Former Indian cricketers Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble were reportedly approached by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to woo the voters ahead of the 2018 Karnataka Assembly Elections, which are scheduled to be held in May. However, the Karnataka-born former cricketers have refused the BJP’s offer and said, “they didn’t want to jump into politics.” As per reports in The Print, BJP was looking to convince both Dravid and Kumble to join the party and the effort was going on from last several weeks.

According to the report, BJP is still pursuing at least one of them. “Talks are still on. At least one of them desires to be fielded for the Lok Sabha or the Rajya Sabha. We have not lost all hope yet,” The Print quoted unnamed sources as saying. The report adds that both the cricketers did not respond when contacted for a comment.

While Kumble is currently working as a commentator, Dravid is coaching India U-19 and A team. As of now, both of turned down BJP’s offer. With close to month remaining for the polls, It will be interesting to see whether Dravid or Kumble decide to jump in.

As far as cricketing career is concerned, both Dravid and Kumble were highly successful. Dravid scored 10,889 and 13,288 runs in 344 ODIs and 164 Tests respectively. Kumble, on the other hand, ended with 337 wickets in 271 ODIs and 619 wickets in 132 Tests.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 16, 2018 08:59 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).