Howzat? Hurst, Lineker, Neville, Hart and Co: Football's England Ashes XI
The first Ashes Test gets underway tonight in Brisbane, as England and Australia begin their latest battle for cricketing supremacy.
Fronting the event for Sky Sports will be former England Ashes hero Ian Botham - the man who famously chose cricket over football after making 11 appearances for Scunthorpe in the early 1980s.
But who chose the opposite path to Beefy and went with football rather than cricket? And who played both? We've put together an England XI from the world of football which might have given the Aussies a run for their money.
1) William "Fatty" Foulke
The legendary Sheffield United goalkeeper was not only a celebrated footballer, but also played for Derbyshire County Cricket Club in 1900. He also played against another football and cricket star when he faced the famous CB Fry in the 1902 FA Cup Final - Foulke keeping goal for the victorious Sheffield United, Fry playing up front for Southampton.
2) Jack Durston
Brentford goalkeeper Durston also played cricket for both Middlesex and England. He is most notable for doing both on the same day in 1920, turning out in his whites for Middlesex in the morning, then keeping a clean sheet for the Bees after lunch.
3) Geoff Hurst
The hat-trick hero of the 1966 World Cup Final could have easily been performing heroics for England at Lord's instead of Wembley. In his early career, Hurst split his time between West Ham United and Essex, for whom he played one first class match in 1962. He also played 23 times for the Essex Second XI, before deciding to concentrate on his football. Jimmy Greaves was probably the only man in England who would live to regret his choice.
4) Jim Standen
A former team-mate of Hurst's at West Ham, Standen managed the incredible (and, as far as we can tell, unique) feat of winning the FA Cup and County Championship in the same year. The former came with West Ham - he kept goal against Preston in a 3-2 win in the final - and the latter with Worcestershire.
5) Chris Balderstone
Balderstone combined playing as a midfielder for Huddersfield Town, Carlisle United, Doncaster Rovers and Queen of the South with batting for Yorkshire, Leicestershire (with whom he won the 1975 County Championship) and England. He was one of the last to combine professional careers in both sports.
6) Phil Neale
No, not the former Liverpool captain and
ultimate yes man to former England boss Graham Taylor,
but the near-namesake who combined professional cricket and football careers. A right-handed middle order batsman, Neale captained Worcestershire to success in the County Championship in 1988 and 1989 and also played football for Lincoln City and Beefy's former club, Scunthorpe.
7) Gary Lineker
If you thought Lineker's only link to cricket was sitting opposite David Gower on
They Think It's All Over
, think again. The former England goal-hanger and crisp enthusiast was a talented cricketer at school. "I was in both the football and cricket teams and got a lot of goals and runs. I was captain of the Leicestershire Schools cricket team from 11 to 16 and thought at the time I would probably have more chance afterwards in cricket than football," he said.
8) Steve Ogrizovic
The former Coventry keeper wasn't just good at stopping balls, but was pretty handy delivering them as well and reached minor counties level as a medium-fast bowler. He is even said to have once dismissed the great Viv Richards in a Minor Counties match against the touring West Indies.
9) Phil Neville
The superbly-named Neville Neville played cricket for Lancashire and spawned a mini-sporting dynasty consisting of England footballer sons Gary and Phil and daughter Tracy, who played netball for England. Young Phil could well have gone on to play cricket for not only his county but probably his country as well. He remains the youngest player ever to score a century for a county's second XI (with Lancashire, aged 15), and captained Andrew Flintoff at England junior level. According to his Everton team-mate Tim Cahill: "Phil Neville is really good. I've faced him a few times and he's probably better at cricket than he is at football!"
10) Rob Green
Apparently Rob Green is a decent batsman and prefers cricket to football. Well, if you were Rob Green you probably would too.
11) Joe Hart
Yet another keeper on our list, England and Manchester City's No.1 walked away from a career in cricket with Worcestershire to continue his football dreams. His former coach Damian D’Oliveira said: "He had all the attributes — he was tall at 6ft 2in, could swing the ball back into the right-hander and could bowl around 85mph. He was one of the most highly-rated players in the country. His batting was nothing to write home about, but he had huge potential as a bowler.”
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