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Cricketing politicians

Marius

International Debutant
I see Monty Panesar wants to stand for Parliament for George Galloway's Workers' Party.


That made me think, how many Test or international cricketers stood for Parliament in their respective countries.

Imran Khan is the main one obviously, but off the top of my head I can think of Nathan Bracken in Aus and Clive van Ryneveld in SA.

I seem to remember Gautam Gambhir also doing something similar in India but perhaps I am misremembering.
 

Starfighter

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Sam Loxton was an MLA in Victoria for sixteen years.

Carl Rackemann stood in a Queensland state election a while ago.

Ted Dexter infamously lost one.
 
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Yeoman

U19 Vice-Captain
Alec Douglas-Hume, U.K. prime minister in 1963-4, played around 10 first class games in the 1920s.

CB Fry stood several times as a Liberal but was not elected.

Alfred Lyttleton, who kept wicket for England in the ‘Ashes’ test of 1882, later became an MP and minister.
 

peterhrt

U19 Cricketer
FS Jackson
Learie Constantine
Clive van Ryneveld
Gil Langley
Frank Worrell
Tom Veivers
Kirti Azad
Chetan Chauhan
Manoj Tiwari (white ball only)

Also seem to recall that Clive Lloyd assisted Guyanese leader Forbes Burnham in some capacity.
 

BoyBrumby

Englishman
Arthur Gilligan (former England captain and famously the MCC president who presided over the D'Oliveira Affair) was a member of the British Fascists (the first British party to lay claim to the "fascist" label, fact fans) in the 20s.

He reputedly came to the attention of the Australian secret service during the 24/25 Ashes for setting up small groups of fascists down under.

Good guy, obvz.

Alec Bedser (yes, that one), coincidentally was one of the selectors who conveniently didn't select Dolly, was a member of the not-fascist-themselves-but-popular-with-fascists Freedom Association, who campaigned against trades unions & the Common Market (as was), and for maintenance of links with Apartheid era RSA.

So, um, yeah.
 

howitzer

State Vice-Captain
Clive van Ryneveld being one of the most high-profile opponents to early apartheid must be worth a mention.
 

howitzer

State Vice-Captain
Arthur Gilligan (former England captain and famously the MCC president who presided over the D'Oliveira Affair) was a member of the British Fascists (the first British party to lay claim to the "fascist" label, fact fans) in the 20s.

He reputedly came to the attention of the Australian secret service during the 24/25 Ashes for setting up small groups of fascists down under.

Good guy, obvz.

Alec Bedser (yes, that one), coincidentally was one of the selectors who conveniently didn't select Dolly, was a member of the not-fascist-themselves-but-popular-with-fascists Freedom Association, who campaigned against trades unions & the Common Market (as was), and for maintenance of links with Apartheid era RSA.

So, um, yeah.
Hobbs apparently disliked Gilligan, unusual given he was usually a very amenable person. A good judge of character, perhaps.
 

Chubb

International Regular
Ed Cowan is a big time Liberal but he's not stood for them AFAIK. Just appeared in endorsement videos.

If you play cricket in Wellington you will occasionally encounter politicians who play socially, not quite the same thing, but you learn a lot about a guy from how they conduct themselves. Campbell Barry the Mayor of Hutt City is a good bowler but a horrible person. He actually told me I was a "****ing **** loser who shouldn't bother playing cricket" among other things. Kieran McAnulty is a social cricketer and not the worst bowler I've ever kept to, and is also a very nice person in my experience.
 

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