Contents
Rajkumar Sharma is a former Indian cricketer turned coach. He played for the Delhi Cricket Team from 1986 to 1991. He was Virat Kohli’s first coach.
Wiki/Biography
Rajkumar Sharma was born on Friday, June 18, 1965 (age 58 as of 2023) in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh. His zodiac sign is Gemini. Sharma completed his schooling at St. Mary’s Academy, Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh. He received his BA in Political Science (Hons) from Panalal Girdharlal Deyan and Anglo-Vedic College (PGDAV), Lajpat Nagar, New Delhi, Delhi. He was fondly called Raju by his friends and family.
Physical appearance
Height (approx): 5′7″
Weight (approx): 75 kg
Hair color: black
Eye Color: Black
family
parents and siblings
His parents’ names were not known. He has two brothers, Sunil Sharma and NK Sharma.
Rajkumar Sharma with his mother and family
Sunil Sharma
wife and children
His wife’s name is unknown. He has two children, son Aviral Sharma and daughter Suhani Sharma. Suhan was an architect.
Childhood photo of Rajkumar Sharma’s children
A picture of Rajkumar Sharma with his wife
Cricket
Domestic
Rajkumar Sharma has represented the Delhi Under-22 and Delhi Cricket Teams at the domestic level. He made his debut on 13 December 1986 against the Delhi Cricket Services team in the 1986–87 Ranji Trophy season. He enjoyed a stellar campaign in his debut season, taking seven wickets at an average of 38.00 between 13 December 1986 and 21 February 1987. However, the Hyderabad team defeated Delhi in the final of the Ranji Trophy in the 1986–1987 season to win the title. On 28 February 1987, the cricketer was named in the playing eleven against Pakistan during Pakistan’s tour of India. Sharma scored six runs and took one wicket from 13 overs in the first innings; He took two wickets in 30 overs of the second innings. In March 1989, Rajkumar was named in the Delhi squad for the Wills One-Day Trophy for the 1988–89 season; He played three matches for the List-A Delhi cricket team from 12 March 1989 to 18 March 1989 in the competition.
Photo of Rajkumar Sharma (far left) with former Indian cricketers
On 12 March 1989, the cricketer took two wickets with an economy of 3.30 in the quarter-final match against Tamil Nadu. On 18 March 1989, he bowled ten overs with an economy of 3.80 against the Railway Cricket Team in the final of the Wills One Day Trophy. Delhi won the match by eight wickets and lifted the trophy; This was his last appearance in List-A matches. In 1988, Sharma was part of the Delhi team in the 1988-1989 Ranji Trophy season. He scored seven runs against Bengal in the Ranji Trophy final on 22 March 1989 and Delhi defeated Bengal by an innings and 210 runs; It was the first time he won the Ranji Trophy. Rajkumar was part of the Delhi team that participated in the 1990-1991 Ranji Trophy season; This was his last season with the Delhi team. On 12 January 1991, he was included in the playing eleven for a Ranji Trophy match against Punjab and scored 15 runs and took one wicket in the first innings; This was his highest score in the competition. Sharma bowled seven overs but did not bat in the second innings; It was his last appearance in first-class cricket and in the Ranji Trophy. The cricketer was part of the Delhi cricket team from 15 December 1986 to 12 January 1991 and played eight first-class matches in the Ranji Trophy.
After retirement
West Delhi Cricket Academy (WDCA)
After announcing his retirement from professional cricket in 1998, he started a cricket academy, the West Delhi Cricket Academy (WDCA), in Paschim Vihar, Delhi. On 30 May 1998, Virat Kohli joined his academy; Virat was one of the first students of WDCA. Kohli joined the academy at the age of ten. After Kohli’s meteoric rise in cricket, WDCA became popular and Rajkumar later opened three more branches in different parts of Delhi.
An excerpt from an article about the Rajkumar Sharma Cricket Academy
Photo of Rajkumar Sharma with students of West Delhi Cricket Academy
In 2022, WDCA alumni Pulkit Narang and Deepak Dapola were selected to play in the Duleep Trophy. Sharma coached Indian cricketer Anuj Rawat at WDCA; Anuj has signed with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) for the 2023 IPL season. According to some reports, the academy has produced more than 50 state team players.
