Test cricketers who have represented in other sports
Columnist
By Kersi Meher-Homji, 24 Oct 2009 Kersi Meher-Homji is a Roar Expert
Australian cricket captain Steve Waugh (left), and Vice Captain Shane Warne (right) display the World Cup Cricket trophy. Australia's 1 Day Cricket World Cup winning team drove in a motorcade down Sydney's main street to celebrate in a ticket tape parade with over 100,000 well wishers attending. AAP Photo/ Pablo Ramire
Following my recent post on international cricketers who played rugby, today I’ve listed Test cricketers who have proudly worn their country’s colours in football (soccer), hockey, tennis, baseball and badminton.
FOOTBALL
For England: CB Fry, Andy Ducat, RE ‘Tip’ Foster, Harry Makepeace, Hon. Alfred Lyttelton, Leslie Gay, Harold ‘Wally’ Hardinge, Albert Knight, Jack Arnold, William Gunn, Jack Sharp, Sir Charles Aubrey Smith, Willie Watson and Arthur Milton.
Foster captained England in both cricket and football. Watson represented England in the 1950 Soccer World Cup. Sir Charles Aubrey Smith later made a name for himself as a stage and movie actor.
For South Africa: Gordon White, John ‘Mick’ Commaille and Sid O’Lynn.
For New Zealand: Ken Hough represented New Zealand and Australia in football.
HOCKEY
For Australia: Brian Booth and Trevor Laughlin; Booth represented Australia in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.
For South Africa: ‘Jonty’ Rhodes and Russell Endean.
For England and India: Nawab of Pataudi Sr.
For India: MJ Gopalan.
For New Zealand: Edwin McLeod and Keith Thomson.
For Zimbabwe: David Houghton.
TENNIS
For India: Cotar Ramaswami played Davis Cup.
BASEBALL
For Australia: Vic Richardson and Bruce Dooland.
Richardson, the grandfather of Ian, Greg and Trevor Chappell, besides shining for Australia in cricket and baseball, also represented South Australia in golf and tennis. He was prominent at lacrosse and basketball and was a first-rate swimmer.
BADMINTON
For New Zealand: Philip Horne.
Here are some additional tidbits:
* The legendary WG Grace was the national 440-yard hurdles champion and also represented England at bowls.
* England’s Ted Dexter played in the English Amateur Golf Championship.
* Alan Walker was a member of the Australian Wallabies Rugby Union team touring England Britain, France and USA in 1947-48 and the Australian cricket team to South Africa in 1949-50.
* Kepler Wessels was the top junior tennis player for South Africa in 1973.
* Steve and Mark Waugh had represented NSW at cricket, football and tennis when in their teens. They later played football at reserve level for Sydney club Croatia.
Although not an international, the daddy-of-all versatile sportsman was extrovert Bill Alley from New South Wales and Somerset.
He was a blacksmith’s striker, boilermaker, deep-sea fisherman, dance-hall bouncer, professional boxer, an aggressive left-handed batsman who scored 3019 runs for Somerset in 1961 aged 42 and went on to umpire ten cricket Test matches.
In 400 first-class matches for NSW, Somerset and Commonwealth XI from 1945 to 1968, he hit 19,612 runs at 31.88 with 31 centuries (top-score 221 not out). He also took 768 wickets at 22.68 and 293 catches.
Now with cricket going on almost twelve months a year, there has not been a cricketer who has represented his country in another sport in a decade.
But for cricket played all year round, Shane Warne – who knows – could have represented Australia in AFL.
And many cricketers, Ricky Ponting to give a recent example, would have played golf at an international level had it not been for a crowded cricket calendar.
This list of dual internationals is not complete; only an appetising entrée.
Sources: As in Part I, plus World Cricketers (Oxford, UK, 1996) by Christopher Martin-Jenkins and No-balls and Googlies (Callistemon Books, South Australia, 2006) by Geoff Tibballs.
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Kersi Meher-Homji said | October 24th 2009 @ 5:13am | Report comment
My apology roarers,
Alan Walker was a member of Wallabies Rugby UNION (and NOT League) team to Britain, France and USA in 1947-48. The correction was sent but perhaps too late.
Zolton said | October 24th 2009 @ 5:51am | Report comment
Hi Kersi, this has been fixed. Zolton [ed.]
Freud of Football said | October 24th 2009 @ 6:51am | Report comment
Kersi, what a list. Only a few standout as a couple are one-test-wonders but to think that these guys managed to play at the highest level in not one but two sports, it’s phenomenal.
Notable absentee is Denis Compton, Middlesex and England batsmen in 78 tests and won the FA Cup with Arsenal, imagine him being your grandpa, he’d have some stories to tell.
Being a passionate baseballer I’ll note that Chappelli won the Claxton Shield with SA and was selected in the all-australian team as catcher. All of the Chappell’s played baseball as well as cricket and Trevor was quite a good footballer and South African tear-away Nantie Hayward was also a baseballer, from memory he played his first game of cricket about 18 months before he played he debuted for SAF.
