Cricket toughened me up in my early years more than football: Manchester United legend Gary Neville

It is a well-known fact that former England Football team and Manchester United captain Gary Neville was a cricketer before he became a professional with the Red Devils and won 20 trophies with them in his career.

In his early days at Manchester United's academy, the elder of Neville brothers, Gary, used to play cricket for Greenmount in the Bolton League. In an interview to Wisden Cricket Monthly, Neville revealed how Cricket helped him toughen up as a sportsperson early on in his career.

"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.

He also narrated an incident when he scored a century for Greenmount in 1992 batting alongside former Australian batsman Matthew Hayden and what the opener said him when he played a bad shot.

"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 said.

He also admitted that he is a big fan of the Australian team that had the likes of Waugh brothers, Ricky Ponting, Glenn McGrath, Matthew Hayden, Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist etc. and conceded that he always wanted to be part of that team.

"That Australian side was everything I would want in a team. You know what I love? The mentality. They were always on the front foot and they never backed off," he added.

He had the option to choose either Cricket or Football for a career and the defender chose the latter and went on to become one of the greats to have played for his club and the country.