This is a list of sports people who have played both
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
and
rugby union
Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...
at a high level. First-class or List A cricket, provincial rugby and international cricket or rugby are considered to be high level for the purposes of this list. To be eligible, players must have appeared for their country's national side in at least one of the sports. The lists below are alphabetical and sorted by the country in which the player spent their international career.
Alfred Shaw
Alfred Shaw (29 August 1842 – 16 January 1907) was an eminent Victorian cricketer and rugby footballer, who bowled the first ball in Test cricket and was the first to take five wickets in a Test innings (5/35). He made two trips to North Ameri ...
and
Arthur Shrewsbury
Arthur Shrewsbury (11 April 1856 – 19 May 1903) was an English cricketer and rugby football administrator. He was widely rated as competing with W. G. Grace for the accolade of best batsman of the 1880s; Grace himself, when asked whom he wou ...
, who organised the first
British Isles rugby tour to Australasia in 1888 were also noted cricketers.
While the
Wales national rugby union team
The Wales national rugby union team ( cy, Tîm rygbi'r undeb cenedlaethol Cymru) represents Wales in men's international rugby union. Its governing body, the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU), was established in 1881, the same year that Wales played thei ...
is a force in international rugby, the
Wales national cricket team
Cricketers from Wales are currently represented by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and compete for the England cricket team. There have been some historical instances of a separate Welsh team in the 1920–30s, in the 1979 ICC Trophy, ...
plays only rarely, and the nation of Wales is usually subsumed under England for cricketing purposes.
Both Irish rugby players and cricketers, unlike soccer players, also play as one nation.
The two sports have also had a considerable overlap in commentators and journalists, e.g.
Robert Hudson,
Howard Marshall,
Lisa Olson
Lisa Olson is an American sports journalist. Her work has been featured in the anthology, "The Best American Sports Writing". She was previously a sports columnist for the ''New York Daily News'', and the
first female sports columnist for the ''S ...
,
Denzil Batchelor
Denzil Stanley Batchelor (23 February 1906 – 6 September 1969) was a British people, British journalist, writer, poet, playwright, wine expert and a radio and television broadcaster.
Life and career
Denzil Batchelor was born in Mumbai, Bomba ...
,
Ian Smith
Ian Douglas Smith (8 April 1919 – 20 November 2007) was a Rhodesian politician, farmer, and fighter pilot who served as Prime Minister of Rhodesia (known as Southern Rhodesia until October 1964 and now known as Zimbabwe) from 1964 to ...
,
Steve James,
Allan Massie
Allan Johnstone Massie (born 16 October 1938) is a Scottish journalist, columnist, sports writer and novelist. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He has lived in the Scottish Borders for the last 25 years, and now lives in Se ...
Many venues, including
St. Helen's Rugby and Cricket Ground,
Carisbrook
Carisbrook (sometimes incorrectly referred to as Carisbrook Stadium) was a major sporting venue in Dunedin, New Zealand. The city's main domestic and international rugby union venue, it was also used for other sports such as cricket, football, ...
,
Eden Park
Eden Park is New Zealand's largest sports stadium, with a capacity of 50,000. Located in central Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, it is three kilometres southwest of the CBD, on the boundary between the suburbs of Mount Eden and King ...
,
Raeburn Place
Raeburn Place is the main street of the suburb of Stockbridge, Edinburgh, Scotland, and the name of the playing fields there.
Rugby
The first ever international rugby football game was played on the playing fields at Raeburn Place on 27 Ma ...
,
Headingley Stadium
Headingley Stadium is a stadium complex in Headingley, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, comprising two separate grounds; Headingley Cricket Ground and Headingley Rugby Stadium, linked by a two-sided stand housing common facilities. The grounds a ...
,
Sydney Cricket Ground
The Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) is a sports stadium in Sydney, Australia. It is used for Test cricket, Test, One Day International and Twenty20 cricket, as well as, Australian rules football and occasionally for rugby league, rugby union and as ...
,
McLean Park
McLean Park is a sports ground in Napier, New Zealand. The two main sports played at the ground are cricket and rugby union. It is one of the largest cricket grounds in New Zealand.
McLean Park is a sports ground of international standards w ...
,
The Oval
The Oval, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Kia Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, located in the borough of Lambeth, in south London. The Oval has been the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club since ...
,
Cardiff Arms Park
Cardiff Arms Park ( cy, Parc yr Arfau Caerdydd), also known as The Arms Park, is situated in the centre of Cardiff, Wales. It is primarily known as a rugby union stadium, but it also has a bowling green. The Arms Park was host to the British E ...
and
Limavady Cricket and Rugby Club
Both cricket and rugby are played at the 1,200-capacity John Hunter Grounds in Limavady, Northern Ireland.
Team history
Rugby was first played in Limavady in the year 1922. On 14 September 1968 both cricket and rugby clubs in Limavady were merg ...
have been used for both rugby and cricket over the years.
Due to the historical relationship between rugby league and rugby union, several of these players have also competed in high level
rugby ''league'' as well. (See
List of cricket and rugby league players
This is a list of sports people who have played both cricket and rugby league at a high level.
Until recently, Scotland, Ireland and Wales all played as part of the English dominated Great Britain team.
Due to the historical relationship between ...
)
Dual internationals
Australia
England
Fiji
Ireland
New Zealand
Scotland
South Africa
Zimbabwe (former Rhodesia)
Two nations
Other nations
International cricket – Domestic rugby
England
Ireland
New Zealand
South Africa
Domestic cricket – International rugby
Australia
England
Ireland
New Zealand
Scotland
South Africa
Wales
See also
*
Douglas Bader
Group Captain Sir Douglas Robert Steuart Bader, (; 21 February 1910 – 5 September 1982) was a Royal Air Force flying ace during the Second World War. He was credited with 22 aerial victories, four shared victories, six probables, one shared ...
, amputee WWII flying ace, whose rugby and cricket careers were cut short by an accident in 1931.
*
Ted Bateson, rugby union (Yorkshire, and Skipton), rugby league (Wakefield Trinity), and association football (soccer) (Blackburn Rovers) footballer, and cricketer (Lancashire)
*
Angus Buchanan, who scored the first try in international rugby and who was also a cricketer.
*
Sydney Deane
Sydney Leslie Deane (1 March 1863 – 20 March 1934) was a first-class cricketer and entertainer, and the first Australian to appear in a Hollywood movie.
Biography In Australia
Born in Balmain, Sydney, to Edward and Sophia, Deane was a prom ...
, notable cricketer and rugby player, and first Australian in a Hollywood film.
*
John Graham, former All-Black and New Zealand cricket team manager from 1997 to 1999.
*
List of cricket and rugby league players
This is a list of sports people who have played both cricket and rugby league at a high level.
Until recently, Scotland, Ireland and Wales all played as part of the English dominated Great Britain team.
Due to the historical relationship between ...
*
References
Sources
* Bath, Richard (ed.) ''The Scotland Rugby Miscellany'' (Vision Sports Publishing Ltd, 2007 )
* Godwin, Terry ''Complete Who's Who of International Rugby'' (Cassell, 1987, )
External links
Cricinfo: Rugger Buggers
{{Cricketers who played other sports
Rugby union players
Lists of rugby union players