Sharad Vesawkar ( ne, शरद भेषावकर, born 9 October 1988) is a Nepalese professional cricketer. He is a right-handed middle-order

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the ball with a bat to score runs and prevent the loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since September 2021, officially referred to as a batter (historically, the ...

and a right-arm

off break Off spin is a type of finger spin bowling in cricket. A bowler who uses this technique is called an off spinner. Off spinners are right-handed spin bowlers who use their fingers to spin the ball. Their normal delivery is an off break, which spi ...

bowler. He made his debut for

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...

against

UAE The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

in March 2004. He was one of the eleven cricketers to play in Nepal's first ever

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 ...

(ODI) match, against the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, in August 2018. Sharad Vesawkar became the third Nepalese cricketer to score an international

century A century is a period of 100 years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. A centennial or ...

, when he slammed an unbeaten 105 off 134 balls against

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

during the

2010 ICC World Cricket League Division Five The 2010 ICC World Cricket League Division Five was a cricket tournament that took place in February 2010 in Nepal. It formed part of the World Cricket League competition administered by the International Cricket Council, the international gover ...

in February 2010. He is the

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

Panchakanya Tej Panchakanya Tej or Panchakanya Tez or TEJ ( ne, पन्चकन्या तेज) was a franchise team in the Nepal Premier League and the 2016 Everest Premier League. The team was captained by Nepalese player Sharad Vesawkar. The head coa ...

of the

Nepal Premier League Everest Premier League (EPL) ( ne, एभरेष्ट प्रिमियर लिग) is a franchise Twenty20 cricket tournament organized by EPL Pvt. Ltd., a private group in Nepal run by Aamir Akhtar alongside his team including Kie ...

. He also represents the

APF Club Nepal A.P.F. Club (), commonly known as APF Club, is a sports club based in Kathmandu, Bagmati Province, Nepal. The club is the sports-wing of the Armed Police Force. History The APF Club was established on 24 October 2001, following the trad ...

of the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

and Sudur Pashchimanchal Academy, which plays in the

SPA Cup Spa cup (in Czech: Lázeňský pohárek) is a special shape of porcelain cup, with a spout leading from low down in the body, so that the vessel looks like a cross between a cup and a teapot. They are used to drink mineral or thermal water dire ...

. He also captained

Bhairahawa Gladiators Bhairahawa Gladiators is a professional cricket franchise team based in Bhairahawa city, Nepal which participates in the Everest Premier League. Under the leadership of captain Sharad Vesawkar, they reached the finals of 2017 and 2018 edition ...

Everest Premier League Everest Premier League (EPL) ( ne, एभरेष्ट प्रिमियर लिग) is a franchise Twenty20 cricket tournament organized by EPL Pvt. Ltd., a private group in Nepal run by Aamir Akhtar alongside his team including Kie ...

and Pokhara Paltan in

Pokhara Premier League Pokhara Premier League ( ne, पोखरा प्रिमियर लिग) is a franchise Twenty20 cricket tournament held in Nepal. The tournament is managed by Queen's Event Management. The league is an auction-based tournament where pl ...

Personal life

Sharad Vesawkar was born and raised in

, as the second son of Dilip Vesawkar, an engineer, and his wife Himali. On his father's side, he is of Indian descent, and on his mother's side, he is of Nepalese descent. He, along with his brother, Mahendra, learnt to play cricket in his childhood in the country. The family returned to Nepal in 1995 after his father's retirement. He is married to Nepali Actress

Nisha Adhikari Nisha Adhikari is a Nepali film actress and model. Adhikari made her acting debut in a comedy programme called ''Gharbeti Ba'' on Kantipur Television. Her debut movie was '' Mission Paisa'' (2009) starring Nikhil Upreti, which was one of the ...

International career

Vesawkar first represented Nepal at Under-15 level, playing in the Under-15 Asia Cup in the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

in December 2002. In his second match against Qatar Under-15sOther matches played by Sharad Vesawkar
at CricketArchive he scored a

to win the

man of the match In team sport, a player of the match or man of the match or woman of the match award is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chosen from the winn ...

award. He first played at Under-19 level in April 2003 on a tour of India. Later in the year, he played in the Youth Asia Cup in

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former cap ...

and won the man of the match award in the final against Malaysia Under-19s. The following year he played in the ACC Under-17 Cup in India and the

2004 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup The 2004 ICC Under-19 World Cup was an international limited-overs cricket tournament played in Bangladesh from 15 February to 5 March 2004. It was the fifth edition of the Under-19 Cricket World Cup and the first to be held in Bangladesh. The ...

in Bangladesh. In 2004, he made his début for the Nepal senior side in what was also his first first-class match against the

in the

2004 ICC Intercontinental Cup The 2004 ICC Intercontinental Cup was the inaugural edition of the ICC Intercontinental Cup first class cricket tournament, an international cricket tournament between nations who have not been awarded Test status by the International Cricket Co ...

