Why cricketers, sportspersons rarely succeed in politics unlike film stars

Unlike the electoral success that several film and television actors have achieved in Indian politics, some of whom served as chief ministers, such as M G Ramachandran and N T Rama Rao, or were ministers at the Centre, from Sunil Dutt to Smriti Irani, the political careers of most sportspersons have been briefer and their contribution to public discourse comparatively unremarkable.

But a stream of cricketers, footballers, and athletes keeps flowing into the hubbub of politics, to try to replicate the battle skills they learnt in the sporting arena in the theatre of electoral warfare.

On Friday, wrestlers Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia, joined the Congress party, becoming the latest to try transitioning from playing sports to learning the craft of political games.

Punia, a 2020 Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist, and Phogat, India’s most decorated woman wrestler, were key members of the band of sportspersons that protested over the sexual harassment allegations against former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Lok Sabha member Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh in 2023.

Advocate Jayshankar, a political analyst based in Kochi, says: “Sportspersons join politics at the fag-end of their careers, when they are in their 30s and 40s. They generally tend to be naïve and lack the world view, which is why they don’t have such long and fulfilling political careers. Film stars, on the other hand, enter when they are washed-up and much older, and wiser. Their experience and people skills play a key role.”

After joining the Congress, Phogat, who has endured much in the past two years, including her disqualification from the gold medal round of Paris Olympics, was confident and to the point when addressing the media. “I am starting a new innings. I don’t want sportspersons to face what we had to go through,” she said.

Haryana’s sportspersons in politics

The Congress is set to field Phogat in the Haryana Assembly polls. She follows in the footsteps of several sportspersons from Haryana, including her cousin Babita, who have entered politics but with little success.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Beijing Olympics bronze medallist, boxer Vijender Singh, who hails from Haryana, lost the election he contested on a Congress ticket from the South Delhi constituency.

It isn’t just the Congress fielding sportspersons for the forthcoming Haryana Assembly polls. The BJP has fielded Deepak Hooda, former captain of India’s national kabaddi team, from Maham Assembly seat in Rohtak, which the BJP has never won. Former hockey player Sandeep Singh won from Haryana’s Pehowa Assembly constituency in 2019, but resigned as a minister in the wake of sexual harassment allegations.

In the Haryana Assembly polls the same year, the BJP fielded wrestlers Babita Phogat and Yogeshwar Dutt, both of whom lost.

Former India medium-pacer Chetan Sharma unsuccessfully contested the 2009 Lok Sabha polls on a Bahujan Samaj Party ticket from Haryana’s Faridabad seat. 

“Vinesh’s elder sister (Babita) had earlier joined politics. I think that could be the catalyst. Ghar mein waisa mahaul ban jata hai (that is the kind of atmosphere at home). I don't know whether her role in the wrestlers' protests last year played a part in Congress handing her a ticket,” Chetan Sharma, a key member of the 1991 Haryana Ranji Trophy winning team, told Business Standard. “I briefly dabbled in politics in 2009 for the BSP. Later, I realised that it was not my cup of tea, and I somehow wanted to remain in the game of cricket, which has given me everything I have.”

In the 1971 Lok Sabha polls, former India captain Mansur Ali Khan ‘Tiger’ Pataudi contested from the Gurgaon constituency on the Vishal Haryana Party ticket, securing a meagre 5.93 per cent votes, and again unsuccessfully on a Congress ticket from Bhopal in 1991.

2024 LS polls

The 2024 Lok Sabha polls had its share of sportspersons in the electoral fray, with cricketers Kirti Azad and Yusuf Pathan, and footballer Prasun Banerjee elected to the Lok Sabha on Trinamool Congress tickets from West Bengal. But former India hockey captain, Biju Janata Dal’s Dilip Tirkey, lost from Odisha’s Sundargarh, as did BJP’s Churu (Rajasthan) candidate and Paralympics gold medallist Devendra Jhajhariya.

Rajyavardhan Rathore, a former Union minister and Athens 2004 bronze medallist, a BJP Lok Sabha MP, was asked by his party to contest the 2023 Assembly polls in his home state, which he won, and BJP’s East Delhi MP Gautam Gambhir, the current men’s Indian cricket team coach, announced his retirement from electoral politics. Gambhir said he wished to focus on his cricketing commitments.