Photo of Rajkumar Sharma and Virat Kohli with West Delhi Cricket Academy students
Selector and coach
He served as a junior coach and selector under the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) for nearly 18 years between 2001 and 2019; He has also worked with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). In 2017, Sharma was appointed as the coach of the Delhi Junior Cricket team and they won the CK Nayudu U23 trophy in his first season as coach. During his tenure as coach, players like Hiten Dalal were promoted to the senior team. He served as a junior coach and selector under the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) for almost 18 years between 2001 and 2019. Later, when he was not given any position in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA), he took up the role of the head coach of the Malta national team in the Spa tournament in the ICC20.
Photo of Rajkumar Sharma with the Malta team
The ICC Tri-Nation Division tournament was played between Malta, Spain and Estonia. Matches were held from March 29, 2019 to March 31, 2019; Malta defeated Estonia by 13 runs in the opening match of the triangular T20I series against Spain. In 2019, Sharma was appointed as the bowling coach of the Delhi Ranji team ahead of the 2019–2020 season. After his impressive stint, he was appointed as the head coach of the Delhi Ranji team on 20 December 2020 for the 2020-2021 season. Later, he was retained as the team’s head coach ahead of the 2021-2022 season; However, he was fired as head coach ahead of the 2022-2023 season due to the team’s poor performance in the home season. He was later appointed as the bowling coach of the Delhi team.
Photograph of Rajkumar Sharma (front row, third from left) with the Delhi team’s coaching staff
ᐯildo
- August 29, 2016: Dronacharya Award for Outstanding Coaches in Sports and Games
Car collection
On September 5, 2014, Virat Kohli gifted him a Skoda Rapid car as a teacher’s day gift.
Facts/Trivia
- Talking about his relationship with Rajkumar, in an interview, Virat Kohli called his coach his mentor and guiding influence.
- On 9 November 2022, he was honored by the Indian Air Force with a commemorative badge; Wing Commander Prasad, representative of the Air Force, presented mementos.
- According to some reports, Sharma had a strong relationship with former Indian captain Virat Kohli. Talking about Virat’s childhood, in an interview, Sharma mentioned that he observed that Kohli was different from others from the very first days of training and said that Virat was an active, hyper and mischievous boy when he entered the academy. Rajkumar added that the cricketer possessed immense self-belief and discipline; He called the cricketer a diligent student and said that he was like a son to him.
Photo of Rajkumar Sharma with Virat Kohli receiving the award from Ashish Nehra
- Pranab Mukherjee presented him with the Dronacharya Award at the Sports and Adventure Awards 2016 at Rastrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.
Photo of Rajkumar Sharma receiving Dronacharya Award from Pranab Mukherjee
- Rajkumar and his wife were invited to Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma’s wedding ceremony in December 2017.
- After retiring from professional cricket, he worked in the banking sector. According to some reports, while he was working as a manager at Bank of Baroda in New Delhi, Delhi, he distributed around 500 PPE ((personal protective equipment)) sets to policemen and traffic police officers stationed at Rajouri Garden, Connaught Place and Darya Ganj police stations in 2020 amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
- Rajkumar later worked as a cricket analyst for India TV.
- In 2021, after BCCI Virat stripped Virat Kohli of his India captaincy, some reports said that Sharma criticized the BCCI decision and lack of transparency; He condemned the approach chosen to replace the captain of the national team.
Photo by Rajkumar Sharma and Virat Kohli
- The former cricketer defended his ward’s choice to step down as captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore in September 2021. Talking about Kohli’s decision, he said in an interview that it was part of Virat’s plan to manage his workload in Test and ODI cricket.
- Virat went through a rough patch of form in early 2022. In an interview, his coach Rajkumar Sharma suggested that the Indian cricketer work on his fundamentals and added that Kohli can benefit from training at the WDCA academy, as he has done many times.
- Rajkumar attended Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) vs Delhi Capitals (DC) match on May 6, 2023. He rang the bell to start the match; A video of Virat seeking blessings from his childhood coach ahead of a clash has gone viral on social media.
Healthy meeting and greeting 🤗@imVkohli Smoking his childhood coach 👌🏻👌🏻#TATAIPL | #DCvRCB | @RCBTweets pic.twitter.com/YHifXeN6PE
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 6, 2023
Categories: Cricket
Source: dienchau2.edu.vn
