7 Footballers who are cricket fans

Gary Linekar’s love for cricket is an open secretIt is always nice and pleasing to see a particular sportsperson adoring a sport that they don’t represent. There is a certain feeling of oneness in that – seeing your idol as a fan, just like you, of the other sport you like. Players, on a subconscious level at least, lose the status of being fans in the sport they excel – they are seen more as players, superstars, than worshippers.So when it comes to footballers being cricket fans, the number is not so much outside of the United Kingdom. There are times, however, when the said footballers reveal their love for the gentlemen’s game and here are some of them who love cricket.

#1 Joe Hart

Hart spent two years at the academy of county side Worcestershire

If Joe Hart wasn’t a footballer, he might have been a cricketer for Worcestershire – such is his love for the game. In fact, he spent two years in their academy and impressed their director, Damien D’Oliviera, who thought that Hart, who used to be a left-arm bowler, could have been a “top county cricketer.”

However, he chose football instead of cricket, and the rest is history.

Ahead of the series against New Zealand, Joe Hart said: “I am really excited about the Ashes. I am a very keen England fan, pretty much like the football team with the ups and downs, I am there with them.”

He then went on to laud the team for their good performances against New Zealand and believed that England had what it takes to beat Australia in the Ashes. Ultimately, the cricket team didn’t let him down as England won the Ashes against all odds.

#2 James Milner

Milner plans to resume his cricket career after retiring from football

When Adam Lallana and James Milner took on the finest products of South Australia’s bowling department, many thought they might as well be called up by the cricket team to face the Aussies in the Ashes.

However, that wasn’t necessary as England went on to win the Ashes and the duo kept playing for a struggling Liverpool team.

This wasn’t the first time Milner had shown his love for the game. In fact, he plans to resume his cricket career – he played for local side Horsfoth and even played for Yorkshire’s junior team – after he retires from football.

That’s not all. Milner, along with his England team-mate, Joe Hart, wished England good luck before the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015. It didn’t matter though as their wishes went in vain with England’s embarrassing exit from the group stages.

#3 Gary Lineker

England footballer keeps wickets for the MCC in an exhibition game

He’s a popular cricket fan and might as well have been a great player, had he chosen to pursue his passion for the game. Between the ages of 11 and 16, he captained the Leicestershire Schools team. If his own words are to be believed, he thought that he had a higher chance of succeeding at cricket than at football.

An ardent fan of the game, one could deduce his affection for cricket by just following his Twitter account, where he constantly tweets about county games in England. Be it criticizing Andrew Strauss or taking a dig at the Australian team for losing the Ashes, his Twitter account has everything necessary for him to be deemed as a cricket fan.

#4 Dietmar Hamann

Hamann is totally crazy about cricket

A non-Englishman in the list, for a change. Hamann is what one could call a crazy cricket fan – so much so that a betting addiction to the game almost bankrupted him. According to him, he lost 288000 pounds in one day after his spread-betting calculations went all wrong when South African faced Australia – an incident which made him realize that a change was needed.

Speaking to M.E.N, he revealed that he fell in love with the game after watching an Ashes series during his time as a footballer for Liverpool. He also hopes that his native, Germany, would soon have their own cricket team.

#5 Gary Neville

Matthew Hayden & Gary Neville

In 1992, the opening pair of a club named Greenmount consisted of a foreigner – an Australian – and a local kid. The foreigner, later, became one of the most renowned players in cricket while the latter became a legendary figure in football.

The Australian was none other than Matthew Hayden and his opening partner was Gary Neville. Neville might now be regarded as one of the best football pundits in the world, but his ability to analyse isn’t only in the field of football, as his analysis on the Switch Hit for Sky Cricket left many wondering whether he should switch punditry roles.

He also enjoyed a commentary stint with Nasser Hossain in the Ashes of 2013 at the Old Trafford. That’s one lucky cricket fan.

#6 Phil Neville

Phil Neville remains the youngest player ever to play for the Lancashire second team

He is a former England under-15 cricket team captain and remains the youngest player ever to play for the Lancashire second team.

“There are certain periods when I sit and watch the series in Australia and feel like what could have happened if I had played cricket. It is a dream of mine and my brothers to go and watch the Boxing Day Test in Australia. Because we were brought up in a cricket environment, we almost fell in love with the Australian mentality,” Neville said once.

It is said that he was a much more talented at cricket than he was at football. While he loved cricket, he thought that his dedication towards football was more and hence opted to play it. But that never deterred his love for the gentlemen’s game.

#7 Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain

Chamberlain was a former district cricketer for South East Hampshire

This guy is a bit of a multitalented sports personality. He could have been a rugby or cricket star if he hadn’t chosen football. According to him, he was an opening batsman who would keep the wickets for 20 overs and then bowl 5-6 overs. That’s all-rounder in the purest essence of the word.

A former district cricketer for South East Hampshire, the Englishman ultimately chose football, but didn’t let go of the opportunity to play the sport once again when he, Theo Walcott and Gabriel Paulista lined up against Essex County Club a few months ago. And by the looks of it, he seems to have been a decent player.