee News unveiled a series of shocking revelations made by Chetan Sharma.

According to Chetan, former Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli tried to malign Saurav Ganguly (who was the BCCI President back then) under the presumption that Saurav was the reason behind his losing the captaincy post of the ODI team.

He went on to add that there was an ego clash between Virat and Saurav. Chetan also raised a serious allegation against Virat stating that he considered himself bigger than the game.

Commenting on Virat’s ouster as the ODI captain, Chetan said that the 35-year-old Rohit Sharma was not the preferred choice to replace Virat as the captain. However, it was a hasty decision as BCCI wanted to remove Virat from the captaincy at the earliest.

Chetan added that Virat’s poor form was cited as the reason to remove him from the post. He also said that it was a shame to treat the country’s N0.1 batsman in that manner.

The following allegation raised by Chetan was regarding the fitness injections taken by Indian cricket players. Even when they are only 80 percent fit, cricketers resort to such injections to pass the fitness test.

He also mentioned that players are smart enough to use such drugs that cannot be traced in fitness tests. Chetan cited the example of Jaspreet Bumra who hid his injury during the T20 series held against Australia in 2022.

In the video, Chetan was seen saying that Hardik Pandya, the Indian T20 captain visits his home regularly. He also maintains a good relationship with Rohit Sharma and whenever he calls him, their conversation goes on for at least 30 minutes. However, according to Chetan, Sanju Samson never visited his house, unlike other players like Hardik Pandya and Deepak Hooda.

Tattoos

There is no general information available about whether Chetan has inked any tattoos.

Chetan Sharma Profession

Chetan’s cricketing coach was Desh Prem Azad, winner of the Dronacharya award. When he was just 17 years of age, Chetan played his debut first-class match for Punjab. He played his first ODI match against the West Indies in December 1983.

The following year saw Chetan playing his debut test match against Pakistan in Lahore and in the fifth ball of his first over, he took the wicket of Mohsin Khan by bowling him. Thus Chetan achieved the record of becoming the third Indian to score a wicket in the first over of a Test cricket match.

Those days, he used to open the bowling spell for India along with Kapil Dev. In his cricketing career, Chetan played a total of 23 Tests and 65 ODIs for India. 

After Chetan bid goodbye to cricket, he became a cricket commentator. In 2004, the cricketer launched a Fast bowling cricket academy in Panchkula in Haryana. However, the institution shut down its operations in 2009.

The same year, he contested the Lok Sabha elections on a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ticket but lost the race. Later Chetan joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and held the position of party’s sports cell convener.

Chetan Sharma Source Of Income

Reportedly, Chetan’s net worth stands at $1.5 million as of 2022. In the role of the chief selector of the Indian cricket team, he earns a salary of Rs.90 lakhs per year.

Lesser Known Facts About Chetan Sharma

• Chetan once attributed the absence of all-rounders in Indian cricket to parents wanting their children to emulate Sachin Tendulkar or Ravichandran Ashwin, but not Kapil Dev. According to him, one more reason that all-rounders and fast bowlers are not coming up is that parents may be interfering unnecessarily in their children’s ambitions.

• He is of the opinion that the future of some good cricketers dies a slow death at school itself as there is nobody to spot them.

• The silver jubilee celebration of Chetan’s first hat trick in the 1987 World Cup was held in 2012. Many renowned cricketers such as Kapil Dev, Virender Sehwag, Mohamed Azharuddin,, and Maninder Singh attended the function.

• In the Austral-Asia Cup final held at Sharjah in 1986, India was playing against Pakistan and in the last ball of the match Pakistan needed four runs to win the game. Unfortunately, then-Pakistan captain, Javed Miandad hit Chetan for a sixer in the previous ball and Pakistan won the match. Later, In 2022, former Indian captain Kapil Dev commented on that incident stating he still doesn’t feel that it was Chetan’s mistake and there was no other option. He added that Chetan did his best and though the plan was to bowl a low yorker, it ended up in a low full-toss. 

• According to Chetan, in terms of infrastructure, the BCCI has the best facilities in the world.

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