Arnie SIDEBOTTOM

Yorkshire seam bowler Arnie Sidebottom is probably the only Manchester United soccer player to also get an England Test cap, although Phillip Neville was easily the most talented batsman of his generation until he abandoned cricket in his early teens. Arnie's early years were dominated by his soccer career - he also played for Huddersfield Town and Halifax - and he played cricket for Yorkshire for just a small part of the season in the 1970s. In the 1980s he had more time for the game and established himself as an accurate fast-medium opening bowler with a rather unwieldy run-up.

His figures were good enough to get him a cap against Australia in England's Ashes-winning summer of 1985 when the selectors turned to experience to fill a gap created by injury to more obvious England candidates like Graham Dilley and Neil Foster, or his Yorkshire teammates Graham Stevenson and Paul Jarvis. Sidebottom found himself sharing the new ball with Ian Botham and Paul Allott at Trent Bridge, and he dismissed night-watchman Bob Holland lbw early on the third day.

However, an injury to his toe put him out of the attack in the middle of his 19th over, and with Allott down with a stomach upset Australia powered on to 539 and a first innings lead. In 1982 he was a member of the unofficial England team that went to South Africa under Graham Gooch. Sidebottom did not appear in the 'Tests' but played in the three-match series of unofficial One Day Internationals, taking three of the five South African wickets that fell in the third in Johannesburg. The opponents included Barry Richards, Jimmy Cook, Clive Rice, Graeme Pollock and Peter Kirsten. (Bob Harragan)