Ajay Kumar Sharma () (born 3 April 1964) is a former Indian cricketer.
Sharma was a prolific run-maker in
first-class cricket
First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...
, mainly for
Delhi
Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...
, scoring over 10,000 runs at the high average of 67.46.
Domestic career
In the
Ranji Trophy
The Ranji Trophy (also known as Mastercard Ranji Trophy for sponsorship reasons) is a domestic first-class cricket championship played in India between multiple teams representing regional and state cricket associations. Board of Control for Cr ...
, Sharma scored a record 31 centuries and his batting average of approximately 80 in this competition is second only to Vijay Merchant. In the 1996–97 season, he became only the third player to score over 1000 runs in a Ranji Trophy season. He played in six Ranji Trophy finals for Delhi scoring centuries in four of them, but only twice ended up on the winning side (1985–86 and 1991–92). Sharma also regularly represented
North Zone in the
Duleep Trophy
The Duleep Trophy, also known as Mastercard Duleep trophy due to sponsorship reasons, is a domestic first-class cricket competition played in India. Named after Kumar Shri Duleepsinhji of Nawanagar (also known as 'Duleep'), the competition wa ...
.
International career
Despite his domestic scoring record, Sharma only played one
Test match Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to:
* Test cricket
* Test match (indoor cricket)
* Test match (rugby union)
* Test match (rugby league)
* Test match (association football)
...
for
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
- against the
West Indies
The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...
in January 1988. He played 31
One Day International
A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...
s for India from 1988 to 1993.
In December 1988, he scored back-to-back fifties against New Zealand, but he did not reach those heights again except for a 59 not out (his highest ODI score) against Zimbabwe in March 1993. He finished with 424 runs at a batting average of 20.19. Sharma also took 15 wickets using his left-arm spin with a best of 3/41 against Australia in October 1989.
Life ban
In 2000, aged 36, his career ended when he received a life ban from cricket after he was implicated in a match-fixing scandal.
In September 2014, Sharma was cleared from all charges related to match-fixing by Delhi district court and has asked the BCCI to allow him to take part in the board's activities and those of its associates.
He retired from active cricket and is now invested in running multiple franchises of laundry and dry-cleaning brand UClean in Delhi NCR and Punjab.
See also
*
List of cricketers banned for match fixing
In cricket, match fixing occurs as a match is played to a completely or partially pre-determined result, violating the rules of the game and often the law. In particular, players have been approached by bookmakers and bribed to throw matches or as ...
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sharma, Ajay
1964 births
Living people
Cricketers from Delhi
India One Day International cricketers
India Test cricketers
Indian cricketers
Delhi cricketers
North Zone cricketers
Himachal Pradesh cricketers
Cricketers banned for corruption
Sportspeople banned for life