Kirti Azad

A member of India's 1983 World Cup-winning cricket team, later MP for Darbhanga.

Kirti Azad — AI-generated illustration in the Mithila (Madhubani) style
AI illustration (Pollinations · FLUX) · Generated in Madhubani style · CC0

Kirti Azad (b. 1959), son of the Maithil Chief Minister Bhagwat Jha Azad, was an all-rounder in the Indian side that won the 1983 Cricket World Cup — his bowling famously containing Ian Botham in the Lord’s semi-final. A right-hand batsman and off-spinner, he played Tests and one-day internationals through the 1980s.

In public life he carried the family’s political mantle, winning the Darbhanga Lok Sabha seat in 2014. Outspoken to a fault, he remains one of the most recognisable Maithil faces in Indian sport and politics alike.

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