Sheldon Jackson Bio, Wiki, Nationality, Age, Girlfriend, Parents & Net Worth

Who is Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) Player Sheldon Jackson?

A 35-year-old Gujarati cricketer named Sheldon Jackson (born on September 27, 1986) became a topic of talk after making his comeback in IPL after the team KKR paid 60 lakh price for him.

He is an all-rounder player who knows how to catch a ball behind the stumps. After the poor performance in 2021, there was a need for the KKR franchise to make changes, and they made no mistake in adding Jackson as its team member.

Jackson plays for the Saurashtra cricket team, and he was selected in Kakar in 2009, with which his IPL career started. Other than facts regarding his career, we will also introduce you to his personal life, so keep reading.

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Starting from a 100 sq. ft. room.

Sheldon Jackson (age 35 years) was born in a Christian – Greek Orthodox family of Bhavnagar, Gujarat, India, on September 27, 1986. In childhood, he faced many ups and downs. He was sent to a Christian boarding school, where the Institute paid for his education. The basic rule was there that Jackson had to keep his percentage above 80% or else then the scholarship would go away.

At 13, he failed in standard 7th and was thrown out of the hostel, after which Sheldon came back home; the cricketer was seeing it was tough for his mother Sedrene Jackson to take care of him and his sister, in the absence of Sheldon’s father.

So she was the only one who was doing everything. The house they used to live in was only a single room of approximately 100 sq. ft.

Beginning of Career

Jackson has always enjoyed the sport from a very young age. Sedrene’s son played a lot when he was a kid because Gully cricket is huge in Gujarat. So apparently, there was the state under 14 selections happening at that time. A coach over there at his Academy told him to go and see what happens and what doesn’t happen.

They sent him to Rajcoat for the Saurashtra under-14 selections, where he was selected purely as a wicketkeeper and bat at number 10 or 11, but in reality, he was not even a wicketkeeper. Shelly was an off-spinner, one day, a fielding drill was going on, and a player was absent; the coach passed him gloves and told him to do wicket-keeping.

His style of stopping two or three balls impressed his coach so much that he told him to quit off-spin and focus on his catching skills.

KKR’s talent heads Joydeep Mukherjee and John Buchanan saw him hitting a fast bowler above covers, and they called him for the trials. Even during the trials, he repeatedly kept on hitting fast bowlers above cover and at that time when it was customary for an International class but not for a domestic player.

They both called him exceptional talent and then started to invest in him, and that year, Sheldon was with KKR in the Academy. Unluckily, he did not get an opportunity to play with the team that year which he considers a blessing in disguise as he was neither technique-wise nor mentally prepared.

Sheldon Jackson’s Job as a Banker

At that time, he knew that cricket was there, but along with that, he started thinking about taking some other job because back in that time, there was not a lot of money in cricket. And he used to get Rs. 3000 a match. So he then began thinking that he’ll start doing a part-time job or something like that.

At the age of 25, Jackson thought of giving up cricket totally and starting a banking job where he had to sell car loans to the customers, but his mother was against that decision. Also, a friend named Mr. Shapath Shah advised him not to leave the game after so many years of hard work.

That year the Gujarati guy broke every record in the country, became the highest run-scorer, and played everything except for India.

Selling Panipuri on Roads

The KKR player only focused on cricket and nothing else since childhood. While an interview, he said, ” I don’t know, I would be selling Panipuri on the roads. If I cricket would not have been kind to me, I would have been selling Panipuri on the roads.”

Return to KKR

Once, he was playing a Ranji Trophy match against Delhi. After scoring 50 runs against a perfect bowling attack of Delhi, he went up to Gautam Gambhir (his idol) and asked him for suggestions regarding his batting.

Gauti told him that he was playing well and would pick him up during the auctions. Jackson thought that maybe he was saying to keep his heart. And when the auction time came, he went unsold in the first round, and someone from the KKR management called him and said: “don’t worry, Gautam Gambhir called us just now, and he said to go for you, we’ll go for you.” And this is how he got picked for KKR.

Who is Sheldon Jackson’s Wife?

The bad news for female fans of Jackson is that he is happily married to a lady named Varada Jackson, and this wedding happened after a years-long love affair. They both also have a baby boy named Noah. One more member of the Jackson family is a Yellow colored Labrador named Casper.

Whenever the games get scheduled for a long time, things get tough for Varada and her son, so they visit him. It is the part of a cricket player’s personal life that he has to face.