Five Famous Cricketers Who Changed Their Religion

There are many reasons a person changes their religion. For example, it could be due to marrying a person from another faith, interests in faith, etc. Just like this, there are several cricketers who changed their religions. Some did it to get married to a person of another faith while others did it simply due to interests.

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These players became legends of the game while others didn't do well. There are many cricketers who changed their religion. However, in this listicle, we have shortlisted five of them.

Five players who changed their religion

Mohammad Yousuf (Image Credit : Twitter)

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1. Mohammad Yousuf

One of the prolific players in world cricket, Yousuf was the one who made batting look easy. He played the ball late and made it feel like he can watch the ball slowly unlike the others. For the unversed, he came from a Christian community in Pakistan. The right-hander was the fourth player from the community to represent his nation.

He was alleged to have been forced to change his religion in 2005. However, in a conversation with Shoaib Akhtar on YouTube, he revealed that he gained interest in Islam during his childhood days. Talking about his career, he has played 90 Tests, 288 ODIs and three T20Is. He had led the team in nine Tests and eight ODIs. 

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Tillakratne Dilshan (Image Credit : Twitter)

2. Tillakaratne Dilshan

Dilshan is one of the greatest ODI players. He was blessed with a good hand and eye coordination just like Virender Sehwag. Till 2008, he used to bat in the middle order. Next year, when Sanath Jayasuriya was demoted, he got the opportunity to open the innings for Sri Lanka across formats.

The right-hander has played 330 ODIs, 87 Tests, and 80 T20Is. He has more than 17000 runs to his name across formats and around 150 wickets. Not many people might know this but the 45-year-old was born in a Muslim family. At the age of 16, he embraced Buddhism. 

Suraj Randiv (Image Credit : Twitter)

3. Suraj Randiv

Suraj Randiv is another player from Sri Lanka who was born in a Muslim family but changed his religion to Buddhism. His original name was Mohammad Suraj but changed to Suraj Randiv in 2010. In the same year, he was banned for one game for bowling a deliberate no-ball.

The idea behind this was to stop Sehwag from scoring a century. In that game, the right-hander was batting at 99 when he hit a six. Fans thought he finished the game with a century. However, it turned out that the off-spinner had overstepped which denied Sehwag a hundred. 

Wayne Parnell (Image Credit : Twitter)

4. Wayne Parnell

The South Africa left-arm pacer accepted Islam in 2011. After this, his name was changed to Wayne Waleed Parnell. After the exile, from international cricket since 2017, he recently made a comeback in the T20I series against India.

Talking about his international career, he made his debut in 2009 and played his last game. From 2018 till 2021, he played for Worcestershire while abandoning international cricket. The left-arm pacer has played six Tests, 67 ODIs, and 43 T20Is.

Vinod Kambli (Image Credit : Twitter)

5. Vinod Kambli

Former India cricketer and Sachin Tendulkar's childhood friend changed his religion to Christianity to marry Andrea Hewitt. Kambli has played for India but his indiscipline eventually ended his international career in 2000.

The left-hander has played 17 Tests, and 104 ODIs. His Test career eventually ended at the age of nearly 24. In the longest format, he has amassed 1084 runs at an average of 54.20 including four hundreds and three fifties.