5 Actors who began their careers as cricketers

In a number of cases, cricket players have either become actors or have taken on specific roles in movies. The examples range widely, from Salil Ankola to S Sreesanth, or even Ajay Jadeja and Sunil Gavaskar who have portrayed small roles in films. However, there have been some famous people who started out playing cricket but later switched to acting and took the role full-time.

There are many who dream of becoming a cricketer, but very few actually manage to achieve their goal. Even if they do, not everyone go on to continue in the sport for a long time. There have been many sportsmen who left their game and went on to pursue different roles in their lives. But let us have a look at those-

Actors who started their journey as cricketers before changing fields

1. Hardy Sandhu

Hardy Sandhu, known for his hit tracks ‘Nah Goriye’, ‘Tequilla Shot’, and many others, is known in the film and music industry. But not many know that he started his career as a fast bowler in cricket and represented Punjab’s Ranji team and India’s U19. He had a dream of playing for India, but things did not fall in place.

He would have moved further in the sport but had to pull out due to injuries. Sandhu has played just three first-class games for Punjab, one each against Hyderabad, Baroda, and Uttar Pradesh. He has 12 wickets under his belt from just three games.

All the three fixtures were played way back in December 2005. One of Sandhu’s recent performances in the film industry was his role in Kabir Khan’s film that was based on the 1983 World Cup, India’s first ever major tournament win, where he played the role of Madan Lal.