Saurashtra’s Sheldon Jackson recently was in the news for, well, two different reasons: first when a senior journalist thought Jackson was an overseas player!; then when Jackson finally featured for Kolkata Knight Riders in their IPL 2022 opener against CSK, and made a brilliant stumping of Robin Uthappa.
Jackson was so quick, flawless, and smooth with his stumping that he elicited an appreciation tweet from the great Sachin Tendulkar.
That was an outstanding stumping. @ShelJackson27’s speed reminded me of @msdhoni.
Lightning fast!!
#CSKvKKR
— Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) March 26, 2022
Sheldon Jackson has been a prolific run-scorer in domestic cricket over the years: he averages 50 in 79 first-class matches and 37 in 67 List-A games.
Here, we look at 5 lesser-known facts about Sheldon Jackson:
1)Sheldon was adopted at the age of 4 by his uncle Lester Bell as his family was going through a financial crisis. He lost his father, Philip, at the age of 11. But uncle Bell along with his wife Jennifer and Sheldon’s mother Sederene supported and encouraged him to pursue a cricketing career.
2) Sheldon used to work as Tax Assistant at the Income Tax office. However, he didn’t get support from his office to play cricket. Since Sheldon couldn’t get leaves for playing multi-day games, he had to opt out and play on limited-overs domestic matches.
“I didn’t get support from my department on the leave front. As First Division is a three-day format, I decided to opt out. I signed up for Aruna CC as I had to register for TNPL as well. I will be playing Second Division this season as the matches will be played either on Saturdays or Sundays. Then I can fly down, play the match and leave the same day back home,” Sheldon had said earlier.
3) While Sheldon Jackson has been associated with KKR for a long time, not many people know that his first IPL franchise was RCB. The Bangalore franchise bought him for 10 lakh at the 2013 IPL auction, but he didn’t get to play a game.
He was then bought by KKR and has been there since. He made his IPL debut in 2017, playing four matches. He couldn’t do much then and was benched, only to get the opportunity in IPL 2022.
4) Jackson moved to Puducherry in July 2020 to get more chances but returned to Saurashtra last season.
“This has been one of the hardest decisions that I had to make and it’s not been easy for me but I feel it’s the right time for me to move on and play as a professional in some other state. All my life I will treasure playing for Saurashtra and I’m proud to be associated with Saurashtra cricket,” Sheldon Jackson had said then.
5) Sheldon Jackson got his first call up for Saurashtra’s white-ball team when he was just 18. He said that it was in fact a bit surprising call up and he was on a road trip with his friends when he received the call.
“It is indeed hard to say who found out my talent and nurtured it. The only name that comes to my mind is the Saurashtra cricket association and its talented coaches. In the early days, I can say that I was in good hands; what I learnt from coaches of Saurashtra helped me immensely,” he had said earlier.
Sheldon Jackson also was called up for KKR’s trails in 2009, aged only 23, and impressed everyone there.
