Mohammad Azharuddin

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Mohammad Azharuddin
India
Personal information
Full name	Mohammad Azharuddin
Born	8 February 1963 (1963-02-08) (age 45)
	Hyderebad, Andhra Pradesh, India
Role	Batsman
Batting style	Right-handed batsman (RHB)
Bowling style	Right-arm medium (RM)
International information
Test debut (cap 169)	31 December 1984: v England
Last Test	2 March 2000: v South Africa
ODI debut (cap 51)	20 January 1985: v England
Last ODI	3 June 2000: v Pakistan
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1981–2000	Hyderabad
1983–2000	South Zone
1991–1994	Derbyshire
Career statistics
	Tests	ODIs	FC	LA
Matches	99	334	229	433
Runs scored	6215	9378	15855	12941
Batting average	45.03	36.92	51.98	39.33
100s/50s	22/21	7/58	54/74	11/85
Top score	199	153*	226	161*
Overs	2.1	92	238.4	137.5
Wickets	0	12	17	15
Bowling average	0	39.91	46.23	47.26
5 wickets in innings	0	0	0	0
10 wickets in match	0	n/a	0	0
Best bowling		3/19	3/36	3/19
Catches/stumpings	105/0	156/0	220/0	200/0
As of 1 September 2007 Source: [1]

Mohammad Azharuddin pronunciation (help·info) (born 8 February 1963, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh) is a former captain of the Indian cricket team. He was an elegant right-handed batsman and usually batted at five in Test cricket. He was caught in a match-fixing scandal.

In his prime, he had a graceful, fluid batting style, comparable to that of his English contemporary, David Gower. The wrist flick was his most characteristic shot and he fared best against spinners. The grace and fluidity of his wrist once prompted John Woodcock, a noted cricket writer, to say, "It's no use asking an Englishman to bat like Mohammad Azharuddin. For, it would be like expecting a greyhound to win the London Derby!" [2]

Contents 1 Early Life 2 International career 2.1 Highlights 2.2 Captaincy 2.3 Match fixing scandal 3 Life after cricket 4 Test statistics 4.1 By opponent 4.2 List of centuries 5 References 6 External links 7 See also

[edit] Early Life

Azhar, as he is popularly known, grew up in Hyderabad and attended a catholic convent boys school All Saints High School. Incidentally, a lot of other cricketers from Hyderabad - Venkatpathy Raju, Noel David - also attended the same school.

[edit] International career

[edit] Highlights

Azhar scored a total of 22 centuries in Test cricket at an average of 45, and 7 in ODIs at an average of 37. He scored a century in each of his first three Tests which is a record. An excellent fielder, he took a world record 156 catches in ODI cricket.

He was given LBW out for 199 in a test match against Sri Lanka and it was his highest Test Score.

In 1991 he was named Wisden Cricketer of the Year and was for many years an inspirational figure in the Indian team with his athletic fielding and leadership.

[edit] Captaincy

Azhar was captain of the Indian team for most of the 1990s. Statistically he is one of India's most successful captains. He won a record 103 ODI matches as the captain of the Indian team. His 14 Test Match wins as captain, was a record until it was bettered by Sourav Ganguly.

[edit] Match fixing scandal

Towards the end of his career Azharuddin was accused of match-fixing [3]; South African captain Hansie Cronje in his confession for match-fixing had indicated that Azharuddin was the one to introduce him to the bookies. ^[1]. This led the BCCI to ban him from the game of cricket for life in 2000.

The BCCI lifted the ban on Azharuddin in 2006 and even honoured him along with other Indian Test captains in a ceremony in Mumbai during the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy. The ICC, however, claimed that it alone had the right to revoke the ban despite playing no role in handing out the original ban.

In one of his interviews, he claimed that he was being targeted because he was from a minority community. However, this statement backfired badly and invited severe criticism from all parts of the country and even from prominent minority community organisations in India. Ultimately, Azharuddin had to apologise publicly and retract his statements.

The ban cost him a chance of joining the 100 Test club, in the end finishing stranded on 99 Test matches.

[edit] Life after cricket

Since 2004 Azhar has run a Physical Education Centre in Hyderabad. He is married to Sangeeta Bijlani, a Bollywood actress after divorcing his previous wife.

