Former India speedster Praveen Kumar joins Samajwadi Party

Former India swing bowler Praveen Kumar has announced that he has joined the Samajwadi Party (SP). Kumar revealed that he recently met with the Akhilesh Yadav, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, to discuss his plans.

“I have met CM and decided to join the party. I will do whatever is possible for the party,” he told reporters after meeting Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, who is also state president of SP.

The Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls are just around the corner and this might an opportunity for the Meerut-born cricketer to make a grand entry into politics. However, Kumar says he doesn’t have such ambitious plans and is currently trying to learn more about politics.

“I am a kid in this field. As of now I will try to learn it (politics).”

Kumar also heaped praises for his CM saying that he has done a lot for sportsmen and big stadiums are under construction at Lucknow and Saifai. Besides sports, the right-arm medium pace bowler said, the chief minister has done a lot of work for the all-round development of the state.

Kumar, who plays for Uttar Pradesh cricket team in first class cricket, has been a part of the Indian cricket team in six test matches and 68 ODI’s, where he has to his credit, 27 and 77 wickets respectively.

It seems that the politics is slowly becoming a favorite career option for fading cricketers these days. This year saw former saw former West Bengal skipper Laxmi Ratan Shukla becoming the sports minister of Bengal. Tainted speedster S. Sreesanth also tried his hands this election in Kerala but his hopes met with failure.

There was a time when these ex-internationals and Ranji Players would either opt for coaching, umpiring or would turn to broadcasting. However, that is not the case currently and Cricketers are really looking to make a mark in various other fields to keep themselves busy after the end of their cricketing lives.