5 Prominent English cricketers born in a different country
Cricket history is replete with many players born in one country but played cricket for another nation. They do it either for opportunity or money and sometimes because of family pressure.
Fans love to watch them play and appreciate the talent and uniqueness they bring to the wonderful game of cricket. On that note, there have been a lot of English players born outside England - India, South Africa, West Indies, Australia, and Ireland.
Here, we have discussed five of the prominent ones.
#1 Kevin Pietersen
Kevin Pietersen was born in South Africa. He raised his objection to the South African racial quota system in cricket, which favoured the players of colour. To show his dissent, he moved to England for better opportunities. Pietersen made his debut with the English side as a right-hand batsman in 2005 against Australia.
He scored 8181 runs in 104 tests at an average of 47.28. Being a destructive batsman, he performed well in ODIs. His tally stood at 4440 runs at an average of 40.73. He invented "Switch-hit", which became controversial and invited anger from cricket community.
Experts called Kevin as "England's greatest modern batsman." A man for all seasons and all formats - Pietersen also played for IPL and other T20 leagues around the world. He was the most expensive player at IPL auction in 2009, at USD 1.55 million. He equalled Vivian Richards' record of reaching 1000 runs in 21 ODI innings.
#2 Nasser Hussain
You would be surprised to know that Nasser Hussin was born in Chennai, India. When he was a kid, their family moved back to England. When he was younger, he started as a leg-spin bowler, but his father coerced him to take up batting. Nasser was a delightful right hand-batsman, who scored 5764 runs in 96 tests at an average of 37.18. He was a slip fielder and took 67 catches. Nasser was a Skipper of England from 1999 to 2003. Critics call him the man, who changed the English cricket in the new millennium.
Hussain is now a successful commentator in the game of cricket - one who speaks his mind. As a player, he believed Muralidharan chucked, but could not say so. As a commentator, he did not hesitate in calling out Murali a chuck. He sparred with Ravi Shastri over a remark on India's stance on DRS, which became sensational.