P. H. SHARMA


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P. H. SHARMA
(5 Jan 1948 - 20 Oct 2010) 

Born in Alwar, Parthasarathy Harishchandra Sharma, made his way into the Rajasthan team in 1962–63 as an under-15 adolescent, with Salim Durrani spotting his prowess. However, the strong team that he was part of, Sharma neither batted nor bowled nor took a catch in his debut game. He had to wait till the 67-68 season to cement his place... 

Keeping wickets early on, he changed it later to off-spin and gentle medium-pace. His batting technique was said to be comparable to that of Vijay Manjrekar's in countering the turning ball... 

Representing India in 7 international games, Sharma made his Test debut at Delhi in December 1974 against the West Indies, when Sunil Gavaskar and Mansur Ali Khan of Pataudi sat out with injuries. Though India lost the match, Sharma did justice to his selection with scores of 54 and 49...

He didn't play a Test in the 1976 New Zealand tour, but made his ODI debut along with Vengsarkar and Kirmani... 

He played just 5 Tests, 3 against Clive Lloyd's West Indies and 2 against Tony Greig's England, the second Test at Calcutta in January 1977 being his last...

In the 1977–78 edition of the Irani Cup, he captained Rest of India to an innings victory over Bombay, posting his highest domestic score of 206 and taking four wickets. His best bowling figures, 6/26 was against Vidarbha in 1974–75, and along with the highest score of the match, 54 not out, he ensured a Rajasthan victory, the state for which Sharma played till the 84-85 season... 

His 187 Test runs and 20 ODI runs certainly belied his potential at the highest level when compared to his domestic record of 8614 runs -18 tons 45 fifties 145 catches - and  191 wickets from 152 first class appearances...

Given his excellent performance at the first class level, one could argue that Sharma could have been allowed more than the 7 international games that he played for India, bowling just the measly 4 overs despite being a quality all-rounder... 

After retirement Sharma was instrumental in fine-tuning the willow skills of Rahul Dravid and Gautam Gambhir, in addition to coaching Robin Uthappa, Piyush Chawla, Amit Mishra and Suresh Raina during his four-year stint at the National Cricket Academy. In 2009 he took over as the Rajasthan coach from Manoj Prabhakar... 

One of the finest all-rounders to have played for Rajasthan and Central Zone, Sharma lost his battle against gall-bladder cancer and breathed his last, this day, in 2010...


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