Manoj Prabhakar (born April 15, 1963) is an Indian cricketer. He was a right-arm medium-pace bowler and a lower-order batsman who also opened the innings sometimes for the Indian cricket team until his retirement in 1995/96. He was born in Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh.
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Source: [1], January 23 2006 |
He has taken 96 wickets in Test cricket, 157 wickets in One-day Internationals, and over 385 first class wickets playing for Delhi. He has also played for Durham. Prabhakar is remembered for his bowling which was his strongest suit; using slower balls, and outswingers and opening the bowling. He was also a useful lower-order batsman and a defensive opener.
He was booed on his home ground at Delhi while giving too many runs (4-0-47-0) against Sri Lanka in the 1995/96 World Cup.This was mainly thanks to Romesh Kaluwitharana and Sanath Jayasuriya. Sri Lanka scored 42 runs off their first 3 overs in the match and Prabhakar went for 33 runs off his 2 overs,which included a six and six fours.He bowled off-spin for his 2nd spell of 2 overs.Therefore he was dropped for the next match and the next series which was played against England.
He was banned from international cricket for his alleged involvement in the match-fixing controversy that he tried to implicate others in. He continued to make news, entering politics and standing unsuccessfully for the Parliament. He was also investigated for match fixing and later banned.[2]