Though Cricket and Politics seem to be far off the topic from each other. But, apparently, there are cricketers who lost their career in cricket due to politics. It takes a lot of hard work, practice, and courage to be present in the middle of a crowd cheering out loud of the team you represent. Though it definitely is nerve-wracking, a moment of pride to the cricketer as well. All cricketers dream of the moment at least once in life. But what they don’t dream of, is their careers getting shattered and destroyed just because of dirty and unjustifiable politics played.
Here’s a list of cricketers, whose career got bashed due to politics:
1. Ambati Rayudu
The Indian middle-order batsman. He reached his well-deserved No. 4 spots. In those days it was very difficult for a cricketer to reach that point, but him being the best in his field he reached. But luck wasn’t on his side, due to a terrible match with Australia in the ODI series, he was out-listed from the world cup cricket team. Due to that decision, he called his part off midway during the CWC 2019 series. This caused a backlash to his cricketing career, making it a hurdle for him to reach the position he dreamt of.
2. Gautam Gambhir
Being one of the very famous players and one of the recognized faces, he did lose his career due to politics as well. He did make it up to the World Cup squad, representing India but never got an opportunity to showcase his talents after that. It was believed that as he has a skipper with Dhoni he wasn’t approached with offers. Though he was appointed as the captain of the KKR team during the IPL, that didn’t last for so long as well. He last played an ODI for India against England and after that, he left, without stating any valid or known reasons.
3. Andrew Symonds
Having a conflict with the captain and the vice-captain of the official team turns out to be one of the most prominent reasons for Andrew’s backlift in cricket. He had a very controversial career timeline. His tenure was cut short after he was sent back midway through an ODI series against Bangladesh in 2008. Thus his career and his appearance in the cricket team were cut short.
4. Kevin Pietersen
This England batsman was one of the fan favorites. His personalized style, way of handling, and playing made him off guard from every other cricket player. But his hampered relationship with coach Andy Flower made a setback to his career. He wasn’t really given an opportunity to play on the big fields of cricket. During premier leagues like IPL, he was blamed on things he probably never did. A lot of unnecessary drama pertained to his name. Also, after a while, he got in the headline of a newspaper, which did not have any relation to what he did. Well, maybe fake blame, or something the media planned on about, who really knows anyway?
5. Shoaib Akhtar
The amazing Pakistani cricketer wasn’t really given a chance to show off his skills on a bigger platform. Just because the captain wanted a younger team and not a team with old players during the world cup finals. Thus, due to politics and unjustifiable decisions, his career got blacklisted.
The five names mentioned above are just the renowned cricketers. But there are a lot more cricketers who do not make it to the big platforms just because of the politics played in the sports team as well. Shattering dreams just because of their own favor is a very favorable action taken by the team heads and coaches. But as if they’re interested in building up a really strong team anyway. It’s all about them.