Australian politician-turned-runner runs with the hope to meet the Indian cricket team

It is difficult to keep an Australian away from cricket, and Pat Farmer is no different.

Pat Farmer isn’t quite the quintessential politician, who turns invisible once the elections are over and returns to meet the public only when they’re around the corner. Instead, he spends time with people every day, discussing various issues with them while running around different cities, in a different country though.

Former Australian politician-turned-long distance runner and motivational speaker, Farmer is currently in Mumbai as a part of his Spirit of India run from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, which he started on January 26 – Australia Day. He has thus far covered over 600 km of the total 4,600 km that he plans to complete in 60 days. He runs about 60-80 km a day and spends time interacting with various people in the evenings, as reported by Mid-day.

It is difficult to keep an Australian away from cricket, and Farmer is no different. He had once delivered a speech to the Australian team on the invitation then-Australian captain Steve Waugh, when the latter asked him to share his experiences with the team during lunch time of a Border-Gavaskar Trophy match in 2000. Interestingly, after listening Farmer talk about his running philosophy, which is basically — how you can achieve great goals if you take one step at a time, Justin Langer hit a double century (223) very next day and credited Farmer for his achievement.

Farmer now desires to meet the Indian cricket team, and hopes the meeting happens sooner rather than later since he is in the country. A firm supporter of girl education, Farmer is a vegetarian and prefers a vegetarian diet to maintain fitness. He loves it here in India, as people get him home cooked food and shower him with love despite not knowing the language that he speaks.