A few other dual internationals:
*Viv Richards played football for Antigua but I’m not sure if it was in an official international
*A. Mathews, a test player for England represented Wales in table tennis
*Dirk Nannes has played cricket for the Netherlands and represented Aus in some skiing event.
*Aasif Karim played in 34 ODI’s as captain of Kenya and represented the country in the davis cup.
Other than that some more notable names who’ve dabbled in other sports:
*Beefy Botham played for Scunthorpe United
*The great Fred Titmus played for Watford and Chelsea as a junior
*Michael Slater was an excellent hockey player but focused on cricket
Last and certainly not least, some exceptional all-round athletes:
*CB Fry played rugby and football to a very high level and was an excellent long jumper.
*Sir Garfield Sobers (cool name), West Indian great also represented Barbados in football, basketball, table tennis and dominoes!
*Herschelle Gibbs – Not as good as the first two in cricket but by all accounts he could have played one of football, rugby or cricket for SAF, he was that talented.
Further reading: http://static.cricinfo.com/db/STATS/TESTS/INDIVIDUAL/TRIVIA/MULTISPORT_TEST_PLAYERS.html
Kersi Meher-Homji said | October 24th 2009 @ 7:44am | Report comment
I am humbled by your knowledge, Freud. Wow! Someone should write a book on Dual Internationals.
And thanks Zolton for fixing the error.
Freud of Football said | October 24th 2009 @ 10:10am | Report comment
Kersi, you should write a book on dual internationals.
It is a fascinating topic I think, people who we already consider to be so vastly talented but are mutli-talented to that level, it’s mind-boggling in a way to think that I am lucky if I hit the fairway 50% of the time yet these blokes can play whatever sport they want and dominate it.
spiro said | October 24th 2009 @ 7:46am | Report comment
C.B.Fry was also offered the crown of either Greece or Albania, I believe. He was also a first-rate sports journalist.
I don’t know whether the case of Samuel Beckett is 100 per cent relevant in this fascinating discussion but he is part of my favourite cricket trivia question: ‘Who is the only Nobel Prize winner to have played first class cricket?’
The answer is Samuel Beckett who played as a medium-pace bowler for Ireland, I believe.
Ron Haddrick, the very good actor, was an opening batsman for Queensland in Sheffield Shield cricket. i
Fly on the Wall said | October 24th 2009 @ 7:52pm | Report comment
Albania
Professor Rosseforp said | December 19th 2010 @ 6:19pm | Report comment
Samuel Beckett bowled left-arm spin whilst at university — anyone who has read “Waiting for Godot” would have no doubt that Beckett was well-acquainted with cricket. The slow pace, the meaningless of the whole procedure, yet the creation of a world that people are trapped in for long periods of time, and the question over whether there is any result at the end of the play.
Whiteline said | October 24th 2009 @ 9:36am | Report comment
great stuff lads – but Warnie in AFL, don’t think so…
Pippinu said | October 24th 2009 @ 9:44am | Report comment
He might have played U19s! (one step up from a suburban comp)
Freud of Football said | October 24th 2009 @ 10:08am | Report comment
I was at the Adelaide Oval during an Australian team warm-up session and having seen Warnies skills I don’t think it’s that unrealistic, considering he was 30-odd at the time you could still see his natural talent, Ponting too.
Pippinu said | October 24th 2009 @ 10:13am | Report comment
Freud – I agree with you – but they didn’t play at AFL level as a statement of fact.
Fly on the Wall said | October 24th 2009 @ 7:53pm | Report comment
Warne played a handful of game for St Kilda in the u-18s I believe.
Max Walker played VFL a cpla games I believe, as did Simon O’Donnell.
Not dual international but still impressive.
Kersi Meher-Homji said | October 24th 2009 @ 10:26am | Report comment
Thanks again for your kind words, Freud.
But a book on Double Internationals by me? Frankly no. I have a solid background in cricket; perhaps tennis and table tennis. But for other sports, to quote Sergeant Schultz in Hogan’s Heroes, “I know nothing.”!
Freud of Football said | October 24th 2009 @ 7:27pm | Report comment
Kersi,
I don’t think you have to write a lot about other sports in such a book as its about dual cricketing internationals, focus on their cricketing careers and mention as a side note what other sports they played.
I’ll order my copy now.
SpongeBob said | October 24th 2009 @ 10:27am | Report comment
Boys, last time I watched you need to be built like a greyhound to play AFL. Warne had great skills I’d imagine but the only time I reckon he would have broken out of a jog was when he was exiting stage left as hubby came home.
Hansie said | October 24th 2009 @ 3:41pm | Report comment
Warne wasn’t AFL standard at Aussie Rules. Better examples are Max Walker and Simon O’Donnell.
bever fever said | October 24th 2009 @ 5:35pm | Report comment
Laurie Nash
netrug said | October 24th 2009 @ 5:02pm | Report comment
Ray Lindeall played league for St George and Keith Miller played Aussie Rules for St Kilda.
netrug said | October 24th 2009 @ 5:04pm | Report comment
soerry, read Ray Lindwall.