5 most entertaining cricketers who also excelled at other sports

Jonty Rhodes

Rhodes was a top Hockey player

Apart from being one of the most electrifying fielder to have played the game, Jonty Rhodes was a pretty handy batsman in a South African side filled with batting stalwarts. Rhodes made his Test debut against India in the first Test of the “Friendship Tour” at Durban in November, 1992 and made modest scores of 41 and 26 in the two innings. He went on to play 52 Test matches for South Africa in which he scored 2532 runs at an average of 35.66 with three centuries and 17 half centuries.

His ODI career spanned for a longer period as he went on to play 245 limited overs internationals in which he scored 5935 runs at an average of 35.11 with two centuries and 33 half centuries.

His greatest contribution to cricket though was his acrobatic and agile fielding at backward-point position. The image of a flying Jonty Rhodes breaking the stumps of Inzamam-ul-Haq is etched forever in the mind of every cricket fan. He took a total of 34 catches in the 52 Tests that he played and 105 catches from 245 ODIs.

Rhodes was also a highly accomplished Hockey player who won several international caps and was part of the South African team that tried to qualify for the 1992 Olympic games in Barcelona. He also took part in the trials for 1996 Olympics but failed to make it to the final squad because of injury. Clearly, he was a true all-rounder in the truest sense of the word.

Jeff Wilson

Jeff Wilson in action

In his relatively short career for New Zealand, Jeff Wilson played a total of 6 ODIs and scored 103 runs at an average of 20.60 and also took 4 wickets at an economy of 6.44. His highest score of 44 came in only 28 balls and helped New Zealand beat Australia in an ODI match at Hamilton. Although he made his debut in March, 1993, after a fairly long hiatus from international cricket (12 years), he came back to play two ODIs, again against Australia but did very little to leave an impression.

But during the time he wasn’t playing cricket, he was busy carving an impression in rugby union where he won 60 caps for the All Blacks and scored 44 times which was a record at that time.

First capped in cricket as a nineteen-year old, he made an impression as a busy and handy all-rounder. Again, given his exploits outside the cricket field, he truly was an all-round talent.

Franklyn Stephenson

Franklyn sadly didn’t play Test cricket for the Windies

Franklyn Stephenson never played a Test match for the West Indies which becomes hard to digest after you are done glancing at his first-class numbers. Fathom this. A total of 219 first-class matches in which he scored 8622 runs at an average of 27.99 with 12 centuries and 43 half-centuries and he also took 792 wickets at an economy of 2.86. Many say that his choice of touring South Africa with the rebel sides of early 1980s meant that the selectors always turned a blind eye to his name at the time of selection.

However, at a time when the Windies were frightening their opponents world over with their express pace and marauding batting, another fine all-rounder would have just doubled the damage inflicted by the caribbean giants. After cricket, the tall and lanky fast bowler than turned to golf and had great success in that sport as well.