5 Indian cricketers who were one-season wonders in English county cricket

There has been much prose written about Indian cricketers who plied their trade in England when not on international duty in years gone by. For five seasons, Ravi Shastri fired tracer bullets off his blade for Welsh county Glamorgan while the ever-controversial Bishan Singh Bedi spun his way to over 400 wickets for Northamptonshire in a six-year spell.Farokh Engineer must not be forgotten either, a veteran of 154 matches for the Red Rose of Lancashire; and nor should India’s former captain Mohammad Azharuddin, who plundered 11 centuries at Derbyshire in the early 1990s – including seven in 1991.The announcement this week that Cheteshwar Pujara will play at Yorkshire following Younis Khan’s decision to drop out makes him the latest Indian to seek a second home on English shores. He briefly tried out at Derbyshire after the conclusion of India’s unsuccessful Test tour in England last year, but the batsman looks set to be a more permanent addition at Yorkshire this season, the reigning Division One champions.While it remains to be seen whether Pujara becomes a regular face at his newest team, not all Indians hung around at an English county like the aforementioned. A trawl through the archives has produced five names who graced cricket’s oldest domestic circuit for one year only. 

#1 Sachin Tendulkar (Yorkshire)

A teenage Sachin Tendulkar represented the northern county of Yorkshire in 1992 – three years after making his Test debut. In doing so, he secured the accolade of being the first overseas cricketer to ever don the kit of the White Rose club.

Not overawed, the crowd were to be treated to glimpses of his later greatness as he accumulated over 1,000 runs in the Championship, averaging 46.52. His four-day highlight came courtesy of a 96-ball hundred against Durham towards the back-end of the campaign, but in a consistent year he also notched up half-centuries on seven other occasions.

Tendulkar, then not a one-day wonder, was nestled in the middle-order for Yorkshire’s Sunday League matches, but typically, he still made a mark. In a famous Roses contest, the Little Master smacked 107 to boost Yorkshire in their chase of 265, but it wasn’t enough as Lancashire eventually prevailed by four runs. Tendulkar making a ton and his team losing was a trend even then.

He was not to return in 1993 – he never played county cricket again – but reflected on his fleeting appearance as “one of the greatest four-and-a-half months I have spent in my life”.