Mohammad Azharuddin is an Indian politician and a former cricketer. He served as the captain of the Indian cricket team during 1990s. He retired from cricket as he was involved in match fixing scandal. He joined Indian National Congress and was elected from Moradabad constituency of Uttar Pradesh to Lok Sabha.
He was born on 8th February 1963 in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. He studied in All Saints High School in Hyderabad and graduated in Nizam College under Osmania University. His parents are Azizuddeen and Yousuf Sultana. He married the homely girl Naureen and has two sons Asad and Ayaz. Later he divorced her and married the actress Sangeeta Bijlani who was former Miss India.
He was selected to the Indian Cricket team in the year 1984 and played his first test match against England on 31st December 1984. He scored his first century in this match. He is the first one in the world to hit three consecutive centuries in first three tests. He had taken 156 catches in ODI cricket and which was a world record at that time. He had won 14 test matches and 103 ODI matches during his captaincy. He had played more than 300 ODI during his period. He won Wisden Cricketer of the Year Award in the year 1991. He won century in his last test match also.
He had scored 22 centuries in Test cricket and 7 centuries in ODI. His highest test score was 199 against Sri Lanka. He scored 5 centuries in 7 tests in Eden Gardens, Kolkata. In 1999 Test series against England, he could score an aggressive century in just 87 balls, but India lost the match and the series.
He was accused of match fixing. The problem was investigated by CBI and he admitted fixing in three ODI matches. So BCCI banned him from playing cricket for life. He joined Congress party in 2009 and won in the General Election 2009 from Moradabad Constituency defeating his rival Sarvesh Kumar Singh of BJP.
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