Australian prime minister Bob Hawke pads up and waits to go to bat in a Prime Minister's XI vs Aboriginal XI match at the Manuka Oval in 1988 © Fairfax Media/Getty Images

"Don't bring politics into cricket" is the rallying cry of many a cricket fan, but politics and cricket have been always been inextricably intertwined. Maybe it's the strong opinions and large crowds both draw, but from politicking cricketers to statesmen who have tried their hand at the game, the two fields have long been bedfellows.

Bob Hawke, the former Australia prime minister, was spotted skulling a beer at a cricket match as often as he was at state functions. He succeeded another cricket tragic, Robert Menzies, who established the Prime Minister's XI matches (and once convinced Don Bradman to play in them). Hawke played grade cricket for Sydney, but his most famous cricket moment came during a Parlimentarians vs Press match in 1984, when he took a cricket ball to the face and cut his right eye - he returned to watch the match after getting a few stitches.

The All-India cricket team that toured England in 1911. Palwankar Baloo is seated on the ground © Getty Images

India has had a long history of cricketers who turned to politics after retirement, from those who have been elected to the house as members of parliament, like Sachin Tendulkar, to those who have contested elections and won, like Gautam Gambhir for the BJP in 2019. The very first player to make the switch was also part of the first Indian team to tour England, way back in 1911. Palwankar Baloo was a slow left-armer and the star performer of the All-India 1911 squad, who became a political activist for Dalit rights after retirement. In 1937, he contested the Bombay Legislative Assembly elections, and lost - to a certain BR Ambedkar.

It should surprise no one that CB Fry tried his hand at politics, considering his many talents - he represented England in cricket and football, broke the high jump and long jump records, played rugby, taught in a naval school, went to the League of Nations as assistant to Ranjitsinhji, and reportedly turned down the throne of Albania. His political run was less fruitful: he stood as a Liberal candidate from Brighton in 1922 but lost, and went on to lose twice more, from Banbury and Oxford, before giving up his political aspirations.

CB Fry (leftmost) walks back after filing his nomination to parliament for the Brighton constituency © Mirrorpix/Getty Images

Pakistan is the only Asian country to have not one but two cricketing prime ministers. Imran Khan is undoubtedly the more famous cricketer, but his main opposition, former premier Nawaz Sharif, was a right-hand batter who scored a duck in the only first-class game he played, for Railways against Pakistan International Airways in 1973-74. Sharif ran against Imran in 2013 and won, serving his third term as Pakistan's prime minister only to be ousted by Imran, who took over in 2018. In 1991, Sharif was part of an extraordinary cricket match - Masud Mahdi writes about how his father, then Pakistan's high commissioner to Zimbabwe, organised a three-over game between Commonwealth heads of state, including John Major and Bob Hawke, presided over by Robert Mugabe. Sharif had more luck in this match - he managed a few fours and even a six.

Nawaz Sharif pads up to play in Harare © Masud Mahdi

Once tipped to be a future prime minister of India, Madhavrao Scindia, from the erstwhile royal family of Gwalior, who completed his schooling from Oxford was a keen cricket enthusiast and BCCI president from 1990 to 1993. He died at the age of 56 in a plane crash.

Madhavrao Scindia bats at an exhibition match Sharad Saxena / © The India Today Group/Getty Images

Clement Attlee, Britain's prime minister between 1945 and 1951, never played cricket but had a deep and abiding love for the game and a head for stats and scores. He reportedly installed a newswire machine at 10 Downing Street, which he used only to keep track of county scores, and his beloved Surrey, in the summer months.

Clement Attlee watches a Test between England and India at The Oval in 1946 © Getty Images

Alec Douglas-Home is the only British prime minister to have actually played cricket at the first-class level - he was part pf ten matches in the 1920s, playing for six teams, including Middlesex and Oxford University, and was part of the MCC squad to South America under Pelham Warner. He was only prime minister for a year, from 1963 to 1964, but would go on to become the head of the MCC.

Douglas-Home bats for Lords and Commons CC in a one-day cricket match at the Oval against an Egyptian team in 1951 © Hulton Archive/Getty Images

John Major, British prime minister from 1990 to 1997, was not just a keen cricket enthusiast but also a promising cricketer in his youth before a plane crash injury ended his playing days. He was a devoted Surrey man all his life, becoming president of the club in 2000, and when his party was ousted in 1997 and he had to step down as prime minister, he ended his resignation speech by saying, "I hope that Norma and I will be able, with the children, to get to The Oval in time for lunch and for some cricket this afternoon."

John Major bowls in the nets at Somerset cricket club's indoor cricket school at Taunton in 1995 © Getty Images

Former Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Mortaza took a break after the Bangladesh-West Indies ODI series in 2018 to nurse a hamstring injury and campaign for a parliament seat from Narail, his home district. He won by a massive 96%, becoming the first active cricketer to become a member of parliament.

Mashrafe Mortaza on the campaign trail in Narail © Ariful Islam Roney

The Right Honourable Lord Constantine, as Learie Constantine was later known, was a fast bowler who was part of the West Indies teams that toured England in 1923 and 1928. He then moved to England to find better opportunities in cricket and joined the Nelson cricket club in the Lancashire League while continuing to play cricket for West Indies on tours to England and Australia. He joined the ministry of Labour and National Service during WWII, going on to qualify as a barrister while also dabbling in journalism and broadcasting. In 1943 he sued a hotel company for discrimination on the basis of race, and won in a landmark judgement that provoked his move into politics. He returned to Trinidad and Tobago and was high commissioner to Britain in 1961. In 1969 he was awarded a peerage, becoming the first black man to sit in the House of Lords.

Learie Constantine on his way to the House of Lords in 1966 © Getty Images

Deepti Unni is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo

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