Former England skipper Alastair Cook received Knighthood after his retirement from cricket. The Queen of Great Britain gave him this honor for his services in the game of cricket, where he topped all batting charts among England Test cricketers and broke several records during the course of his career. He was the first cricketer to receive this honor in the last ten years as Ian Botham is its last recipient.
It is noted that players from Commonwealth countries receive this honor but no Asian cricketer has ever named for Knighthood. Other than the English cricketers, Richard Hadlee of New Zealand and Don Bradman of Australia have received this pride.
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On the other hand, players from West Indies receive a knighthood from their respective governments. West Indies greats like Curtly Ambrose, Learie Constantine, Rev. Wes Hall, Viv Richards, Richie Richardson, Andy Roberts, Everton Weekes, and Frank Worrell have all being knighted for their services to cricket by their respective governments.
Meanwhile, Conservative MP Rehman Chishti has raised the point in the House of Commons to give Knighthood to players from India and Pakistan. This issue was raised while the debate on Commonwealth Day was taking place. Chishti, who is MP from Gillingham and Rainham in Kent, asked it when foreign office minister mentioned cricket as one of the shared values of Commonwealth.
Chisti was quoted by Hindustan Times as saying, “In Australia, Sir Don Bradman was knighted, and in New Zealand, Sir Richard Hadlee was knighted, but there has been no knighthood for cricketers from Pakistan, India, South Africa or Sri Lanka, which have produced some brilliant cricketers.”
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He named players like Sachin Tendulkar, Kapil Dev from India, Wasim Akram and Imran Khan from Pakistan and Muttiah Muralitharan from Sri Lanka are prime candidates for receiving a knighthood.
Foreign office minister Harriett Baldwin responded positively to Chisti’s question. She mentioned that Chishti had made quite a compelling argument for recognizing more cricketers from around the Commonwealth.
She said, “My hon. Friend is right; I mentioned Bangladeshi women’s cricket. I am also thrilled that in Rwanda, which is one of the newer members of the Commonwealth, cricket is fast growing into a very popular, if not leading, national sport. He is right to make the link between the Commonwealth and cricket.”
