Before the world entered into a lockdown, Iceland hogged the limelight when it offered its citizenship to Ambati Rayudu in case if the middle-order batsman chose to play cricket for them. This announcement sparked the sounds for all the right reasons.
In a world where playing for one nation itself is a dream come true for an athlete, there are fabled legends who have gone on to play for two nations in the sport.
The first man on this elite list is the genesis of Pakistani cricket as he was the first captain of the Pakistani cricket team. Before playing for Pakistan, he went on to play three tests for India. That was when India was still due to registering their independence from colonialism.
#1 Abdul Hafeez Kardar
Once India was freed from the clutches of the British which also led to the formation of Pakistan, Abdul Hafeez Kardar took over the reins of the Pakistani cricket team and was nominated as the first skipper of the team. In the due course of 6 years that Kardar went on to play for Pakistan, he amassed 874 runs from the 23 games that he was a part of.
#2 Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi
Father of Tiger Ali Pataudi, the man who changed the face of Indian cricket through his royal aggression, Nawab of Pataudi Sr went on to play for both England and India.
He played for the English cricket team in 1932 and 1934 before captaining India on their tour of England. He played 6 tests in all which saw him notching up 199 international runs. It was the senior Nawab who planted the seed of India’s cricketing glitterati of the posterity.
#3 Luke Ronchi
Born in New Zealand, Luke Ronchi was brought up in Australia and went on to play his first ODI for them as he took over the stead of an injured Brad Haddin. He went on to play for 4 ODI’s and a T20I and left an impressive mark before Haddin eventually took over his place back in the international squad.
He then switched his allegiance to New Zealand for whom he played a lion’s share of his career, scoring 1321 runs from the 81 games that he played, which also featured a career-best of 170 not out.
#4 Eoin Morgan
One of the finest middle-order batsmen for England didn’t start his cricketing career for the English side. He started his cricket days for Ireland and went on to impress everyone with his limited performances for one of the best associate nations of all time. Amassing 744 runs from the 23 games that he played in the Irish jersey he shortly started opening up the possibility of playing for England.
The English side couldn’t simply give up the opportunity of bringing such a talented batsman on board and the southpaw started emitting sparks of brilliance shortly as he managed to rack up 6624 runs from 213 games, smashing 12 centuries in the process.
#5 Keppler Wessels
There is only one cricketer who has managed to be successful for both the countries that he has played for. Wessels played 50 matches each for both the countries while he is also the only player to score more than 1000 runs for both the countries.
He managed to score 1761 runs for Australia while his exploits in South Africa include 1027 runs from 16 Test matches. He also went on to captain South Africa towards the end of his cricketing career.
