Entertainment

Watch as Gary Lineker, Rio Ferdinand, Steven Gerrard and more swap football for cricket

Are you watching, Trevor Bayliss?
Are you watching, Trevor Bayliss? Are you watching, Trevor Bayliss?

Not content with being some of England’s greatest footballers, Gary Lineker, Steven Gerrard and others have been showing off their cricket skills.

The pair were joined by Rio Ferdinand, Frank Lampard and Paul Scholes as they had a knockabout before the start of the Ashes.

This winter the series will be shown on BT Sport for the first time, so the broadcaster got its Champions League team to mess about with bat and ball to mark the occasion.

And there was definitely some talent on show, notably a peach of a lofted drive from Lineker and a perfect yorker from Lampard to dismiss him.

It’s not Lineker’s first brush with cricket – here he is playing in a charity game back in 1994.

Gary Lineker playing in a charity cricket game
Gary Lineker playing in a charity cricket game
(Dave Munden/EMPICS)

Scholes showed some talent too while Ferdinand contented himself with the role of wicketkeeper, and Gerrard put an emphatic full stop on proceedings with a mow for six at the end.

Meanwhile some felt they’d be better served travelling out to Australia than staying in the BT studio.

BT Sport’s coverage of the Ashes begins at 11pm on Wednesday night.