I can’t believe that Yashpal Sharma is not with us, I have many pleasant memories with him: Madan Lal

Madan Lal expressed shock after hearing the news of the death of his former Indian national team teammate Yashpal Sharma. Yashpal, who along with Madan Lal was part of the Indian team that won the 1983 World Cup, died of cardiac arrest on Tuesday morning.

“Can’t believe that he is no more. I have lot of memories with him. We started off from Punjab and I played the World Cup with him,” Lal told Aaj Tak.

Lal said that Kapil Dev, who was captain of the World Cup winning team, called him after hearing the news.

“Just now Kapil called. Everyone is shocked now. His cricket career is among the best. We met at a book launch recently and I can’t believe it,” he said.

Kirti Azad, also a member of the team that won in 1983, said that the “family” is now broken. “Our family has broken. He set the agenda for us in ’83 World Cup. We met on June 25 and he was happy then. I am wordless, he was the fittest among us,” he said.

Notably, Yashpal Sharma was India’s top-scorer in the World Cup 1983 semi-final against hosts England where he scored 61 runs and was involved in a match-winning 92-run stand with Mohinder Amarnath for the third wicket

Yashpal represented India in 37 ODIs and 42 Tests and was a crucial part of the Indian middle-order from 1979-83. He also served as a national selector for a couple of years and was reappointed to the panel in 2008.