Yashpal Sharma
Encyclopedia
Yashpal Sharma is a former Indian cricketer
. He was a middle order batsman who played at the turn of the 1980s.
for North, against the South Zone which had Chandrasekhar
, Erapalli Prasanna and Venkataraghavan
. But he missed the tour to Australia
that followed immediately afterwards.
A 99 runout in the Irani Trophy
the next year got Sharma a place in the team to Pakistan
a few weeks later. He played two one day matches in the tour. He went to England in 1979 as a part of the team that played in the World Cup
. He did not play in any match but appeared in three Tests in the series that followed. He scored 884 runs at an average of 58 in the tour matches.
in the Kanpur
Test, Sharma scored his first Test hundred in the very next match. He could have scored another in the next Test at Calcutta
, but with 3.4 overs still left before the end of the Test, he appealed against light. Through the 1979-80 season, Sharma played a series of steady but unexceptional innings where he often played a supportive role to a senior batsman. He was basically a defensive batsman but could hit very hard when needed.
He made his highest first class score against Victoria
in 1980-81, a 465 minute 201*. In the Adelaide
Test of that series, Sharma hit 47 and 147 with Sandeep Patil
. This was his only innings of some consequence in the tour and he was soon dropped. On his comeback, at Madras
in 1981-82, he hit 140. He batted through the second day of the match with Gundappa Viswanath
and their third wicket partnership contributed 316 runs. At Port of Spain
next year, he was struck on the head by Malcolm Marshall
and forced to retire.
After a few ordinary performances, Sharma was picked for the Indian team for the 1983 World Cup
. But the Indian win provided him with some of his finest moments. In the opening match he top scored with 89 as India caused West Indies
their first defeat in a world cup match. In the semifinal against England
he again top scored with 61 - a flick over square leg for six off a near yorker from Bob Willis
being a memorable shot.
, he hit Viv Richards
for four consecutive sixes. But two more failures in the international matches against them virtually ended his career. He appeared in four one day matches against England the next year and scored more than ten in only one.
Sharma left Punjab and joined Haryana in 1987-88. He spent another two years with Railways. At the age of 37, he was still good enough to score hundreds in consecutive matches in 1991 - 92.
After he retired from the game, he became an umpire for a time, and has also been a selector for the Indian national team. Yashpal was the uncle of Chetan Sharma
who went on to represent India.
Indian cricket team
The Indian cricket team is the national cricket team of India. Governed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India , it is a full member of the International Cricket Council with Test and One Day International status....
. He was a middle order batsman who played at the turn of the 1980s.
Early career
Yashpal Sharma first drew attention when he scored 260 for Punjab schools against Jammu & Kashmir schools in 1972. Within two years he was in the state team, and a member of the North Zone team that won the Vizzy Trophy. His first major innings in first class cricket was a 173 in the Duleep TrophyDuleep Trophy
The Duleep Trophy is a domestic first-class cricket competition played in India between teams representing geographical zones of India. The competition is named after Kumar Shri Duleepsinhji .-History:...
for North, against the South Zone which had Chandrasekhar
Bhagwat Chandrasekhar
Bhagwat Subramanya Chandrasekhar is a former Indian cricketer who specialised in leg spin. Considered amongst the top echelon of leg-spinners, Chandrasekhar along with E.A.S. Prasanna, Bishen Singh Bedi and Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan constituted the Indian spin quartet that dominated...
, Erapalli Prasanna and Venkataraghavan
Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan
Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan ; is a former Indian cricketer. He played for Derbyshire in English county cricket from 1973 to 1975. He played Test cricket for the Indian cricket team, and later became an umpire on the elite International Cricket Council Test panel...
. But he missed the tour to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
that followed immediately afterwards.
A 99 runout in the Irani Trophy
Irani Trophy
The Irani Cup tournament was conceived during the 1959-60 season to mark the completion of 25 years of the Ranji Trophy championship and was named after the late Z.R. Irani, who was associated with the Board of Control for Cricket in India from its inception in 1928, till his death in 1970...
the next year got Sharma a place in the team to Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
a few weeks later. He played two one day matches in the tour. He went to England in 1979 as a part of the team that played in the World Cup
1979 Cricket World Cup
The 1979 Cricket World Cup was the second edition of the tournament and was won by the West Indies. It was held from June 9 to June 23, 1979 in England. The format had remained unchanged from 1975. Eight countries participated in the event. The preliminary matches were played in 2 groups of 4...
. He did not play in any match but appeared in three Tests in the series that followed. He scored 884 runs at an average of 58 in the tour matches.
International cricket
His form in England assured him of a Test place in the next few games. After scoring a pair against AustraliaAustralian cricket team
The Australian cricket team is the national cricket team of Australia. It is the joint oldest team in Test cricket, having played in the first Test match in 1877...
in the Kanpur
Green Park Stadium
Green Park Stadium is a 60,000 capacity floodlit multi-purpose stadium located in Kanpur, India, and the home of the Uttar Pradesh cricket team. The stadium is under the control of the Sports Department Uttar Pradesh...
