Late bloomers: Three oldest ODI debutants

While they say ‘age is just a number’ in Cricket often, the statement is proved a lot of times by cricketers and it requires a lot of determination and passion. While there have been a lot of fitness standards required at the moment to survive in international cricket, it wasn’t the case around in the past. Cricketers who did not get the recognition they wanted in their countries did move to different countries to resume cricket careers and hence, their debut was delayed too. Here are the three oldest ODI debutants.

Nolan Clarke

Nolan Clarke is still the oldest debutant in ODI cricket at 47 years and 240 days for the Netherlands against New Zealand in Vadodara in 1996. Born in Barbados, Clarke played as an opener and he was dismissed for 14 on his debut match which went onto be a loss for his side. Clarke played 5 ODIs scoring 50 runs with the highest score of 32 despite having a long first-class career and List A career.

Norman Gifford

Norman Gifford is second on the list of oldest debutants in ODI cricket at 44 years and 39 days for England against Australia at Sharjah in 1985. Interestingly, the slow left-arm spinner captained his side in the game and bowled an economical spell of 0 for 27 in his 10 overs on debut. However, England ended up losing the ODI by 2 wickets, and Gifford played one more ODI alongside 15 Tests for his country post his debut. He had a phenomenal first-class career where he picked up 2068 wickets in 710 games.

Rahul Sharma

Rahul Sharma is the third oldest debutant in ODI cricket at the age of 43 years and 306 days and he got to captain the Hong Kong side on his debut. Against Bangladesh in the Asia cup, most of the Hong Kong players were handed their debuts and Sharma could manage only a 21-ball-10 in the innings. Born in India, Sharma has played first-class cricket for Delhi from the period of 1985 to 1988 until he moved to Hong Kong.