Former England Goalkeeper Earns England Cricket Call-Up

Nigel Martyn, former England goalkeeper, is now looking for a new international dream this time around in cricket. Nearly 20 years after retiring as professional football goalkeeper, Martyn has made his way into England's Over-60s setup and may become one of only a few athletes to have ever represented England in both football and cricket.

The 59-year-old, who was capped 23 times by England during his football career, recently attended England Over-60s trials at Loughborough University and has since been picked in the England Over-60s 'Lions' squad, who act as understudy to the senior side.

Martyn's Football Career

The goalkeeper's professional football career began in 1987 with Bristol Rovers after being recommended to manager Gerry Francis by the club's tea lady, Vi Harris, while later moving on to Crystal Palace, Leeds United and Everton.

During his career he made 666 league appearances before being forced to retire in 2006 due to a stress fracture in his ankle and was selected in the England squad for the 1998 and 2002 FIFA World Cups although was an understudy to David Seaman on both occasions.

Martyn stated it was still close to him after his football career.

To BBC Sport, Martyn told:

"It's pretty special. Obviously as a professional goalkeeper I wasn't allowed to play cricket in the summer, as it would threaten breaking fingers and things like that."

Cricket Return After Retiring From Football

Following medical clearance in 2011 Martyn returned to playing cricket and currently plays club cricket for Scarcroft CC, near Leeds and was also previously with Knaresborough CC and is a former England goalkeeper with Paul Robinson as a teammate there who he represented at Knaresborough CC.

The reason he was picked into the England senior team setup is that Martyn played county age group cricket for Cornwall.

He said:

"My good friend Sean Hooper, who was the captain of Cornwall Over-50s, spoke to me about six years ago asking if fancied playing for Cornwall. We last played when we were together with Cornwall Schools Under-15s. From there Cornwall recommended me to England."

Despite living in Yorkshire, Martyn, who is around 800 miles away from Cornwall where he regularly travels to for games admitted.

"It's a long trip but being able to go home and see family more often was always the added bonus with it as well."

Wicketkeeping Skills Still Sharp

He is a wicket-keeper, and says that several skills learnt from his footballing experience have transferred to the area behind the stumps. Martyn said that his two heroes in the past, Alan Knott and Bob Taylor were England's most famous wicket keepers.

He said:

"Because I wanted to be a goalkeeper, I also wanted to be a wicketkeeper. There's some transferable skills of hand-eye coordination and I'm sort of used to a round object being either thrown or kicked at me."

World Cup Dreams Not Over

Martyn celebrates his 60th birthday on 11th August so he will be unable to play in this year's Over-60s Cricket World Cup in Canada, as it started on August 2nd. But says that there is still a chance that he could be the English wicket keeper at a World Cup again.

He said:

"That would be great. I trained with the two wicketkeepers picked for the World Cup and they are both excellent. They're in spot at the moment, and I'll just keep doing my thing."