Following the surprising news that former England fast-bowler Steve Harmison is the new manager of non-league Ashington, we look at some other examples of players to have bridged cricket and football.
Sir Ian Botham
Probably the best-known example of someone to have played both cricket and football, although his career in the latter never quite scaled such great heights as the former, as much as he’ll try to convince otherwise. Botham, a centre-half, made 11 appearances as a non-contract player for Scunthorpe United between 1979 and 1985, as well as a handful of appearances for Yeovil Town two years prior.
Sir Vivian Richards
The West Indian legend took time out from dismantling bowling attacks the world over to occasionally turn out for the Antiguan national football team – he played in their qualification campaign for the 1974 World Cup finals, but Antigua lost all four of their matches, including an 11-0 dismantling at the hands of Trinidad & Tobago and a 6-0 defeat to Surinam.
C.B. Fry
We’ve all known the type – someone who is just great at every sport they try. Annoying isn’t it? Well spare a thought for any friends or teammates of Fry - who represented England at both cricket and football, had an FA Cup Final appearance for Southampton in 1902 and just for good measure equalled a then-world record for the long jump in 1893. Not satisfied, he also reputedly was offered and turned down the throne of Albania shortly after the First World War.
William ‘Fatty’ Foulke
Remembered as one of the heaviest first-class cricketers of all time, at 6ft 4in tall and weighing around 24 stone. He made only four appearances for Derbyshire in 1900, finding much more success in football – playing 299 matches as Sheffield United’s goalkeeper and one game for England, against Wales in 1897.
Phil Neville
Andrew Flintoff – destroyer of Australia in 2005 and England’s greatest all-rounder since Botham. Now try to imagine he wasn’t and Phil Neville was instead. The two played together for Lancashire’s under-19s and even Flintoff’s dad admits Neville was the better prospect at the time. He said: “If I'd had to put money on one schoolboy playing cricket for England at that time, it would have been Neville, he was the best schoolboy batsman I have ever seen.”
Dennis Compton
Arguably the most successful to have played across both sports. Compton played 78 Tests, scoring 17 centuries for England, with a batting average in excess of 50. A winger in football, he played over fifty times for Arsenal, winning the league in 1948 and the FA Cup in 1950. He likely would have added to those tallies but much of his career was lost to the Second World War.
Arnie Sidebottom
Ryan’s dad, Arnie Sidebottom, as well as an 18-year career with Yorkshire and a solitary England Test cap, played for a struggling Manchester United side between 1972 and 1975. He also had three years at Huddersfield Town but his footballing career apparently wasn’t remembered too fondly, in 2007, the defender was voted fifty in a ‘50 Worst footballers’ poll in The Times.
Joe Gatting
A current example of a cricketer who has made the switch from football. Gatting is the son of former Brighton & Hove Albion defender Steve Gatting and started his sporting career by making 44 appearances as a striker for Brighton between 2005 and 2008. But he also has cricket in his blood thanks to his uncle Mike Gatting and joined Sussex in 2009. He’s now plying his trade with Hampshire.
Chris Balderstone
Balderstone combined well over 500 appearances as a footballer with 390 first-class appearances in a cricket career that lasted till he was 45, and included two Tests for England in 1976. A year earlier, Balderstone, after finishing a day 51 not out for Leicestershire against Derbyshire, headed to Doncaster Rovers for a 1-1 draw with Brentford before returning the next morning to complete a century and take three wickets as Leicestershire won their first County Championship title.
Sir Geoff Hurst
Scorer of the most famous hat-trick in the history of English football, to win the World Cup in 1966. But Hurst was also pretty useful as a cricketer, making his first-class debut for Essex against Lancashire in 1962. Unfortunately though, with ducks in both of his innings, it was to be his last game for the first team, although he was a regular for the second XI for the next two seasons before deciding to focus on the football. Thank goodness he did.