Over dozens of cricketers have joined their country’s defence forces during their cricketing career or post their services on the cricketing field. The passionate cricketers had backed themselves on the ground while expressing their love for the nation’s army.
To talk about the honorary mentions, India’s first Test skipper Colonel Cottari Kanakaiya Nayudu. In Indore, the authorities commissioned Nayudu as a Colonel of the Holkar army.
The Lieutenant Colonel Hemu Adhikari had to wait for his Test debut due to the World War between 1941 and 1945.
After being conferred as the junior officer, his job has restricted him to feature in Tests fixtures. Pertinently, he had managed to feature in 21 Tests.
Adhikari had also served as a coach. He has represented his country between 1947 and 1959. Adhikari had accumulated 872 runs in 31.1.
We will look at five cricketers who joined the country’s defence forces:
Sir Don Bradman:
The legendary batsman, Sir Donald Bradman had been conferred as a lieutenant in 1940s. After joining the Australian Air Force, Bradman was pushed into the army. He had trained for a year which also saw him being removed from the post in 1941 following suffering from fibrositis.
Bradman had represented Australia played 52 Tests between 1928 and 48. In 80 innings, Bradman had recorded 6,996 runs at an outstanding average of 99.9.
The right-handed batsman had recorded 29 hundreds and 13 half-centuries.