Test team honours Yashpal Sharma, ODI team ignores

Durham, July 20: The contrast in the two Indian national cricket teams’ respect for Yashpal Sharma was evident on Tuesday with the Test team playing a warm-up game in England sporting a black armband in the memory of former India World Cup-winning player, while the limited-overs team in Sri Lanka ignoring him in the first two ODIs played over the last three days.
Sharma, who played 37 Tests, 42 ODIs and was India’s second-highest run-getter in the 1983 World Cup, had died on July 13 due to a heart attack at the age of 66.
The gesture of the Test team, which is coached by Ravi Shastri, a teammate of Sharma during the victorious 1983 World Cup campaign, was not followed by the ODI team, coached by Rahul Dravid, who is of more recent generation and hasn’t played cricket with Sharma. Dravid, however, was playing for India while Sharma was a national selector.
Several former cricketers have expressed their disappointment. (IANS)