Two cricketers make debut in team Yogi in Uttar Pradesh

Lucknow: Various caste equations were taken into account while forming Uttar Pradesh's 44 member-council of minister. As far as sports is considered, Cricket is the only sport which got place in UP ministry.

There are two sportsperson in the ministry and incidentally both are former cricketers.

Also read: The lone Muslim minister in UP promises better performance than in cricket

Along with Hindutva mascot Yogi Adityanath and his council of ministers, two cricketers- Chetan Chauhan and Mohsin Raza from 1980s also took oath at the swearing-in ceremony held at Smriti Upwan here on Sunday.

The newstrack.com will take you closer to the journey of these two cricketers.

Chetan Chauhan:

• This Bareilly born cricketer represented India in 40 Test matches.
• He was the regular opener of the side along with Cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar
• Both Chetan and Gavaskar shared 913 runs in 1979/80 season.
• His father was an Indian Army officer.
• He completed graduation from the Wadia College in Pune.
• Chauhan was coached by the former Maharashtra player Kamal Bhandarkar
• Chetan Chauhan retired from International Cricket after scoring 2000 Test runs with no any ton.
• Chauhan was appointed as the Chairman of NIFT in June 2016.
• He was the two-term MP from Amroha.

Mohsin Raza:

Mohsin Raza, one of the youngest players to make his cricket debut in Ranji trophy about 33 years ago when he was selected to represent Uttar Pradesh. Destiny had its way as he could not convert his national cricket career into international but in the politics field, he is in the UP council of ministers in four years time since he joined the saffron party.

Talking to newstrack.com immediately after the swearing-in ceremony, the saffron clad cricketer-turned politician said he would like to clear many misconceptions about the BJP. ”I am in consonance with the policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his call to cater to all sections of the society in equitable manner.”

Admitting, he could not fulfill the early promise as a cricketer but sounded doubly sure that he would deliver a knockout performance as a minister of state in UP.