Cricket: A game which unites all religions

Bengaluru, October 26: Cricket is a game that unites all religions and gives everybody a chance to get inspired by heroes who save the day with their hard work and densely forged skillset, purely putting together their body and soul. Rich, poor, it doesn't matter, nor age, gender or religion. To illustrate the same, here are the ten non-muslim cricketers, who played for Pakistan from the year as early as 1952 to till date and even though Pakistan is predominantly a Muslim country, it shows that Cricket doesn't care about religion but the talent.

1. Rusi Nausherwan: (1952-53)
Rusi Nausherwan Dinshaw was a left-handed batsman and left-arm spinner and the only Parsi to have ever been selected in a Pakistan Test squad that initially toured India in 1952-53 but he never really played in a Test.

2. Wallis Mathias: (1955-62)
Wallis Mathias was a was a Pakistani cricketer who played in 21 Tests from 1955 to 1962, where he scored 783 runs and in First-class career he struck 7520 runs in 146 matches. Being Catholic, Wallis Mathias is known to be the first non-Muslim cricketer to play for Pakistan in international games.

3. Antao D'Souza: (1959-62)
Antao D'Souza is an all-rounder who played in six Tests for the Pakistan cricket team and he is the second Christian to play Test cricket for Pakistan. Considering his 6 Tests, he scored 76 runs but magnificently took 17 wickets.

4. Duncan Sharpe: (1959-60)
Duncan Albert Sharpe ranks third in the countdown of christians cricketer who have played Test cricket for Pakistan and in those three Tests that he played, he scored 134 runs in which his top score was 56 runs.

5. Khalid "Billy" Ibadulla: (1964-67)
Khalid "Billy" Ibadulla is a Pakistani cricketer who made his first-class debut at the age of 16 and he continued his journey to finally play four Test matches between 1964 and 1967, where he scored 253 runs in which his personal highest was majestic 166 runs.

6. Anil Dalpat: (1984)
Being the first Hindu to play Test cricket for Pakistan team, Anil Dalpat Sonavaria was a wicketkeeper and lower-order batsman, who represented Pakistan for a brief interval when Wasim Bari was injured but he was able to play 9 Tests, where he scored a total of 167 runs with 22 catches and 3 stumpings.

7. Sohail Fazal: (1989)
Sohail Fazal is fourth among the christian cricket players who have played for the Pakistan international team and first to play ODIs. He represented two ODIs in 1989 where he scored 56 runs in total.

8. Danish Kaneria: (2000-10)
Danish Prabha Shanker Kaneria is a first non-muslim former Pakistani cricketer who played in both Test and One Day International between 2000 and 2010. Known to deliver a well-disguised googly, Kaneria took 15 wickets in 18 ODIs and 261 wickets in 61 Tests.

9. Yousuf Youhana: (1998-2010)
Yousuf Youhana, now known as Mohammad Yousuf is a former Pakistani cricketer and also a former captain of Tests and ODIs. Yousuf played all three formats of international cricket and in the 90 Tests, he played, he scored a total of 7,350 runs and in 288 ODIs he scored 9,720. But Yousuf only played 3 matches of T20Is where he scored a total of 50 runs.

10. Mohinder Pal Singh (2016-)
In November 2016, Mahinder Pal Singh was picked as one of the fast bowlers' from Pakistan's National Cricket Academy and it makes him the first Sikh cricketer to be selected by the Pakistan Cricket Board as an emerging player. But he yet to make his debut in international cricket.