There have been many cricketers over the years who were born in one country but played for another country and one of the main reasons behind that is the lack of opportunities or the lack of smoothness in the cricketing infrastructure of their native country.
However, in some of the cases, the cricketers have also moved to a different country for family or professional reasons and then have ended up playing for their adopted countries rather than native ones. Here are the 5 cricketers who were born in one country, but played for another country –
#1 Ben Stokes (England)
Ben Stokes is a New Zealand native and is the son of Gerard Stokes who was a rugby player from the Kiwi-land. The Stokes family moved from New Zealand to England when Ben Stokes was a teenager and Stokes learnt most of his cricket in the English cricketing set-up.
However, when Stokes was a first-class player in England and had also already made his international debut for England, Stokes’s family moved back to their native country. Stokes stayed put in the UK with his wife and kids and visited New Zealand from time to time until very recently when his father was diagnosed with brain cancer.
#2 Neil Wagner (New Zealand)
Neil Wagner is a South African native and his story is a little bit different to that of Stokes. Wagner actually played a lot of first-class cricket in South Africa and was even named the 12th man of South Africa on a couple of occasions, but at 22 years of age, he eventually decided to move to New Zealand in search of opportunities to play at the international level.
Wagner didn’t have to wait for a long time for his opportunity in New Zealand as he was drafted into the national set-up soon and he is currently one of the regulars for New Zealand in Test match cricket. The left-arm fast bowler, who is currently 34 years of age, has grabbed 219 wickets in 51 Test matches so far.
#3 Darren Pattinson (England)
Darren Pattinson is the brother of the currently active Australian cricketer James Pattinson, but he represented England in Test match cricket rather than Australia and the story of his debut for England is one of the most interesting stories in the history of Cricket.
Pattinson was born in England which made him eligible to play for England, but he was a native Australian who started his first-class career playing for Victoria and then he signed a 2-year deal with the English county Nottinghamshire. Because of Pattinson’s excellent form for Nottinghamshire, the English selectors decided to draft him into the Test team when Ryan Sidebottom got injured ahead of one of the Test matches in 2008. That decision was, however, widely criticized later by the pundits in England.
#4 Imran Tahir (South Africa)
Imran Tahir was born in Pakistan and was even selected in the Pakistan U19 team at one stage, but he then moved to England to play a bit of county cricket before eventually moving to South Africa where there were not too many quality spinners at that stage.
Tahir got a contract in domestic cricket in South Africa and was later noticed by the national selectors as well who got him picked for the South African national team and he went on to represent the Proteas in all three formats of the game.
#5 Eoin Morgan (England)
Eoin Morgan was born in Dublin, Ireland and even played international cricket at the senior level for Ireland before getting the opportunity to play for England in white ball cricket which he grabbed with both hands. Morgan, who started his England career as a charismatic left-handed middle order batter, was later named the captain of the England team as well in ODI and T20I cricket.
Morgan won the ODI World Cup with England in 2019 and is currently regarded as one of the best white-ball captains going around the world. The Irish southpaw was once a part of the England Test team as well, but his Test career was quite brief as compared to his white-ball career.
