During ancient times, cricket was a game only limited to two nations, England and Australia, before colonialism brought it to Asia, Africa, and Central America.
Slowly but steadily its popularity grew manifolds and interests increased in several countries, who took up the sport at the international level and excelled.
Over the last century, cricket turned out to be an international affair and boards started giving opportunities to foreign nationals.
Moreover, situations often force people to migrate from one country to the other. There have been instances when cricketers were born in different nations but ultimately played for a different country.
Today, let’s have a look at the five cricketers who have played international cricket but were born in top countries renowned in the football world:
1. Ashok Gandotra
Former Indian all-rounder Gandotra, went on to represent India in a couple of Test matches in 1969, against New Zealand and Australia.
Gandotra was born to a foreign services officer who was posted at Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Soon, his motherland called him back in Delhi where he played exceptionally well in both school and college level, before managing to represent the country in Tests. Later, he sacrificed his cricketing career to pursue studies.
Brazil is the five-time world cup winning, frenzied soccer nation, which has produced stars such as Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Pele, and now Marcelo, Thiago Silva, and Neymar.
2. Ted Dexter
Dexter, born in Milan in Italy, went on to represent England in international cricket and developed a reputation for being a hard-hitting middle-order batsman.
Dexter represented England in 62 games and amassed over 4500 runs. Further, in his first-class career, he made over 20,000 runs to go down as one of the greats.
Italy is the four-time world cup winners and is yet another soccer-crazy nation, which has its own league ‘Serie A’, which houses some of the giants in club football.
3. Donald Carr
England, over the years, has produced several cricketers who have their roots in a different country. And so were Germany born Donald Carr who represented England in the whites.
Carr became the first player from Germany to play Cricket at the highest level. Germany went on to lift the world cup in the 2014 Fifa World Cup and are one of the giants in world football. Also, Germany has produced stars in Formula One and many other sports.
4. Dick Westcott
Portugal is a European powerhouse which has produced legends, Louis Figo, Nani, and Cristiano Ronaldo, and have recently won the 2016 European Cup.
Born in Lisbon in Portugal, Dick Westcott, went on to play for South Africa at the international level. Westcott featured in five Test matches, where he amassed 166 runs with the best score of 66.
5. Moises Henriques
Another cricketer from Portugal origin, Moises Henriques was deemed as one of the brightest all-rounders produced by Australia.
However, untimely-injuries forced him to be drafted in and out of the side before going out of favour. Henriques also displayed his potential at the international level, although briefly and sporadically.
Henriques remains to be one of the giants of the domestic circuit and is a popular buy in the Indian Premier League (IPL), where he has appeared for several franchises. Henriques is a loyal Sydney Sixer in the Big Bash League (BBL), for whom he has won the T20 league title with.
