Part II: Overseas-born cricketers to play Tests for England and for India

By Kersi Meher-Homji

In Part I, we had a look of overseas-born Australian Test cricketers. Now let’s widen our periscope and enumerate overseas-born cricketers to play Test matches for England and India.

Did you know that 16 India-born cricketers played for England?

They are K.S. Ranjitsinhji (”˜Ranji’), Edward Wynyard, Richard Young, Neville Tufnell, Douglas Jardine, K.S. Duleepsinhji (”˜Duleep’), Nawab of Pataudi, sr., Errol Holmes, Norman Mitchell-Innes, George Emmett, Colin Cowdrey, John Jameson, Bob Woolmer, Robin Jackman, Nasser Hussain, Minal Patel.

Of these Ranji, Duleep, Nawab of Pataudi Sr,  S.  Jardine and Cowdrey are legendary. The first three represented England as India played her inaugural Test match much later, in 1932. Nawab of Pataudi subsequently played for India, captaining her on the tour of England in 1946.

In all, 61 overseas-born players from 15 countries ”“ including unlikely places like Peru, Hong Kong, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Papua New Guinea ”“ have played Test cricket for England. (Those born in Scotland, Wales and Ireland are not included in this list, for example Wales-born reverse-swing quickie Simon Jones).

AUSTRALIA:   Billy Murdoch, John Ferris, Sammy Woods, Albert Trott, ‘Gubby’ Allen, Adam Hollioake, Ben Hollioake, Jason Gallian, Tim Ambrose.

SOUTH AFRICA: Basil D’Oliviera, Tony Greig, Ian Greig, Allan Lamb, Chris Smith, Robin Smith, Andrew Strauss, Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior, Ian Trott.

WEST INDIES: Lord Harris, Pelham Warner, Roland Butcher, Norman Cowans, Wilf Slack, Gladstone Small, Phillip DeFreitas, Devon Malcolm, Chris Lewis, Neil Williams, Joseph Benjamin.

NEW ZEALAND: Andy Caddick.

INDIA:  See the list above.

PAKISTAN: Usman Afzaal, Owais Shah.

ZIMBABWE (formerly Rhodesia): Graeme Hick, Paul Parker.

KENYA: Derek Pringle.

ZAMBIA: Phil Edmonds, Neil Radford.

GERMANY: Donald Carr, Paul Terry.

ITALY: Ted Dexter.

PERU: Freddie Brown.

HONG KONG: Dermot Reeve.

PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Geraint Jones.

DENMARK: Amjad Khan.

Incredibly, seven overseas-born cricketers from five countries represented England in the first Test against New Zealand at Christchurch in January 1992. They were Hick (born in Zimbabwe), Lamb and Robin Smith (South Africa), Pringle (Kenya), Lewis and DeFreitas (West Indies) and debutant Reeve (Hong Kong).

Only four were “homegrown” Englishmen — skipper Graham Gooch, Alec Stewart, R.C. (Jack) Russell and Phil Tufnell.

England triumphed by an innings, and retaining the same team for the next Test in Auckland, won by 168 runs.

And below is the list of overseas born cricketers of India

Salim Durani                             Kabul, Afghanistan

Ashok Gandotra                   Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Lall Singh                                   Kuala Lumpur, Malaya (now Malaysia)

RR “Robin” Singh           Princes Town, Trinidad, West Indies.

It may be added that Lala Amarnath, Amir Elahi, Dilawar Hussain, Gul Mahomed, Abdul Hafeez Kardar and Man Mohan Sood were born in  Lahore (now in Pakistan),

Jahangir Irani, Gogumal Kishandchand, Pananmal Punjabi and Gulabrai S Ramchand were born in Karachi (now in Pakistan) and

Probir Sen in Comilla (now in Bangladesh).

Abdul Hafeez Kardar later played and captained Pakistan. Also Gul Mahomed later played for Pakistan.

Nobody bothered about dual citizenship those days!

 

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