[edit] Test statistics

[edit] By opponent

Australia

• 780 runs at 39.00 with 2 hundreds

England

• 1278 runs at 58.09 with 6 hundreds

New Zealand

• 796 runs at 61.23 with 2 hundreds

Pakistan

• 769 runs at 40.47 with 3 hundreds

South Africa

• 779 runs at 41.00 with 4 hundreds

Sri Lanka

• 1215 runs at 55.23 with 5 hundreds

West Indies

• 539 runs at 28.37 with 0 hundreds

Zimbabwe

• 59 runs at 14.75 with 0 hundreds

Total

• 6215 runs at 45.04 with 22 hundreds

[edit] List of centuries

Test Centuries of Mohammad Azharuddin (1-11) Runs Against Ground Year [1] 110 England Eden Gardens, Kolkata 1984 [2] 105 England M. A. Chidambaram, Chennai 1985 [3] 122 England Green Park, Kanpur 1985 [4] 199 Sri Lanka Green Park, Kanpur 1986 [5] 141 Pakistan Eden Gardens, Kolkata 1987 [6] 110 Pakistan Sawai Mansingh, Jaipur 1987 [7] 109 Pakistan Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad 1989 [8] 192 New Zealand Eden Park, Auckland 1990 [9] 121 England Lord's, London 1990 [10] 179 England Old Trafford, London 1990 [11] 106 Australia Adelaide Oval, Adelaide 1992

Test Centuries of Mohammad Azharuddin (12-22) Runs Against Ground Year [12] 182 England Eden Gardens, Kolkata 1993 [13] 108 Sri Lanka Chinnaswamy, Bangalore 1994 [14] 152 Sri Lanka Sardar Patel, Ahmedabad 1994 [15] 109 South Africa Eden Gardens, Kolkata 1996 [16] 163* South Africa Green Park, Kanpur 1996 [17] 115 South Africa Newlands, Cape Town 1997 [18] 126 Sri Lanka Premadasa Stadium, Colombo 1997 [19] 108* Sri Lanka Sinhalese, Colombo 1997 [20] 163* Australia Eden Gardens, Kolkata 1998 [21] 103* New Zealand Basin Reserve, Wellington 1998 [22] 102 South Africa Chinnaswamy, Bangalore 2000

Preceded by Krishnamachari Srikkanth	Indian National Test Cricket Captain 1989/90 - 1996	Succeeded by Sachin Tendulkar
Preceded by Sachin Tendulkar	Indian National Test Cricket Captain 1997/98 - 1998/99	Succeeded by Sachin Tendulkar

v • d • e India squad - 1987 Cricket World Cup Semi-finalists 1 Kapil Dev (c) • 2 Gavaskar • 3 Srikkanth • 4 Vengsarkar • 5 Azharuddin • 6 Shastri • 7 Sidhu • 8 Binny • 9 Prabhakar • 10 More (wk) • 11 Maninder Singh • 12 Sivaramakrishnan • 13 Sharma • 14 Pandit

v • d • e India squad - 1992 Cricket World Cup 1 Azharuddin (c) • 2 Kapil Dev • 3 Srikkanth • 4 Shastri • 5 Manjrekar • 6 Tendulkar • 7 Jadeja • 8 Kambli • 9 Amre • 10 Prabhakar • 11 Srinath • 12 More (wk) • 13 Raju • 14 Banerjee

v • d • e India squad - 1996 Cricket World Cup Semi-finalists 1 Azharuddin (c) • 2 Tendulkar • 3 Jadeja • 4 Sidhu • 5 Kambli • 6 Manjrekar • 7 Mongia (wk) • 8 Srinath • 9 Prasad • 10 Kumble • 11 Prabhakar • 12 Raju • 13 Ankola • 14 Kapoor • Coach: Wadekar (Coach cum Manager)

v • d • e India squad - 1999 Cricket World Cup 1 Azharuddin (c) • 2 Tendulkar • 3 Ganguly • 4 Dravid • 5 Jadeja • 6 Khurasiya • 7 Mongia (wk) • 8 Srinath • 9 Prasad • 10 Agarkar • 11 Robin Singh • 12 Chopra • 13 Kumble • 14 Mohanty • 15 Ramesh • Coach: Gaekwad

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Cricinfo Player Profile: Mohammad Azharuddin

[edit] See also

• List of cricketers banned for match fixing

Persondata
NAME	Azharuddin, Mohammad
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Azhar
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Cricketer
DATE OF BIRTH	8 February 1963
PLACE OF BIRTH	Hyderabad, India
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH