New loyalties – Ross Taylor joins growing list of dual-internationals

Cliff Notes – New loyalties – Ross Taylor joins growing list of dual-internationals

• Former New Zealand captain Ross Taylor’s decision to un-retire and play for Samoa highlights a trend of cricketers representing multiple countries, a practice dating back to the 19th century.
• Since the late 1990s, 25 male cricketers have switched national allegiances, with notable examples including Tim David and Eoin Morgan, who have achieved significant success with their new teams.
• The phenomenon of dual internationals continues to grow, with players like Hayden Walsh and Joe Burns exemplifying the trend of athletes changing national representation based on heritage or career opportunities.

New loyalties – Ross Taylor joins growing list of dual-internationals

Former New Zealand captain Ross Taylor un-retiring to play for Samoa makes him the latest in a growing list of cricketers who have turned out for more than one country.

The first dual international was all the way back in 1881-82, when Billy Midwinter played for England in a three-Test series after having played two Tests for Australia against England. He went back to representing Australia and played six more Tests.

In those early years Billy Murdoch, John Ferris, Sammy Woods, Frank Hearne, Albert Trott and Frank Mitchell did the same – playing Test cricket for Australia and England. Then there was the Nawab of Pataudi, Iftikhar Ali Khan, who played for England and India, and subsequently the instances of players who played for India and then Pakistan after the partition of the country in 1947.

In the new millennium, among the players who have represented at least one Full Member team, only 18 male cricketers are recorded to have played for two countries in international cricket before Gavin Hamilton (Scotland and England) in 1999. Since then, excluding Hamilton, who went back to Scotland and played through the 2000s, there have been 25.

T20 stars find new homes

The best known among these is Tim David, who played the last of his 14 T20Is for Singapore, where his father worked as an engineer, in 2020 before appearing for Australian against India in Mohali in September 2022.

David Wiese had a stop-start career with South Africa as a bowling allrounder, playing six ODIs and 20 T20Is for them before shifting his loyalties to Namibia, for whom he has been a star player. Since the move in 2021, he has played nine ODIs and 34 T20Is for his new team and, like David, is popular in the franchise-league circuit.

Tim David continued his stunning form with a rapid fifty Getty Images

Another such cricketer is Hayden Walsh, who emerged as West Indies’ next big short-format spinner in November 2019, not long after playing for USA in Sandy’s Parish against Canada, Bermuda and Cayman Islands. But 25 ODIs and 39 T20Is (combined, for USA and West Indies) later, at 33, he appears to have fallen off the radar.

Africans on the move

Daniel Jakiel played two T20Is for Zimbabwe in 2019 before moving to Malawi, for whom he has played 39 times, while Gregory Strydom played 12 ODIs for Zimbabwe, all in 2016, and then moved to Cayman Islands, where he has played six T20Is, all in 2019.

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And then there are the more high-profile names, like Gary Ballance, who has played Test cricket for England and Zimbabwe – much like Kepler Wessels, who played Test cricket for Australia and South Africa in the 1980s and 1990s. Roelof van der Merwe, 40, is still going strong for Netherlands after switching from South Africa in 2015. He should be in action at the 2026 T20 World Cup too.

Peter Moor moved from Zimbabwe to Ireland but retired as the 17th player to play Test cricket for two countries, without turning out for Ireland in ODIs or T20Is. Juan ‘Rusty’ Theron, who moved from South Africa in 2012 and became eligible to play for USA in 2019, hasn’t actually played international cricket since 2022. He was last seen in competitive cricket at the 2023 Major League cricket before moving to the retired-cricketers circuit.

Joe Burns, the Italy captain, admires his medal International cricket CouncilThe Italian Job

News of an Italy team selection wouldn’t normally catch the attention of the rest of the cricket world but it did when Joe Burns, the former Australia Test opener, changed allegiance thanks to his mother’s heritage and was named Italy’s captain.

Burns was not the first dual-international to play for Italy – that was former England fast bowler Jade Dernbach, who made the switch in 2019. He hasn’t played for Italy since October 2021 though.

Eoin Morgan poses with the World Cup trophy Getty ImagesThe England-Ireland switch

Eoin Morgan and fast bowler Boyd Rankin moved from Ireland to England well before Ireland became a Full Member nation, and Ed Joyce moved the other way after the step up for Ireland.

Of them, Morgan was the biggest achiever, with the 2019 ODI World Cup win as captain the biggest highlight. Rankin retired in 2021 after having played most of his 13 years of international cricket for Ireland. He represented England in one Test, seven ODIs and two T20Is.

Joyce played his only Test match for Ireland, but stood out for playing successive ODI World Cups for different countries. He helped Ireland qualify for the 2007 edition but played the tournament for England, and then switched back to Ireland in time for the 2011 tournament.

Ross Taylor sets off for a run Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTo New Zealand, from New Zealand

Tom Bruce became the latest to make the switch from New Zealand, to Scotland in August 2025, and is currently in action for his new team at the World Cup League 2 matches in Canada.

He is not the first to make the journey, one way or the other.

Corey Anderson might be the biggest name of the lot. His Test and ODI careers, from 2013 to 2017, were entirely for New Zealand – 13 and 49 matches in each formats respectively. His 42 T20Is have been more diverse: 31 for New Zealand, and the last 11 for USA.

Mark Chapman went from Hong Kong to New Zealand. Now 31, Chapman was born in Hong Kong and played for them from 2014 to 2016 before moving full-time to New Zealand, for whom he has been a regular, especially in T20Is, for the past few years.

Michael Rippon played all his nine ODIs for Netherlands but has played one T20I (out of 19) for New Zealand after making the switch in 2022.

Luke Ronchi played for Australia in 2008-09 and then for New Zealand from 2013 to 2017. He became the first man to represent two Full Member countries in around two decades, Wessels having been the previous one. Ronchi played all his four Tests for New Zealand, four of his 85 ODIs for Australia and the rest for New Zealand, and three of his 33 T20Is for Australia and the rest for New Zealand.

Geraint Jones will join the Papua New Guinea T20 team Getty ImagesDirk Nannes, Geraint Jones, and the rest

Dirk Nannes played his only ODI for Australia, against Scotland, in 2009, not long after switching from Netherlands after having played two T20Is. He went on to play 15 T20Is for Australia but is better known for his exploits in franchise T20 cricket.

Geraint Jones, best remembered for the catch that won England the Edgbaston Test in the 2005 Ashes, played 34 Tests and two T20Is for England, but played for both England and Papua New Guinea in ODIs – 49 for England, and two for PNG.

Some of the other modern dual internationals are Izatullah Dawlatzai (Afghanistan and Germany), Amjad Khan (England and Denmark), Xavier Marshall (West Indies and USA) and Ryan Campbell (Australia and Hong Kong).