Gambhir joins a long line of Indian cricketers who took up politics but rarely have the biggest names followed suit

The ‘will he, won’t he’ drama surrounding Gautam Gambhir and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) finally came to a conclusion with the former Indian cricket opener joining the saffron party formally. While Gambhir has not commented on whether he will stand for the elections or not, it is almost certain that he took the jump after being assured of a Lok Sabha ticket, most likely from Delhi, the State he represented in cricket. Several Indian cricketers and sportspersons have taken the plunge into politics, notably BJP rebel and member of the 1983 World Cup winning team Kirti Azad and Punjab Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu but despite his undoubted success, Gambhir’s mentor from Delhi and superstar Virender Sehwag, who was also being chased by the BJP, gave politics a pass. It is strange that the biggest superstars of Indian cricket over the past three decades have never formally entered politics. While Sachin Tendulkar did join as a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha, he did so as an apolitical appointment and his performance as a legislator left much to be desired. Others like Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Rahul Dravid and despite the speculation, Saurav Ganguly, have all eschewed politics. Many of them rightly fear that their legendary cricket careers will be coloured by party ideologies and while Ganguly has entered cricket administration and Dravid the coaching set-up, politics is not their thing even though both of them would win their first elections handily.

There is a common joke doing the rounds in Chennai, where Tamil voters are looking for another iconic leader, that Mahendra Singh Dhoni will win by a landslide given his massive popularity in the southern metropolis and State where he captains the local Indian Premier League team. This is not a wrong conclusion, and across the world popular sportspersons have instant political recognition. But few have made the shift from sports to politics successfully as many sportspersons jump into politics in a hurry and without planning out either their political message or their ambitions. One hopes that Gambhir is able to avoid those pitfalls and has a proper vision for his constituents if he gets nominated for a Lok Sabha seat. Fame and fortune might bring you recognition but it doesn’t assure political success. The field of politics is extremely different from the sports field.