In the history of sports, there are quite a few instances where a sports personality showed his or her all-round capability by playing more than one sports with distinction.
In cricket, we can easily recall Denis Compton (international cricket and club football), Chuni Goswami (international football and first-class cricket) and Ellyse Perry, the versatile Australian who has played both international cricket and football for Australia. Perry’s achievements are well known; however, she is not the only woman cricket to record such feat.
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[tie_slide] Elena Tice |
Elena Tice –
Source: Joe Toth/INPHO
Elena Tice made her debut for Ireland Women’s team in 2011 at the age of 13 years and 272 days and became the youngest ever to play international cricket. She is currently third in that list. She played 15 ODIs and 25 T20Is for Ireland and also was selected in the squad for the 2014 World T20 in Bangladesh. In 2018, Tice brought glory for Ireland as she was the part of the silver medal-winning Irish field hockey team in the World Cup. It was a sensational performance by the Irish girls and Tice played a key role in it. [/tie_slide]
[tie_slide] Sunette Viljoen |
Sunette Viljoen
Another cricketer who made a mark in both cricket and Olympics is Sunette Viljoen of South Africa. Viljoen is also the only woman cricketer till now to win a medal at the Olympics for Javelin throwing. Although she debuted for South Africa at a very young age, her international career was short lived as she played only one Test and 17 ODIs between 2000 and 2002. She was also in the South Africa Women squad in 2000 World cup. Viljoen shined more in athletics and won multiple international competitions including two golds and a silver at Commonwealth Games and a Silver in 2016 Summer Olympics at Rio de Janeiro for Javelin throwing. [/tie_slide]
[tie_slide] Suzie Bates |
Suzie Bates
One of the mainstays of New Zealand women’s cricket team and their long-time captain Suzie Bates also is a double international. Bates currently is the leading run scorers in International T20 with 3243 runs. Her tally in fact makes her the highest for both men and women put together. Along with playing cricket at various parts of the World including Women’s Big Bash, she is also an international level basketball player. Bates participated at the 2008 Summer Olympics at Beijing for the New Zealand women’s basketball team. [/tie_slide]
[tie_slide] Clare Taylor |
Clare Elizabeth Taylor was the first woman to play World Cup in two leading sports, cricket and football. She won the Cricket World cup in 1993 and also became the first woman to take 100 ODI wickets. She started as a footballer and played for Liverpool Ladies in a long career. However, once she started to lose her slot frequently, she focused more on cricket and finished with 105 ODIs and 16 Tests to her name since 1988. [/tie_slide]
[tie_slide] Rachael Heyhoe Flint |
Rachael Heyhoe Flint
The English cricketer, who to many was ‘The Women’s Cricket’ for her exceptional contributions to bring women’s cricket in the forefront. She was the captain of the English cricket team from 1966 to 1978 and led the team to win the first ever Women’s Cricket World Cup. She also played a key role to bring women’s cricket at Lord’s and was one of the first female members of MCC. She played quite a few other sports too including Golf, Squash, and Field Hockey and represented the English national Field Hockey team in 1964 as a goalkeeper. [/tie_slide]
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