What if Cristiano Ronaldo was a Cricketer

Being a sportsperson is one of the hardest things there is. A lot of people get fooled by the glamour that surrounds it. The expensive sports cars, a crazy fan base that thinks about players more than God, stardom, adorationthese are some of the things that make people covet.But if it was only that easy. Sportspersons have to practice for long hours every day. They dont have the same privilege as the non-sportspeople have when it comes to the consumption of food. They dont get to hang out without someone intruding their privacy.And one of the most eminent among sports personalities is Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro. The Portuguese is the highest paid footballer in the world and is, among the current players, the most marketable one. His polished looks and posh lifestyle make him the reference point among young and aspiring footballers. Buy what if he was a cricketer? Here, we try to assume

#1 Playing role: Opening batsman

He loves leading from the front

The first thing we check about a player is his playing role. Cristiano Ronaldo, as we all know, is a forward who can do almost anything with the ball in attacking zones – especially score. He isn’t known for tracking back and defending his full back and can certainly never be claimed as a decent ball winner.

So if he was a cricketer, one can safely assume that the role he would choose would be one that almost everyone loves and enjoy the most. And that is batting. And, as much as we hate to admit it, cricket is a batsmen’s game. The pitches that are made these days is a crime against bowlers and they don’t have much of a say about that as almost everyone love high-scoring encounters.

And since Cristiano loves to score more than anything else, the role of the batsmen suits him perfectly as he would possess the same love for smacking boundaries like he does for blasting the ball into the net.

And since Cristiano is a warrior who likes to charge from the front, opening the innings would be in his best interests. He likes it the most when there is little pressure on him to create goals and hence allow him to put his undivided attention towards scoring them.

Opening the innings will give him a similar liberty since he won’t have to deal with the pressure of coming in at a difficult position where 3 or 4 of his teammates are back in the pavilion.

#2 Playing style: aggressive batsman

Scores for fun

This one is a no-brainer. Cristiano Ronaldo isn’t someone who looks for opportunities to score; he makes them. He is not someone who stays in the box waiting for the ball to arrive at his feet and then take his chance to score.

Cristiano Ronaldo is always on the move, disrupting the peace of mind of defenders and it is for this reason that he is one of the best scorer’s in the game. If he was a cricketer, he wouldn’t wait for a bad ball to come in his way before dispatching it to the outskirts of the ground.

Instead, he would, with his superhuman reflexes derived from diligence in training, make even a good delivery a bad one and bang it around all the corners of the park.

#3 Attitude: a bit like Virat Kohli

Can you see similiraties in these two?

Come to think of it, Cristiano Ronaldo and Virat Kohli are interchangeable. Both are exceptional players in their respective sports, both are highly marketable because of their good looks and massive amount of fans and both are known for their arrogance – especially when they were younger.

Cristiano is worshipped by many, but he is also despised in almost the same amounts. No matter what he does, criticism doesn’t elude him. This is a direct repercussion of the childish demeanor that sometimes possesses him and makes him do or say silly things – particularly in his time with the Red Devils.

Past can never be erased or forgotten. Virat Kohli, like the Portuguese, is loathed by as much as he is loved. Even though he is much calmer now, his past antics have clung onto him like a dog to a juicy bone.

But looking back, it is this fearsome attitude that molded them into the players that they are today. No-one will ever know the amount of pain they had to go and the number of sacrifices they had to make in order to reach the heights in which they fly today. And attitude is always recurring.

#4 Optimum fitness

Would have easily become the fittest cricketer

Cristiano Ronaldo would, almost certainly, be the most physically fit cricketer in the world. Each season, he is amongst the players that play the most number of minutes in Europe. And this has been the case for a long time now.

Cristiano hates not being able to play and it for this reason he never gets benched or injured. For the latter, he puts in extra hours of effort so that he can continue operating at the peak of his physical abilities and never miss a minute due to injuries.

Injuries are an ever imminent part of the game. No sportsperson can claim to have avoided injury for his entire career, but the former United man is one of the very few people who can unhesitatingly sing songs about his optimum fitness.

If he was a cricketer, the case would have been the same as he would have made sure that he stayed a notch or two ahead of his cricketing companions by being the best in terms of fitness.

#5 Bradman-ish averages

He has won the golden boot several times by topping the charts

Cristiano Ronaldo is the best at what he does. Lionel Messi might be the more skilled player, but the Portuguese doesn’t have a parallel when it comes to the predatory instinct in the final third.

If he was a cricketer, he would have astronomical averages to reflect that fact. The highest average in Tests is that of Sir Don Bradman, whose number of 99.94 still stands undisputed as the greatest average in the history of Test cricket. It isn’t likely that anybody would even end up close to that average, let alone break it.

But had the Real Madrid star been padded up in batting gloves instead of shin pads, the Don might have had a rival in this regard. Thankfully for the Australian, though, the Portuguese prefers to kick the ball rather than hit it.

#6 Multiple WAGS

Stable relationships in Football?

The one thing in which there is some serious contrast between Cricket and Football in terms of non-sporting reason is WAGS – wife and girlfriends of players.

In Football, many footballers are seen with multiple women in their time as a player. However, cricketers are more stable when it comes to relationships as there aren’t many who fall in the fun and ride category.

However, the game would have been a little different if Cristiano was playing cricket. We would have seen a different girl in the VIP stand after almost every two years. He would have definitely stood out in this regard in terms of exclusivity.