Former Manchester United captain Gary Neville is one of the most successful footballers of his generation. Neville, who was one of the members of United’s famous “Class of 1992”, made 400 appearances for Manchester United and won 20 titles with the club. He also played in 85 international matches for the England senior side between 1995 and 2007.
However, Neville could have chosen a sport other than football for a career. While he was in his early days at the Manchester United academy, Neville used to play cricket for Greenmount in the Bolton League.
In an interview to Wisden Cricket Monthly, Neville spoke about how he scored a century for Greenmount with Matthew Hayden standing at the other end in 1992. Hayden would go on to become one of Australia's most successful openers.
Neville, 17 at the time, recollected how Hayden motivated him during the innings. “I hit a bad shot, and Hayden came up to me and said, ‘Concentrate, I don’t want any of that crap, this is not the time’. That mentality of ‘You don’t get out, you don’t give your wicket away’. That was something I didn’t value enough. He did. Even then. He valued his wicket.”
Neville added that he always wanted to be part of the team which had the likes of Hayden, McGrath, Warne, Gillespie, Gilchrist, The Waughs and Taylor. “That Australian side was everything I would want in a team,” Neville said. “You know what I love? The mentality. They were always on the front foot and they never backed off,” the former England captain said.
The former footballer went onto say that cricket helped him toughen up as a sportsman early on. “I’d say cricket toughened me up in my early years a lot more than football, because I was playing in the third, second and first team until the age of 15. We were playing with men, some professionals of that time, fast bowlers, with your helmet on. It was really scary,” he said.
