Delhi: So what if Sachin Tendulkar is no longer playing international cricket – his records of runs, matches, 100s, 50s and even playing test cricket for more than 24 years are always in the news. No one has paid attention to a very interesting record of Sachin. Sachin remained on the pitch of his test career from November 1989 to November 2013 and during this time 8 PMs (Prime Ministers) ruled the government in Delhi. PMs kept changing but Tendulkar's series of playing test matches continued. Look at the record – he played test matches during the tenure of Rajiv Gandhi, VP Singh, Chandrashekhar, PV Narasimha Rao, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, HD Devegowda, Inder Kumar Gujral and Manmohan Singh.

He was able to make such a record because he made his debut on 15 November 1989 and elections were held the same year. After that, a period of political change continued in the country. The truth is that if he had played for a few more months, he would have had the record of playing in front of 9 PMs.

Recently, another Test cricketer equaled this record of Tendulkar. When England's James Anderson retired after a long Test career of 21 years and 52 days, his wickets and even batting records were discussed but no one noticed that he too played in front of 8 PMs of Britain in his Test career which started with his debut on 22 May 2003 at Lord's. Luck was with him in making this record. There, Keir Starmer became the PM due to the elections held on 4 July this year and Anderson played his last Test on 10 July. Starmer is the 8th PM of Britain during whose tenure James Anderson played Test.

The names of the 7 PMs with whom Anderson played before this are Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Elizabeth Truss and Rishi Sunak. The most interesting name in this list is Elizabeth Truss. She became PM on 6 September 2022 and remained PM for only 49 days – Anderson played one Test in these 49 days too. That Test was also as if it was played to help him make a record. There was a Test against South Africa at the Oval from 8 to 12 September – the first day was rained off, the second day was not played due to the death of the Queen and the game could be played only after that. Anderson took 3 wickets in this Test and similarly took 4 wickets in the Lord's Test played against Starmer recently. In this way, he also has a record of taking wickets in Tests against every PM.

Has anyone else played Tests during the tenure of 8 PMs? Yes, there is one more player. The interesting thing is that he made this record in his career which lasted only from January 2010 to December 2023. His country's politics helped him in making the record by changing PMs repeatedly. This is Sarfraz Ahmed of Pakistan and he has played Tests against 6 regular and 2 working PMs. When he made his debut against Australia in Hobart on 14 January 2010, the PM was Yusuf Raza Gilani. After that he has played during the tenure of Raja Pervez Ashraf, Nawaz Sharif, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Imran Khan and Mian Mohammad Shahbaz Sharif. Nasirul Mulk and Anwar ul Haq Kakar are the two caretaker PMs against whom he also played Tests.

While mentioning all this, it may seem that there is some mistake in the records because the name of England cricketer Wilfred Rhodes is not in this list although his test career lasted 30 years and 316 days (June 1899 to April 1930). During his test career also, there were 8 British PMs but the problem was that he did not play any test during the tenure of one of them, Bonar Law. When Rhodes did not go on South Africa tour in 1922-23, this same Bonar was the PM at that time. In contrast, Anderson had played a test during the tenure of less than 2 months of Truss and a few days of Starmer before him.

In this case, it is important to mention Sarfaraz as well. He missed the chance to make the record of playing a Test in front of 9 PM. During his Test career, Mir Hazar Khan Khoso was the caretaker PM for about one and a half months but during this time Sarfaraz did not play any Test.