Best Cricketers

The Batting Maestro

Azharuddin has been most famous for his wonderful wrist flicks that transformed a Cricket match into a poetic creation with aesthetic nuances of a masterpiece. Eventually, Azharuddin showed the best of his batting capabilities against spin bowlers. In fact, John Woodcock, one of the well known Cricket writers had once quoted that asking an Englishman to bat like Mohammad Azharuddin would be like expecting a greyhound to win the London Derby! His smooth and clean batting style was often compared with the same of David Gower, a batsman from England.

Darker Side of the Story

But as every story has its dark twists, Azharuddin’s life too saw its bad moments. Hansie Croje, the captain of the South African Cricket team who had confessed his role in international match fixing, had taken Azharuddin’s name regarding his involvement in the scandal. Further, Central Bureau of Investigation, the prime investigation agency of India looked into the matter and found Azharuddin guilty of receiving money from bookies to fix Cricket matches. The CBI also found Azharuddin involved in bringing other players along with him into the dirty game, and as a consequence the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) banned Azharuddin from playing Cricket for his lifetime in the year 2000. Ironically, Azharuddin had played 99 Test Cricket matches in his life till then and was on the verge to enter the coveted 100 Test Cricket Club. Although the ban was lifted in the year 2006, he couldn’t make the dream come true.

Political Foray 

On the 19th of February 2009, Azharuddin formally joined the Indian National Congress Party. He contested the General Elections 2009 from the Moradabad seat in Uttar Pradesh  and is now a Member of Parliament.