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.
Paul
Guest
No mention of Elyse Perry, who has and continues to represent Australia in cricket and football, including the recent Women's WC where she scored a goal against Sweden in an eventual defeat for the Matildas. She made her Test cricket debut on 15/2/2008 where at 17 years and 3 months, became Australia's youngest ever Test cricketer.
Hoff
Guest
Keith Millier. Played cricket for Australia and VFL for Victoria. Represented the Empire in the skies over Europe during WWII. Rumor has it he even put away a member of the British royal familiy in his spare time. Now that is REPRESENTIN!
Guthrie
Guest
Didn't a certain NZ batsman who received an underarm ball play for the All Blacks??
Professor Rosseforp
Guest
I suppose we mustn't forget Victor Trumper's involvement in the creation of rugby league, and his apparent ability as a union player.
Professor Rosseforp
Guest
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.
Professor Rosseforp
Guest
Ric Charlesworth was mentioned as a potential Australian test player in cricket, having played Shield cricket for Western Australia. Fitting in medical duties as a doctor, he played hockey for Australia, has coached the sport and has also been an administrator.
Bayman
Guest
Kersi, I'm a year late, as always, but you missed the most important one with Victor York Richardson. In Adelaide it was all very well playing golf, tennis, lacrosse, basketball while being able to stop yourself from drowning but it was footy, aka Australian Rules Football, for which Vic was equally famous. He played 114 games for the Sturt club from 1915 to 1927 (no play from 1916-1918 because of WW1), played in three premierships (1915, 1919, 1926), won two Best and Fairest, represented South Australia on 10 occasions and is still the only man to have captained South Australia at both cricket and football in the same year. On top of all that, he tied for the Magarey Medal (B&F in the SANFL) in 1920 but lost on a count-back. Subsequently, in 1998 the SANFL decided that any player who tied for the medal was a winner and the countback system was retrospectively abolished. So, some thirty years after his death, Vic joined the list of Magarey Medal winners. Surely a unique conrtribution to South Australian, and indeed Australian, sport. Trust me, Kersi, in Adelaide football and cricket rate considerably higher on the popularity scale than golf, tennis, lacrosse and basketball (with all due respect to the champions of those sports).
sharminator
Guest
I dont think Namibia plays test cricket, but one of its players did play in the cricket and rugby world cups. "Rudi van Vuuren is a world cup cricketer for Namibia. and a doctor. He is best known for representing his country in both the 2003 Cricket World Cup and the 2003 Rugby Union World Cup; as a result he became the first man to compete in the final stages of world-cup competitions in cricket and rugby union in the same year"
Kersi Meher-Homji
Guest
Thank you, Freud.
Freud of Football
Roar Guru
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2005/aug/10/theknowledge.sport Just found this, some more interesting facts in there.
Freud of Football
Roar Guru
http://www.watoday.com.au/breaking-news-sport/blewett-is-best-aussie-golfing-athlete-20091117-ik9l.html Blewett maybe should have stuck to golf in his youth.
Vinay Verma
Roar Guru
Who did you play for? I played a few years in the early to late 80'swith Lindfield and then with Laurie at Roseville.
Fly on the Wall
Guest
I played against Brett Papworth (Epping) and Laurie Monaghan (Lane Cove) in A Shires cricket in the mid-80s. Papworth was a handy keeper and Monaghan pretty nippy off a dozen paces. Still remember Monaghan's field goal against Fiji - possibly the longest drop goal ever.
Fly on the Wall
Guest
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.
Fly on the Wall
Guest
Albania
Freud of Football
Roar Guru
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.
Vinay Verma
Roar Guru
Kersi...Remember Jaideep Mukherjee..1960's and retired in 1972..in his time beat Emerson,Newcombe and Stolle and won four or five times in Europe. Famous for single handedly winning a Davis cup tie against Germany..beating Bungert in the reverse singles. Jaideep's father was an Cambridge blue at Hockey and Jaideep played all sports for the La martiniere Firsts including Rugby and Soccer. Was also a good boxer and swimmer. He was three years senior to me but left a lasting sporting impression. I believe he also played a season of Ranji for Bengal. Kapil Dev had a few apperances for Mohun Bagan in the Kolkata Football League and was a University TT champ. He also currently plays Golf off a low handicap. Could have played professionally. Its going back a while but in the Pentangulars of 1936 I believe there were some versatile Parsi and Muslim sportsmen.You would know better. John Eales played Grade Cricket in Brisbane and both Brett Papworth and Laurie Monahagn were excellent cricketers. I am sure a lot of the current International sportsmen would be adept at other disciplines except that in this professional era sport is more a business than a game.
bever fever
Guest
Laurie Nash
netrug
Guest
soerry, read Ray Lindwall.
netrug
Guest
Ray Lindeall played league for St George and Keith Miller played Aussie Rules for St Kilda.