Manoj Prabhakar – The controversial Indian Cricketer

Manoj Prabhakar is a former Indian Cricketer who played with national team in the 1980s and 1990s. He served as an all-rounder to his team, as a right-arm medium-pace bowler and a lower-order batsman. Post retirement he served as a coach, served as a commentator for cricket matches and also had a brief unsuccessful career in politics. After his retirement from international cricket in 1996 at the age of 32, his name was involved in the match fixing case as exposed by Tehlka magazine in 1999, and such allegations rocked the whole nation. He is married to noted actress of 1990s, Farheen of Jaan Mere Naam fame.

Manoj Prabhakar was born in 1963 in Ghaziabad. In 1984 he marked his international debut at Delhi appearing in the second test against England. He made his ODI debut at Sharjah the same year against Sri Lanka. He always excelled as a lower order batsman for his team, and often took the role of a defensive opener. He took 96 wickets from 39 international Test matches and 157 wickets in 130 ODIs in a career spanning to 12 years. He played for Delhi in domestic cricket and owns 385 first class wickets to his credit. After retirement he has coached Delhi and Rajasthan domestic cricket teams. Following match fixing allegations in 1999, he was banned from playing all forms of cricket.

Manoj Prabhakar – Some interesting and less-known facts

1. During his first international test, he got just one wicket from both innings, and 25 runs in the first innings playing at 9^th position.

2. His first and last ODI match was played against Sri Lanka. India won the first match with 10 wickets in hand, while lost 1996 match against Sri Lanka in Cricket World Cup.

3. In his ODI debut, he was the only Indian player to bowl 10 overs in the winning match, and his bowling figure was 10-3-16-2.

4. He was named as the bowling coach of Afghanistan cricket team ahead of 2016 ICC World Twenty20.

5. He was said to be the key witness in Mohammad Azharuddin’s match fixing scam.

6. In 2004 he unsuccessfully contested Lok Sabha elections as a Congress candidate.

7. For publicly criticizing the players and selectors, he lost his job as the coach of Delhi cricket team in 2011.

8. He was already married and had kids, when he married actress Farheen in 1997.

9. Now he is settled in Delhi with his second wife Farheen, two children, and Rohan (his child from first marriage) and his wife.