Every cricketer who makes it to the highest level puts in a lot of effort to represent the country at the international stage. Each time a player gets a debut cap for his national team is one of the most cherished moments of his life. However, there are incidences when a player is shown the way out as a result of a fallout between the team members. It is as unfortunate as it can get for someone who does the hard yards to progress to the senior-most level. Such politics in the team is something that most teams try to avoid these days.
Here’s a look at 5 cricketers whose career came to an end due to politics:
1. Ambati Rayudu
Indian middle-order batsman Ambati Rayudu had a miserable time while being the Indian team. Till early 2019, Rayudu had almost earned that No.4 spot in the Indian middle-order. However, an awful outing against Australia in the ODI series, saw him ruled out of the World Cup squad. He felt undone by the call and had to call it a quit mid-way during the CWC 2019. However, he later announced his move to come out of retirement to express his availability to be available for all formats.
2. Gautam Gambhir
Gautam Gambhir is one of the few Indian players who did well in his maiden World Cup and still never got an opportunity to prove his worth in the next showpiece event. After India’s World Cup-winning campaign in 2011, Gambhir didn’t continue for long. He was a part of the Test team on a couple of occasions in 2014 and 2016 but was soon left out sans any legitimate reasons. He last played an ODI for India against England in Dharamsala in 2013. It was often believed that his conflicting relations with skipper Dhoni became one of the reasons for his ouster from the team.
3. Andrew Symonds
Andre Symonds was one such cricketer who had a rather controversial career. He was at the heart of events of the Monkeygate Scandal before he fell prey to a fallout with one of his own teammates. Symonds’ career was cut short after he was sent back mid-way through an ODI series against Bangladesh in 2008 after the all-rounder opted to go fishing rather than attending the team meeting. Later, there were claims that fall-out between the then vice-captain Michael Clarke and Symonds, also became one of the main reasons why Symonds career didn’t thrive for too long.
4. Kevin Pietersen
The stylish England batsman, Kevin Pietersen was a blockbuster player during his tenure as an English cricketer. He had his funky own style that would easily separate him from the rest. However, his hampered relations with skipper Andre Strauss and coach Andy Flower didn’t allow him to prolong his career as an international player. Pietersen held conflicting views with Strauss on issues such as playing in T20 league such as IPL. At one such stage, Pietersen was making the headlines even for things that didn’t pertain to cricket.
5. Shoaib Akhtar
The former Pakistani speedster, Shoaib Akhtar fell prey to the team politics. Shoaib, who was in Pakistan’s 2011 World Cup squad, still regrets of not playing in the Semi-Final game against India. He believed he was fit enough to feature in the playing XI but the team management and captain Shahid Afridi was adamant to play youngster Wahab Riaz. Akhtar never got an opportunity to play again for Pakistan and had to call time upon his international career.
