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Full name Ajay Kumar Sharma
Born April 3, 1964, Delhi
Current age 44 years 193 days
Major teams India,Delhi,Himachal Pradesh
Batting style Right-hand bat
Bowling style Slow left-arm orthodox
Batting and fielding averages
Mat
Inns
NO
Runs
HS
Ave
BF
SR
100
50
4s
6s
Ct
St
Tests
1
2
0
53
30
26.50
169
31.36
0
0
8
0
1
0
ODIs
31
27
6
424
59*
20.19
469
90.40
0
3
6
0
First-class
130
168
16
10148
259*
66.76
38
36
94
0
List A
113
97
19
2814
135*
36.07
2
20
43
0
Bowling averages
Mat
Inns
Balls
Runs
Wkts
BBI
BBM
Ave
Econ
SR
4w
5w
10
Tests
1
1
24
9
0
-
-
-
2.25
-
0
0
0
ODIs
31
29
1140
875
15
3/41
3/41
58.33
4.60
76.0
0
0
0
First-class
130
6545
2749
89
5/34
30.88
2.52
73.5
1
0
List A
113
3985
3064
108
5/30
5/30
28.37
4.61
36.8
2
2
0
Career statistics
Only Test
India v West Indies at Chennai, Jan 11-15, 1988 scorecard
Test statistics
ODI debut
India v West Indies at Kolkata, Jan 2, 1988 scorecard
Last ODI
India v West Indies at Ahmedabad, Nov 16, 1993 scorecard
ODI statistics
First-class span
1984/85 - 2003/04
List A span
1985/86 - 1999/00
Profile
Ajay Sharma's career will be seen as one of disappointment. Firstly, that a man whose first-class average was the third-highest of any player to have scored 10,000 runs only played one Test; secondly, that his career ended when he was implicated in the match-fixing scandal which rocked world cricket, receiving a life ban.
His Test debut in 1987-88 was Hirwani's match, although his 30 and 23 gave every indication that he was a batsman to watch. But despite outstanding performances on the domestic circuit, another chance never came. He played 31 ODIs - for some reason becoming pigeonholed as a one-day specialist - with his left-arm spin earmarking him as an allrounder.
His last ODI was in 1993-94, when he was still not 30, but he continued to murder bowlers for Delhi. In 1999-2000 he became the Ranji Trophy's highest runscorer, and his 31 hundreds was also a record. In 1996-97 he had become only the third batsman to score 1000 runs in a Ranji Trophy season.
But in 2000, aged 36, he was banned for life after being found guilty of having associations with bookmakers. It was the final blow from an establishment that Sharma had always seemed to be at odds with.
Martin Williamson
