Uttar Pradesh, once a political hub now guiding cricket force

New Delhi: Uttar Pradesh is one of those Indian states regarded as political hubs. No wonder why this state is also known for churning out maxixmum number of Prime Ministers….Strangely in a cricket crazy country Uttar Pradesh produced just two cricketer.Till the turn of the millennium the UP was accounted for eight PMs and just two Test players. But the situation has changed in the last decade or so. In recent times, UP has had a string of cricketers who have played for India both in Test matches and ODIs. Now UP is accounted for Eight PMs and 11 International cricketers.Till the year 2000, the most populous state of India had produced just two players who donned the India cap in Tests. Whereas in the first 50 years since Independence, eight of the 13 prime ministers had come from this politically volatile state.The cricketer to make it to the India test side was Piroze Palia who died 40 years ago and second one Gopal Sharma retired 20 years ago. That makes Mohammed Kaif the flag-bearer of the Gen-X, who inspired a host of young cricketers to aim for the top.Out of fevor Kaif is the biggest star to have come out of UP whose inspirational leadership helped UP win their maiden Ranji Trophy in 2006. Though out of fevour Kaif is still seen as a role model who has inspired boys from small towns to dream big.Traditionally, Kanpur, Lucknow and Allahabad had provided most of the players to the UP team. Now smaller towns like Rae Bareli, Moradabad, Muradnagar, Meerut and Aligarh have seen the emergence of quality players. Suresh Raina comes form Muradnagar while Rudra Pratap Singh is from Rae Bareli, known more for being a VIP constituency represented by late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and now Congress boss Sonia Gandhi. Piyush Chawla is from Moradabad while Meerut has given two swing bowlers par excellence -- Praveen Kumar and Bhuvneshwar Kumar.Palia, though born in Mumbai, played most of his cricket in UP and even led the state in the Ranji Trophy for several years. He was also the first to make a double century for the state against Maharashtra in 1948. He played two Tests in 1936 but did not live up to his potential and was never selected again. He finally got settled in Bangalore and died there in 1972.Gopal Sharma played five Tests and the off-spinner met with little success claiming 10 wickets at a princely average of 41.80. He was never given a long stretch in the team, and played these five games over a period of 10 years. He also played a handful of one-dayers, again with moderate success.Kaif began his international career in Tests, as, ironically, his batting style was more suited to it. But he found more success in the ODIs with hard work and improvisation in technique. He became an integral part of Team India in One-dayers under Sourav Ganguly and coach John Wright. He became the first cricketer from the state to play over 100 ODIs.But the emergence of Raina saw Kaif lose his place in the Indian team and now Raina has overtaken Kaif in all respects -- most Tests and ODIs played by a UPite, most runs scored by a player from state in international cricket and has also led India in ODIs.Following Raina into the Indian team have been Chalwa, RP Singh, Praveen Kumar, Bhuvenshwar Kumar and Sudeep Tyagi. Though at present only Raina and Bhuvi are regular members of Team India, the likes of Chawla, PK and RP cannot be considered as spent force. They too with hard work and devotion can still make it back into the Indian team.