5 Cricketers Who Played Other Sports Before Cricket

5 Cricketers Who Played Other Sports Before Playing Cricket; Being at school, an individual will have a bunch of options during sports class to pursue. While a lot of athletes choose a specific sport, there are a few exceptions, who are smart and lethal in various kind of sports. Though it is tough to manage for the individuals to pursue both, a few of them did that with great determination but ended up taking only one sport as their profession.

There are players, who received certificates for their mastery in another sport but they ended up becoming an international cricketer. Here, we have figured out five such cricketers, who have played other sports before playing International cricket and bringing laurels to their respective country. Have a look:

5 Cricketers Who Played Other Sports Before Playing Cricket:

5. Brendon McCullum:

The former skipper of New Zealand Brendon McCullum, who ended his career as one of the finest batsmen in the world cricket for Black Caps finds a place in the chart. He not only awestruck the fans by his blistering knocks with the bat but also remained the perfect brand ambassador of the gentleman sport with his true spirit.

Besides his exploits with the bat, Brendon McCullum is known as a master tactician for Black Caps in captaincy role. Well, getting back to the topic, Brendon McCullum has played Rugby game at a higher level for his school team before choosing the game of cricket.

A young Brendon McCullum once famously kept out future All Blacks star Dan Carter from a South Island secondary schools rugby team. He was that good at the sport. Then, he chose cricket and as they say, rest is history.

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4. Ellyse Perry:

The Australian women cricketer Ellyse Perry, who is making waves in the world cricket with her all-round skills also one of the few cricketers, who chose other sport over cricket in her early days as a sportswoman. However, she made rapid progress with her enormous skills. Currently, Ellyse Perry is arguably the greatest all-rounder that the women’s game has ever seen.

She is the youngest profile, male or female, to represent Australia in cricket and the first Australian woman to have appeared in both cricket and association football World Cups. Another interesting fact about her is that Ellyse Perry made her debut for both the Australian cricket and football (soccer) teams at the age of 16.

3. Jonty Rhodes:

The first name that strikes for all the cricketing brains when they hear about the term ‘fielding’ in cricket is Jonty Rhodes. He made it as his own and produced a few magical dismissals with his artistic work on the field. However, all that wouldn’t have happened if he had stuck to his first love ”Hockey” during his teens.

Rhodes was a very good hockey player and in fact, he was also selected for the South African Olympic hockey team which was supposed to go to the 1992 Olympics Games in Barcelona. Unfortunately, the team failed to qualify and Rhodes could never make it to the Olympics.

Later, in 1996, he once again tried but unfortunately, missed the tournament due to hamstring injury. After that, he turned his focus into cricket and became a legendary person in the sport.

2. Suzie Bates:

The right-handed cricketer of New Zealand Women Cricket Team is one of the few women, who ruled the ICC charts for years. Her incredible ability to strike the ball hard and her brilliant medium pace bowling makers her a sit in the top category of cricket.

After becoming one of the finest all-rounders for Kiwis, Bates mastered the art of captaincy with her exceptional tactics on the field. Bates also collected quite a few achievements to her name. Apart from winning the ODI cricketer of the year in 2013, Bates did the double in 2015, claiming the ODI and T20I cricketer of the year.

She has also represented the New Zealand basketball team during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Bates only gave up Basketball when she was offered the role of captain in 2011, till then she was a double international.

1. AB de Villiers:

Ever since AB de Villiers started dominating international cricket, rumours of him playing a number of sports while growing up started doing the rounds. Quite a substantial number of cricket fans believed that De Villiers was a multi-talented sportsman.

Sadly, all the rumours about ABD representing his country in a number of sports are nothing but a big myth. And the interesting thing was that the myth was busted by none other than AB de Villiers. He dedicated a whole chapter to that particular myth in his autobiography.

AB de Villiers, who enjoys a great fan base not only in India but across the world, revealed that he played hockey during his childhood days and was also pretty good at Tennis and Golf.

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