Top 5 Former Cricketers Who Became Successful Entrepreneurs

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With diverse tournaments and modern cricket leagues including the Indian Premier League (IPL), Major League Cricket (MLC), Caribbean Premier League (CPL), the UAE’s International League T20 (ILT) and many others,  it’s a well-established fact that Cricketers earn an enormous fortune during their active cricketing career that generally spans over nine-eleven years. In addition to earning staggering wealth from their flourishing cricketing careers, numerous cricketers over the years have also expanded their careers to other non-cricketing fields including entrepreneurship after their official retirement from cricket.

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In this article we will take a look at the top five former international cricketers who are now earning staggering profits with their entrepreneurial ventures.

Top 5 Former International Cricketers Who Are Now Successful Entrepreneurs

1. Brendon McCullum 

Former New Zealand international cricketer and current head coach of the New Zealand national cricket team, Brendon McCullum is at the first spot on our list of five former international cricketers who are now successful entrepreneurs. Brendon McCullum played for the New Zealand side for fourteen long years from 2002 to 2016 and bagged several terrific records throughout his cricketing career. McCullum established himself as the first New Zealand cricketer to cross the benchmark of 1,000 runs in test format in the same calendar year.

After Brendon McCullum announced his retirement from international cricket in 2016 and from domestic cricket in 2019, he kicked off his entrepreneurial venture “Baz & McCullum”, a sports marketing and management agency. Additionally, the former New Zealand cricketer Brendon McCullum is also a do-founder of CricHQ which is a digital platform that manages administration of cricket test countries New Zealand, Sri Lanka, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

2. Yuvraj Singh 

On the second spot on our list of top five former international cricketers who are now earning staggering profits with their entrepreneurial ventures we have the legendary former Indian cricketer Yuvraj Singh. The swashbuckling all-rounder of the Indian cricket, Yuvraj Singh who is still hailed by millions of hardcore cricket aficionados for his magical match-winning innings of six consecutive sixes during the T20 World Cup 2007 officially announced his retirement from all formats of cricket in 2019 shortly after his battle with cancer.

Although Yuvraj Singh made a roaring comeback on the field after his bout with cancer, unfortunately he couldn’t get back to his full potential which was a major reason why the all-rounder chose to switch from cricket to entrepreneurship. Yuvraj Singh stepped up as an entrepreneur with his venture “YouWecan” which mainly focused on investing in startups and providing healthcare support to cancer stricken patients. Later, Yuvraj Singh also launched a clothing line under the same label name.

3. Gary Kirsten 

Former south-African cricketer and current coach of the Pakistan national cricket team, Gary Kirsten is at the third spot on our list of top five former international cricketers who are successful entrepreneurs now. Gary Kirsten announced his retirement from all formats of cricket in 2003 and took up the coaching career and served as the head coach for the Indian cricket team (2008-2011), South African cricket team (2011-2013) and recently he was appointed as the head coach for the Pakistan’s national cricket team.

Beyond the boundaries of cricket, Gary Kirsten has also established himself as a successful entrepreneur with numerous well heeled startups and businesses. Gary Kirsten founded “Performance Zone” in 2007 which primarily focuses on guiding individuals and teams in reaching their finest potential in their respective careers. Additionally, Gary Kirsten also runs a virtual training academy under his own name “Gary Kirsten Academy” which also focuses on boosting the performance and productivity of clients from all over the world.

4. Kumar Sangakkara 

Well, although cricketers are known for sticking with healthy diet routines even after their cricketing career, a few of them have actually revolutionized the culinary experience on a global level. Former Sri Lankan cricketer Kumar Sangakkara is one such cricketer who chose to experiment with the culinary world after announcing his retirement from cricket in 2015.

Kumar Sangakkara started his own seafood restaurant chain “Ministry of Crab” along with fellow former Sri Lankan cricketer Mahela Jayawardene in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Although initially Kumar Sangakkara’s Ministry of Crab was limited to Colombo only, the former cricketer turned entrepreneur gradually expanded it all across the world in prominent locations like Mumbai, Bangkok, Manila, Shanghai and Maldives. Currently, Ministry of Crab is one of the most popular seafood chain restaurants on a global scale.

5. Virendra Sehwag 

On the fifth spot on our list of top five former international cricketers who became successful entrepreneurs after their retirement from cricket we have one of the greatest and one of the most destructive openers of the Indian cricket team, Virendra Sehwag. Sehwag announced his retirement from all formats of cricket in 2015.

Virender Sehwag started off his entrepreneurial innings and took up the role of being an educational entrepreneur with the establishment of “Sehwag International School” in Jhajjar, Haryana in 2011. The school also has an academy that provides intense cricket training to the young players and helps them develop their skills and knowledge of the sport.

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