Growing up and coming through the ranks, it’s always a dream for every budding cricketer to go on and represent his country and everyone, preferably, wants to represent the country where he is born, but not everyone gets the chance and even if they get the chance, not everyone necessarily gets a consistent run.
There have been some cricketers in the past who represented two countries at the international level because they were not given as many opportunities in the national set-up of the first country they represented.
Here are the 5 cricketers who changed their nationality in the middle of their respective international careers –
#1 Kepler Wessels:
When South Africa made its comeback to international cricket after the apartheid era, Kepler Wessels was put in charge of the South African national team, but before making his debut for South Africa, Wessels had already played Test match cricket for Australia.
Wessels featured in South African colors only in the latter half of his career and probably couldn’t offer South Africa as much as he could have offered if the apartheid ban was not there.
#2 Eoin Morgan:
Eoin Morgan, under whose captaincy England won the ODI World Cup last year, is originally an Irish international and burst onto the scene playing for Ireland in the 2007 ODI World Cup.
Morgan, however, switched to England only a couple of years later and managed to get capped for England in all three formats of the game.
The left-hander was given the England captaincy in unusual circumstances just before the 2015 ODI World Cup and although he couldn’t guide the team to the knockouts in that tournament, he built an incredibly strong team in the next four years and helped England clinch their first-ever ODI World Cup title in 2019.
#3 Roelof van der Merwe:
Roelof van der Merwe is a spin bowling all-rounder who has played for South Africa and Netherlands. He was a really promising talent when he first turned up for the Proteas, but he couldn’t have a long international career in South African jersey as many thought he would have.
Van der Merwe is one of the vital cogs of Netherlands set-up at the moment.
#4 Abdul Hafeez Kardar:
Abdul Hafeez Kardar has played for India and Pakistan, two of the bitterest rivals in the history of the game. When he started his career in 1946, India was still ruled by the British regime and India and Pakistan were not separated. So, he featured for India on their tour to England in 1946. However, he switched to Pakistan after the partition.
#5 Dirk Nannes:
Dirk Nannes, who is one of the express fast bowlers from Australia, played his entire junior cricket down under, but because of the fact that he was consistently getting overlooked by the Australian national selectors, he decided to switch to Netherlands in his bid to play international cricket.
Nannes got the opportunity to feature for Netherlands at the international level soon and later, he returned home to play international cricket for Australia as well.
