Representing your country in any sport is a matter of pride for any sportsperson. No matter which sport you are playing, representing your country is always the ultimate dream. However, there are players who are good enough to play for more than one country. Cricket is a sport that doesn’t involve many countries and thus a cricketer representing two nations is quite an achievement.
There have been 26 Cricketers who have played for one or more nations in the whole Cricketing history. In the early days, there were no rules which decided which nation a player would represent. However, more recently, ICC has formulated a criteria for players to switch nations. Of the 26 players who represented two countries, many kept swapping between Associate Nations of ICC recently. Our list of 11 Cricketers involves players who played for a long period of time for at least one regular member nation of ICC.
Billy Midwinter
Billy Midwinter was the first cricketer to represent two nations. He swapped his national team twice. He started playing cricket for Australia in 1887 and played just two matches. Four years later, he played for England in 1881-82 during which he appeared in four test matches. An year later, he was playing for Australia again.
Iftikhar Ali Khan
Iftikhar Ali Khan, the 8th Nawab of Pataudi, is the only cricketer to represent both India and England. He played 3 test matches for England first during 1932-34. Twelve years later he played three test matches for India in 1946.
Eoin Morgan
Eoin Morgan, the current T20 and ODI Captain of England, first played for his home country Ireland. He is the first of the only two players in the history to have scored an ODI century for two different nations.
Roelof Van Der Merwe
Roelof Van Der Merwe played for both South Africa and Netherlands. He first made his debut for South Africa before swapping his national team with the Netherlands. He still plays for the Netherlands in T20 cricket.
Ed Joyce
Ed Joyce made a sensational debut for England as an opener and went on to play 17 ODIs before moving out to play for Ireland. He retired last year in an ODI against Pakistan.
Dirk Nannes
Dirk Nannes born in Melbourne, Australia, represented both Australia and Netherlands on the cricketing field. He played just one ODI and that for Australia before shifting all his attention to T20 cricket. He is one of the first freelance cricketers. He first played two matches for the Netherlands and then got selected for the Australian side. He has appeared in 15 teams all over the globe.
Luke Ronchi
Luke Ronchi is the only player to play for both Australia and New Zealand. He established himself as a wicket-keeper batsman in the Australian Domestic circuit. He moved to his native country New Zealand in 2013.
Geraint Jones
A popular face in the Ashes winning England side of 2005, Geraint Jones played for both England and his Native land Papua New Guinea. He played his last international match for Papua New Guinea against Hong Kong on 9 November 2014.
Kepler Wessels
Kepler Wessels played both ODI and Test cricket for both Australia and South Africa. He made his debut for Australia before turning up for South Africa. He captained South Africa and played his last match for them.
Abdul Hafeez Kardar
Abdul Hafeez Kardar is one of the three cricketers who played for both India and Pakistan. He played three tests for India before moving to Pakistan where he played a total of 23 tests. The other two players to play for India and Pakistan were Gul Mohammad and Amir Elahi.
Cricket has always been an amusing sport for all we Indians. These players redefine boundaries and connect two countries through the medium of sports. Do let us know who was your favorite in this list in our comments section below.