Chetan Sharma Height, Weight, Age, Facts, Biography

Chetan Sharma is an Indian cricket commentator, analyst, former professional cricketer, and politician who represented his country in the longer formats of the sport (23 Tests and 65 ODIs), between December 1983 and November 1994, as a frontline pace bowler. He ended up with 61 test match wickets and 67 ODI wickets in an international career that was severely hampered by injuries. In the Indian domestic circuit, he played for Haryana (1982-83-1992-93) and Bengal (1993-94-1996-97) across both formats. Post-retirement, Chetan has worked as a cricket analyst and commentator with several different TV networks and online cricket websites. In December 2020, he was elected as the chairman of the selection committee of the Indian senior national cricket team. Chetan was sacked from that position in November 2022, after India’s semi-final exit from the 2022 edition of the ICC (International Cricket Council) World T20, but was re-instated in January 2023.

Born Name

Chetan Sharma

Nick Name

Chetan

Sun Sign

Capricorn

Born Place

Ludhiana, Punjab, India

Residence

New Delhi, India

Nationality

Education

Chetan had attended D.A.V. College (Lahore) in Ambala, Haryana. The institution was started in 1886 in the city of Lahore (now in Pakistan). After the partition of India in 1947, the campus was moved to its present location in Ambala.

Occupation

Cricket Commentator, Analyst, Professional Cricketer (Retired), Politician

Family

• Father – Manak Ram Sharma
• Siblings – Karnesh Sharma (Brother)
• Others – Yashpal Sharma (Uncle) (Professional Cricketer (Retired), ICC Cricket World Cup Winner in 1983) (d. July 2021)

Batting

Right-Handed

Bowling

Right-Arm Fast-Medium

Role

Bowler

Build

Athletic

Height

5 ft 7 in or 170 cm

Weight

70 kg or 154.5 lbs

Girlfriend / Spouse

Chetan has dated –

1. Ramani Sharma

Race / Ethnicity

Asian (Indian)

Hair Color

Salt-and-Pepper

Eye Color

Dark Brown

Sexual Orientation

Straight

Distinctive Features

• Toned physique
• Side-parted, wavy hair
• Sports a thick beard

Religion

Hinduism

Chetan Sharma Facts

1. In October 1984, on his test match debut, against Pakistan, he bowled Mohsin Khan with his 5th delivery. This made him just the 3rd Indian player to have taken a wicket in his first over in test match cricket.
2. Chetan and his uncle, Yashpal Sharma, played 2 ODIs together for India – both against England in the 1984-85 season.
3. In April 1986, in the final of the inaugural edition of the Austral-Asia Cup (a now-defunct multilateral ODI tournament (held in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates) that involved the major cricketing nations of Asia and Australasia), Pakistan needed 11 runs off the last over that was bowled by Chetan.
4. In what is considered one of the greatest ODI matches ever played, Pakistan needed 4 runs off the last ball, with just 1 wicket remaining. Javed Miandad hit that ball for a six, becoming a national hero in Pakistan while Chetan endured a moment that would forever be remembered as the lowest point of his international career.
5. In July 1986, he redeemed himself as a key member of the Indian squad that defeated England by a 2-0 margin in a 3-match away bilateral test series. It was India’s only 2nd test series victory in England, the first was in 1971. Chetan recorded 16 wickets in the 2 matches that he played in the series, including a 10-wicket haul in the last match of the series that was played in Birmingham. He was the highest wicket-taker in the series, on either side.
6. It was the first and, as of January 2023, the only 10-wicket haul recorded by an Indian bowler in a test match in England. His spell of 6/58 in England’s 2nd innings of that match was, as of January 2023, the 4th-best bowling performance in an inning by an Indian bowler in a test match in England.
7. The greatest moment of Chetan’s international career arrived in October 1987 when he recorded a hat-trick (the feat of scalping 3 wickets off 3 successive legal deliveries) against New Zealand in the ICC Cricket World Cup (it was the 4th edition of the tournament and was known as the Reliance World Cup, due to sponsorship reasons).
8. It was the first hat-trick in the history of the tournament and just the 3rd hat-trick ever in ODI cricket. It was also the first ODI hat-trick in which all 3 victims were bowled (a method of dismissal in which the ball delivered by a bowler hits the stumps, either directly or after some contact with the bat or the batter’s body).
9. Although primarily known for his exploits with the ball, Chetan was a handy batter as well. In 1989, he recorded perhaps the greatest knock of his senior international career. In an ODI match against England, with India chasing a target of 256 runs, he was promoted in the batting order and scored 101 runs not out off just 96 balls, completing his hundred with the match-winning run.
10. It remained the only hundred of his international career and the only time that he crossed the 50-run mark in an ODI match. The aforementioned match was part of a multilateral series called the Nehru Cup and Chetan made another important contribution with the bat in India’s next match, a win against Australia. He shared an unbeaten partnership of 40 runs with Manoj Prabhakar and finished the match with a six.
11. In one of his last international appearances for India, an ODI match against New Zealand in 1994, he bowled just 1 over and was carted around for 23 runs which included being hit for 5 fours off consecutive balls.
12. He opened a cricket academy in Panchkula (a planned city and district headquarters in the northern Indian state of Haryana) in 2004 but the facility closed down in 2009.
13. In the 2009 Lok Sabha (the lower house of the Indian Parliament) general elections, Chetan contested from Faridabad (the most populous city of Haryana) on a BSP (Bahujan Samaj Party, an Indian political party that has its main base in Uttar Pradesh, the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world) ticket. He polled 18.2% of the total votes cast and stood in 3rd place.
14. Chetan later joined the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party, one of the 2 major political parties in India and the world’s largest political party in terms of primary membership) and was appointed the party’s sports cell convener.
15. In February 2023, Chetan was caught in a sting operation conducted by Zee Media. In that video, Chetan was heard talking about the Virat Kohli–Sourav Ganguly controversy when Kohli was the Team India captain and Ganguly was the BCCI President.

Featured Image by Chetan Sharma / Instagram