Azad, a member of India’s 1983 World Cup-winning team and now a veteran of politics, disagrees that sportspersons, compared to film and television actors, struggle in politics. “I come from a family of politicians and philanthropists. I have been in active politics for over three decades. Don’t blame sportspersons; I believe artists have collectively failed as politicians because they join politics thinking it’s a glamorous job,” Azad told Business Standard.

Son of former Bihar Chief Minister Bhagwat Jha Azad, Kirti debuted in politics in 1993, winning the Delhi Assembly polls. “You join politics because you need to serve the people of your constituency, work towards resolving their key issues at the grassroots level. I feel that you can win the first election based on your name. But the subsequent elections are won based on the job that you have done,” he said.

Other sportspersons with political pedigree include former Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav and Hamirpur Lok Sabha MP Anurag Thakur, though they did not play at the top level. Yadav was part of the Delhi IPL team, but didn’t get to play any matches. Thakur played a couple of Ranji Trophy matches for Himachal Pradesh.

‘Marang Gomke’

Jaipal Singh Munda, who captained the Indian field hockey team during its initial matches in the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam, where it went on to win the gold medal, is remembered for his contribution to the advocacy of tribal rights.

In later years, Munda championed the cause of a separate homeland for Adivasis in central India and was a member of the Constituent Assembly, where he is better remembered for opposing the proposal to include prohibition as one of the Directive Principles of the Constitution.  Munda was one of the founders of the Jharkhand Party, which demanded a separate state of Jharkhand, and performed creditably in the first couple of Assembly elections in Bihar. In Jharkhand, Munda is revered as ‘Marang Gomke’, or the ‘Great Leader’.  

Palwankar Baloo, a first class cricketer and a Dalit, entered public activism and was a friend of B R Ambedkar, but in later years opposed the latter’s demand for separate electorates for the depressed classes and also his appeal to Dalits to convert to other religions. Baloo unsuccessfully contested the civic polls in Bombay in the early 1930s. He contested the Bombay Legislative Assembly elections against Ambedkar in 1937, which he lost.

Shooter Karni Singh was a multiple-term MP from Bikaner and also participated in several Olympics. Maharajkumar of Vizianagaram ‘Vizzy’, the captain of India’s cricket team that toured England in 1936, was an MP from Visakhapatnam in 1960.

Sportspersons who have had successful political careers include Aslam Sher Khan, a member of India’s 1975 Hockey World Cup winning team, who won the 1984 and 1991 Lok Sabha polls from Madhya Pradesh’s Betul, cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu, and athlete Jyotirmoyee Sikdar, who won from Krishnanagar on a CPI (M) ticket in 2004. Former India hockey captain Pargat Singh was a minister in Punjab.

Wangnia Pongte, a former national footballer, was a legislator and minister in Arunachal Pradesh. Former cricketer Lakshmi Ratan Shukla was a minister until early 2021 in the Mamata Banerjee-led government in West Bengal. Chetan Chauhan, Sunil Gavaskar’s opening partner in the late 1970s, was a BJP legislator and MP.

Former India cricket captain Mohammed Azharuddin won the Lok Sabha polls from UP’s Moradabad in 2009, but lost the 2014 Lok Sabha polls from Rajasthan’s Tonk and the 2023 Telangana Assembly polls. His teammate Manoj Prabhakar unsuccessfully contested the 1996 Lok Sabha polls on a Tiwari Congress ticket from South Delhi.

Others with forgettable electoral outcomes include cricketer Mohammed Kaif, who lost from Phulpur Lok Sabha in 2014, former national football captain Baichung Bhutia, and S Sreesanth, who lost the 2016 Kerala Assembly contest on a BJP ticket from Thiruvananthapuram.

Vinod Kambli lost the Vikhroli Assembly seat in 2009. Former India cricketer Harbhajan Singh is currently a Rajya Sabha member of the Aam Aadmi Party. Krishna Poonia was a Congress legislator in Rajasthan.

It would, however, seem that India will have to wait to find its Imran Khan, Pakistan’s 1992 cricket World Cup winning captain who went on to become prime minister and continues to be a crucial player in the neighbouring country’s politics, or former Japanese PM Taro Aso, who was part of his country’s shooting team at the Montreal Olympics in 1976.

More recently, Kyiv’s Mayor, former world boxing heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko, has been lauded for his leadership in Ukraine following the Russian invasion.