Test, Sharma scored his first Test hundred in the very next match. He could have scored another in the next Test at Calcutta
Eden Gardens
Eden Gardens is a cricket ground in Kolkata , India. It is the home of the Bengal cricket team and the Indian Premier League's Kolkata Knight Riders, as well as being a Test and One Day International ground. It is the largest cricket stadium in India by seating capacity...
, but with 3.4 overs still left before the end of the Test, he appealed against light. Through the 1979-80 season, Sharma played a series of steady but unexceptional innings where he often played a supportive role to a senior batsman. He was basically a defensive batsman but could hit very hard when needed.
He made his highest first class score against Victoria
Victorian Bushrangers
The Victorian cricket team, nicknamed the Bushrangers, is an Australian cricket team based in Melbourne, that represents the state of Victoria. It is administered by Cricket Victoria and draws its players from Melbourne's Premier Cricket competition...
in 1980-81, a 465 minute 201*. In the Adelaide
Adelaide Oval
The Adelaide Oval is a sports ground in Adelaide, South Australia, located in the parklands between the Central Business District and North Adelaide...
Test of that series, Sharma hit 47 and 147 with Sandeep Patil
Sandeep Patil
Sandeep Madhusudan Patil is a former Indian cricketer, Indian national age group cricket manager and former Kenya national team coach, who made the minnows reach the semi-final of the 2003 World Cup. He was a hard-hitting middle order batsman and an occasional medium pace bowler...
. This was his only innings of some consequence in the tour and he was soon dropped. On his comeback, at Madras
M. A. Chidambaram Stadium
The M. A. Chidambaram Stadium is a cricket stadium in Chennai , India, named after M. A. Chidambaram, the former President of BCCI and the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association. The stadium was formerly known as Madras Cricket Club Ground or Chepauk Stadium. Commonly known as Chepauk, its first match was...
in 1981-82, he hit 140. He batted through the second day of the match with Gundappa Viswanath
Gundappa Viswanath
Gundappa Rangnath Viswanath is a former Indian cricketer. He was one of India's finest batsmen throughout the 1970s. He played Test cricket for India from 1969 to 1983 making 91 appearances and scoring over 6000 runs. He also played in One Day Internationals from 1974 to 1982 including the World...
and their third wicket partnership contributed 316 runs. At Port of Spain
Queen's Park Oval
Queen's Park Oval, in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, is currently the largest capacity cricket ground in the West Indies and has hosted more Test matches than any other ground in the Caribbean. It also hosted a number of matches in the 2007 Cricket World Cup. It is privately owned by the...
next year, he was struck on the head by Malcolm Marshall
Malcolm Marshall
By 1984 Marshall was seen as one of the finest bowlers in the world, and he demoralised England that summer, especially at Headingley, where he ran through the order in the second innings to finish with 7-53, despite having broken his thumb whilst fielding in the first innings...
and forced to retire.
After a few ordinary performances, Sharma was picked for the Indian team for the 1983 World Cup
1983 Cricket World Cup
The 1983 ICC Cricket World Cup was the third edition of the ICC Cricket World Cup tournament. It was held from 9 June to 25 June 1983 in England and was won by India. Eight countries participated in the event. The preliminary matches were played in two groups of four teams each, and each...
. But the Indian win provided him with some of his finest moments. In the opening match he top scored with 89 as India caused West Indies
West Indian cricket team
The West Indian cricket team, also known colloquially as the West Indies or the Windies, is a multi-national cricket team representing a sporting confederation of 15 mainly English-speaking Caribbean countries, British dependencies and non-British dependencies.From the mid 1970s to the early 1990s,...
their first defeat in a world cup match. In the semifinal against England
English cricket team
The England and Wales cricket team is a cricket team which represents England and Wales. Until 1992 it also represented Scotland. Since 1 January 1997 it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board , having been previously governed by Marylebone Cricket Club from 1903 until the end...
he again top scored with 61 - a flick over square leg for six off a near yorker from Bob Willis
Bob Willis
Robert George Dylan Willis MBE , known as Bob Willis, is a former English cricketer who played for Surrey, Warwickshire, Northern Transvaal and England...
being a memorable shot.
Retirement
Back home, he failed completely against the touring Pakistanis. In the three day match for North Zone against the West Indians at AmritsarAmritsar
Amritsar is a city in the northern part of India and is the administrative headquarters of Amritsar district in the state of Punjab, India. The 2001 Indian census reported the population of the city to be over 1,500,000, with that of the entire district numbering 3,695,077...
, he hit Viv Richards
Viv Richards
Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards, KNH, OBE is a former West Indian cricketer. Better known by his second name, Vivian or, more popularly, simply as Viv or King Viv Richards was voted one of the five Cricketers of the Century in 2000, by a 100-member panel of experts, along with Sir Donald...
for four consecutive sixes. But two more failures in the international matches against them virtually ended his career. He appeared in four one day matches against England the next year and scored more than ten in only one.
Sharma left Punjab and joined Haryana in 1987-88. He spent another two years with Railways. At the age of 37, he was still good enough to score hundreds in consecutive matches in 1991 - 92.
After he retired from the game, he became an umpire for a time, and has also been a selector for the Indian national team. Yashpal was the uncle of Chetan Sharma
Chetan Sharma
Chetan Sharma 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...
who went on to represent India.