. He also played an Intercontinental Cup match against

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

the next month.First-class matches played by Sharad Vesawkar
at CricketArchive He also played in the

2004 ACC Trophy The 2004 ACC Trophy was a cricket tournament in Malaysia, taking place between 12 and 24 June 2004. It gave Associate and Affiliate members of the Asian Cricket Council experience of international Limited overs cricket, one-day cricket and also h ...

in Kuala Lumpur that year in addition to

ACC Fast Track Countries Tournament The ACC Fast Track Countries Tournament was a three-day cricket tournament run by the Asian Cricket Council (ACC), contested between its top-ranking ICC associate members. It was played three times between 2004 and 2006, and then replaced by the ...

matches against

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

, the

and

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

. In 2005, he played ACC Fast Track Countries Tournament matches against Malaysia, the

and Hong Kong. The games against the

and

also counted towards the

2005 ICC Intercontinental Cup The 2005 ICC Intercontinental Cup was the second edition of the ICC Intercontinental Cup, a cricket competition for (then) 12 nations from Asia, Africa, North America and Europe. All the games were scheduled for three days and were designated ...

. He played in the ACC Under-19 Cup in

that November. He played for Nepal Under-19s in a second Under-19 World Cup in February 2006. In March 2006 he played in a play-off match against

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

to decide the final spot in the

2006 ICC Intercontinental Cup 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...

. Needing an outright win to qualify, Nepal could only secure a draw after there was no play on the first day. Later in the year he played on a tour of

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

with Nepal in addition to playing in the

ACC Trophy The ACC Trophy was a limited-overs cricket tournament organised by the Asian Cricket Council (ACC). Open only to associate and affiliate members of the International Cricket Council (ICC), it was contested biennially between 1996 and 2012, but ha ...

and

ACC Premier League The ACC Premier League is a One Day cricket tournament run by the Asian Cricket Council that is contested between its members nations in League system. It has evolved from the former ACC Trophy Elite cricket competition and played under three di ...

. In 2002, while playing in the selection event for U-15, Sarad was determined to get selected or leave cricket. He got selected from inter-school competition to the regional team and then for the closed camp training for the national team. During the camp, he six five half-centuries against visiting Indian clubs in six matches - an indication of the glorious days ahead. The first international event for Sarad was unforgettable - not only because it was his first also because he got to start his career on the soil where he was born - UAE. He was one of the best batsmen of the event scoring 275 runs in 8 matches including a 106 against Qatar and 78 against India. With that he was selected for the Dream Team and visited Sri Lanka—news he couldn't tell to his father, who died in India on his business trip due to a heart attack. Today, Sarad is a mainstay batsman of Nepali national team. He was one of the key players of the U-19 squad that won the plate championship in 2006 defeating South Africa and New Zealand. In 1995, his father retired and as his mother wished, the family returned Nepal. After coming to Nepal, a country where cricket was still infant, he knew how much he loved cricket as he started missing playing it. He studied a year at the Modern Indian School and then admitted in Himalayan Vidhya Mandir in 1996. His love for cricket forced him to find a playing area - a long field a few blocks away from his home. "There were houses on both sides," he says. "So we were forced to play straight shots so to avoid breaking windows." That somehow helped him becoming a batsman. When he was in standard seven, Everest Cricket Coaching Academy was established in Ratopul - near from his home. He was one of 100 first batch trainees learning with chief coach Arun Aryal and Samsom Jung Thapa. Many established cricketers such as Kiran Rana, Rajesh Pant, Munir Shrestha, Manish Shrestha, Raju Basnet and Prafulla Vaidhya frequented the academy and he was one of very few trainees who never fears to bat against them. In July 2018, he was named in Nepal's squad for their

(ODI) series against the Netherlands. These were Nepal's first ODI matches since gaining ODI status during the

2018 Cricket World Cup Qualifier The 2018 ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier was a cricket tournament that took place during March 2018 in Zimbabwe. It formed the final part of the Cricket World Cup qualification process for the 2019 World Cup in England and Wales. The top two te ...

