Laxmi Ratan Shukla ( bn, লক্ষ্মী রতন শুক্লা) (born 6 May 1981), is a former Indian

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er and politician. He played as a right-handed middle-order batsman and a right-arm medium-pace bowler for the Bengal cricket team. He was also a player in the

IPL The Indian Premier League (IPL), also known as TATA IPL for sponsorship reasons, is a men's T20 franchise cricket league of India. It is annually contested by ten teams based out of seven Indian cities and three Indian states. The leagu ...

team Kolkata Knight Riders,

Delhi Daredevils Delhi Capitals (formerly Delhi Daredevils) are a franchise cricket team based out of Delhi in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The franchise is jointly owned by the GMR Group and the JSW Group. The team's home ground is Arun Jaitley Stadium, ...

, and the Sunrisers Hyderabad. He was a member of the legislative assembly of West Bengal representing the

All India Trinamool Congress The All India Trinamool Congress (English: All India Grassroots Congress; AITC), colloquially the Trinamool Congress ( TMC) is an Indian political party which is predominantly active in West Bengal. The party is led by Mamata Banerjee, the cur ...

. He resigned from the ministry on 5 January 2021.

Early life

Shukla was born in

Howrah Howrah (, , alternatively spelled as Haora) is a city in the Indian state of West Bengal. Howrah is located on the western bank of the Hooghly River opposite its twin city of Kolkata. Administratively it lies within Howrah district, and is th ...

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...

, and did his schooling at Shree Hanumaan Jute Mill Hindi High School and the

Don Bosco High & Technical School, Liluah Don Bosco School Liluah is an all-boys, English medium school located in the city of Howrah, India. It operates under the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations and takes students from the lower kindergarten through grade twelve. ...

. He caught attention 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 ...

in the 1997–98 season, and rose to prominence for performing well for the Indian under-19s team in the MTN Youth World Cup in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. He was a part of the

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

team in the Wills Trophy, in which they got to the semi-final. In 2000 he was picked for the National Cricket Academy. On 30 December 2015 he announced his retirement from all forms of cricket.

International career

Because of impressive performances in domestic level Shukla got a national call in 1999. He was dropped in favour of Ashish Nehra in the first Test he was selected to play, against Sri Lanka at Colombo in the Asian Test Championship, even after his name appeared in the 11-member squad flashed on the electronic scoreboard at the ground. He made his ODI debut against

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

on 22 March 1999 in

Nagpur Nagpur (pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, aːɡpuːɾ is the third largest city and the winter capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the 13th largest city in India by population and according to an Oxford's Economics report, Nag ...

. He played his last ODI against

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 1999. In fact he did not get further chances after that season as a bowler because other young pace bowlers like Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra had entered and established their places in the Indian Senior team, upon the impressive performances. Although Shukla was renowned for his skills as an all rounder, selectors gave the chances for the players like

Sanjay Bangar Sanjay Bapusaheb Bangar (born 11 October 1972) is an Indian cricket commentator and the head coach of the IPL franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore. He is a former Indian international cricketer. He played as an all-rounder and represented the ...

Kanitkar Kanitkar is a surname used by Konkanastha Chitapavan sub-caste of Brahmins in India. Kanitkars, like most other Konkanastha Chitpavan Brahmins, originate in the Konkan strip on the western seacoast of India – about 300-500 kilometers south of M ...

and eventually Irfan Pathan pushing him down the pecking order.

Vijay Hazare Trophy 2012

He was by far the brightest performer as

(captained by Sourav Ganguly) won its first

Vijay Hazare Trophy The Vijay Hazare Trophy, (officially known as Mastercard Vijay Hazare trophy for sponsorship reasons) also known as the Ranji One-Day Trophy, is an annual limited-overs cricket domestic competition involving state teams from the Ranji Trophy pl ...

in 2012. In the group stage match against

Jharkhand Jharkhand (; ; ) is a state in eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north and Odisha to the south. It has an area of . It ...

Eden Gardens The Eden Gardens is a cricket ground in Kolkata, India. Established in 1864, it is the oldest and second-largest cricket stadium in India and third-largest in the world. The stadium currently has a capacity of 66,000. Eden Gardens is often re ...

, he scored 151* from 96 balls (16 fours, 8 sixes) to chase down Jharkhand's score of 280/6 in just 38.1 overs. In the next match against

Tripura Tripura (, Bengali: ) is a state in Northeast India. The third-smallest state in the country, it covers ; and the seventh-least populous state with a population of 36.71 lakh ( 3.67 million). It is bordered by Assam and Mizoram to the east a ...

at the Jadavpur University Sports Complex, after being bowled out to only 198 in 49 overs, he took 4/37 (and Sanjib Sanyal took 4/33 from his 8 overs) to bowl out

for just 168 in 37.4 overs. In the quarter final, he took 2/37 against

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the seco ...

. He took the wicket of

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...

's highest scorer

Mandeep Singh Mandeep Singh (born 18 December 1991) is an Indian cricketer. He plays for Punjab in the top-flight of Indian cricket. A right-hand batsman who also occasionally bowls right arm medium pace, Mandeep has also played for India Blue, and North ...

(66) in the semifinal. In the final against

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

led by Ajit Agarkar, he took 4/38 (including openers Wasim Jaffer and Ajinkya Rahane) to bowl out Mumbai for only 248, and then chased it down with a 107* off 83 ball-partnership with

Anustup Majumdar Anustup Majumdar (born 30 April 1984) is an Indian first-class cricketer who plays for Bengal. He was born in Chinsurah and spent his early life there before moving onto Liluah. He plays for the Mohun Bagan cricket team in the CAB division. He ...

. He scored 106* from 90 balls, and

scored 50* from 45 balls to win the

with 23 balls to spare.

Vijay Hazare Trophy 2013

Following his success as an all rounder in the

2012, he was made the captain of

in the

2013. He started the tournament brilliantly, taking 5/34 and thus restricting

Odisha Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of ...

to only 175, and winning the match by 11 runs.

Political career

He joined

before

2016 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election A Legislative Assembly election was held in 2016 for the 294 seats (out of 295 seats) of the '' Vidhan Sabha'' (Vidhān Sabhā) in the state of West Bengal in India. The All India Trinamool Congress under Mamata Banerjee won 211 seats, and th ...

and became candidate from Howrah Uttar constituency. He won the seat by defeating Santosh Kumar Pathak of

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

. He became the minister of State Sports and Youth Services in

Mamata Banerjee Mamata Banerjee (; born 5 January 1955) is an Indian politician who is serving as the eighth and current List of chief ministers of West Bengal, chief minister of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of West Bengal since 20 ...

's second government. On 5 January 2021, he resigned as the Minister of State for Youth Services and Sports.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shukla, Laxmi 1981 births Trinamool Congress politicians from West Bengal Bengal cricketers Cricketers from West Bengal Don Bosco schools alumni East Zone cricketers Indian cricketers India Green cricketers India One Day International cricketers Indian sportsperson-politicians Kolkata Knight Riders cricketers Living people People from Howrah State cabinet ministers of West Bengal Sunrisers Hyderabad cricketers West Bengal MLAs 2016–2021