Talking politics with the 'Tiger'

Mohammed Azharuddin has become the latest Indian cricketer to join politics, after the likes of Navjot Sidhu and Kirti Azad, though it's not clear whether he will be a candidate in the forthcoming general elections. Another former captain, the iconic Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, was unsuccessful in both his attempts to enter the Lok Sabha, the lower house of Parliament. Lokendra Pratap Sahi in theTelegraph, the Kolkata daily, gets Pataudi to talk politics.

Why do cricketers get attracted to politics?

Usually, they get invited by some party or the other... Their advantage is that they don’t have to introduce themselves from any platform… That way, there’s probably 30 per cent less work to do... If, for example, a relatively unknown person stands for elections, then that person’s entire history has to be repeated at every gathering.