. He made his ODI debut for Nepal against the

on 1 August 2018. In October 2018, he was named in Nepal's squad in the Eastern sub-region group for the 2018–19 ICC World Twenty20 Asia Qualifier tournament. In June 2019, he was named in Nepal's squad for the Regional Finals of the

2018–19 ICC T20 World Cup Asia Qualifier The 2018–19 ICC T20 World Cup Asia Qualifier was the tournament played as part of qualification process for the 2021 ICC T20 World Cup. Twelve regional qualifiers were held by the International Cricket Council (ICC), with 62 teams competed dur ...

tournament. In November 2019, he was named in Nepal's squad for the

2019 ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup The 2019 ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup was the fourth edition of the ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup held in Bangladesh between 14 and 23 November 2019. Eight teams participated in the tournament, including five under-23 age level teams of Test nations ...

in Bangladesh. In September 2020, he was one of eighteen cricketers to be awarded with a central contract by the

Cricket Association of Nepal Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) is the official governing body of cricket in Nepal. It was suspended from 2016 to 13 October 2019 due to governmental interference. The ICC welcomed the elections of the board held in September 2019 and for ...

Career highlights

Sharad Vesawkar is a player who gained popularity among the supporters as a defensive batsman when he first came to reckoning in 2004, however, to one's surprise he portrayed a batsman completely opposite to his pro-claimed identity in

2013 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier The 2013 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier was played in November 2013 in the United Arab Emirates and is a part of the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier series. This edition of the qualifier for the 2014 ICC World Twenty20 was an expanded version comprisi ...

which exuberantly lead

to the

2014 ICC World Twenty20 The 2014 ICC World Twenty20 was the fifth ICC World Twenty20 competition, an international Twenty20 cricket tournament, that took place in Bangladesh from 16 March to 6 April 2014. It was played in three cities — Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet. Th ...

. His game play drastically transformed from a toddler/nudger to an aggressive player who happens to be an extremely attacking player when needed. He blasted three sixes when 17 runs were required in the last over as Nepal completed their highest ever chase of 183 runs against

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

during the

which recorded one of the most unprecedented victories in history of Nepalese and Associate cricket. In 2002, while playing in the selection event for U-15, Sarad was determined to get selected or leave cricket. He got selected from inter-school competition to the regional team and then for the closed camp training for the national team. During the camp, he six five half-centuries against visiting Indian clubs in six matches - an indication of the glorious days ahead. He continued his form smashing 10 of the 13 required, and took a single off the last ball leading to a nail-biting five-wicket victory against

in the quarter-final of the

. In the match against

for third position, he scored an unbeaten 43 runs off just 29 balls including two sixes in first two balls of last over to seal the match. In short, Sharad's batting played a pivotal part leading Nepal to the

. Sharad started his career in 2004 and faced many difficulties. Lack of citizenship was the worst thing he faced over the years. He finally got his citizenship before the

and in return he paved the path of

for Nepal. He scored an unbeaten 91 off just 45 balls against

in the knock-out match of the Sagarmatha Cement Journey to World Cup tournament in December 2013. He scored 32 runs off the thirty-ninth over that includes 5 SIXes and a two. He also scored 40 runs against

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

and 37 runs against

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

in the

. In August 2014, he traveled to the United States as he was called to play for the Punjab Lions in a Chicago-based tournament. He also played in the North Texas League during the weekends. The first international event for Sarad was unforgettable - not only because it was his first also because he got to start his career on the soil where he was born - UAE. He was one of the best batsmen of the event scoring 275 runs in 8 matches including a 106 against Qatar and 78 against India. With that he got selected for the Dream Team and visited Sri Lanka - a news he couldn't tell to his father, who died in India on his business trip due to a heart attack. Today, Sarad is a mainstay batsman of Nepali national team. He was one of the key players of the U-19 squad that won the plate championship in 2006 defeating South Africa and New Zealand.

References

External links

Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vesawkar, Sharad 1988 births Living people Sportspeople from Dubai Indian expatriate sportspeople in the United Arab Emirates Nepalese expatriates in the United Arab Emirates Indian emigrants to Nepal Nepalese people of Indian descent Indian people of Nepalese descent Nepalese cricketers Nepal One Day International cricketers Nepal Twenty20 International cricketers Cricketers at the 2010 Asian Games Cricketers at the 2014 Asian Games Asian Games competitors for Nepal