Haryana announces Rs 2.1 mn for Joginder

CHANDIGARH: It is raining cash for Indian medium pacer Joginder Sharma. Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Tuesday announced a cash reward of Rs 2.1 mn for the bowler who skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni asked to bowl the crucial last over against both Pakistan and Australia in the just concluded Twenty20 World Championships in South Africa.

Sharma's last over in the final against Pakistan at Johannesburg on Monday evening was a roller-coaster for the Rohtak bowler and his team after he was hit for a second ball for six but ended up on the winning side by having Misbah-ul Haq caught by S Sreesanth off the next delivery.

He had bowled the final over in the semi-final match against World Cup champions Australia Saturday and took two wickets.

The Haryana chief minister, while announcing the reward, said, "He took the crucial wicket of Misbah in the final over at a time when the match could turn in favour of Pakistan."

Hooda has been a club level cricketer himself.

The Haryana government had announced on Monday a reward of Rs 200,000 for Sharma. On top of that the medium pacer also earned Rs 100,000 for the four wickets he claimed during the fortnight-long tournament.

Sharma not only bagged the wicket of Misbah, the batsman who virtually took the game away from India with his lusty hitting in the last three overs, but had also claimed the crucial wicket of Younis Khan earlier to put the brakes on Pakistan's chase.

Sharma, who hails from Rohtak about 100 km west of Delhi, was recently appointed a deputy superintendent of police by the state government.

'Sixer Singh' Yuvraj Singh's father and former India player Yograj Singh said he would set up a cricket academy at his native village near Ludhiana to train village boys in the game.

"I particularly want to train good bowlers," Yograj, a contemporary of the legendary Kapil Dev, who played one Test and six one-day internationals for India, said on Tuesday.

Yograj, himself not very successful in international cricket, pulled his son Yuvraj away from roller skating to train him as a cricketer.