Ex-England Goalkeeper Set for Cricket International at 60

Most athletes hang up their boots and fade quietly into retirement, but former England goalkeeper Nigel Martyn is writing a remarkable second chapter at age 59.

Martyn, who made 666 professional football appearances for clubs including Leeds United and Everton, has just earned selection for England's Over-60s cricket Lions squad. If he makes the senior team, he'll join an exclusive club of just 12 people who've represented England in both cricket and football.

The last person to achieve this feat was Arthur Milton, who played his first cricket Test in 1958. That was seven years after earning his only football cap against Austria, in a different sporting era altogether.

For Martyn, the journey back to cricket has been anything but straightforward. As a professional footballer, he wasn't allowed to play cricket during summer months because the risk of broken fingers could end his goalkeeping career. When he retired in 2006 with a stress fracture in his ankle, he thought his cricket days were over.

But doctors gave him the all-clear in 2011, and he returned to the sport he'd always loved. Now he plays club cricket for Scarcroft CC near Leeds and was recommended to England's age-group selectors after representing Cornwall's Over-50s team.

Why This Inspires

What makes Martyn's story special isn't just the rarity of dual internationals. It's his genuine love for competition and teamwork that keeps him making 800-mile round trips from Yorkshire to Cornwall for county matches.

At England trials at Loughborough University earlier this year, Martyn received no special treatment despite his sporting pedigree. He earned his spot as a wicketkeeper through skill and dedication, competing against players who maintain remarkably high standards well into their 60s.

"The batting and bowling standard is really, really high," Martyn told BBC Sport. "There's still blokes in their 60s diving around stopping the ball, sprinting after it and throwing it in."

Martyn turns 60 on August 11, just days after this year's Over-60s Cricket World Cup begins in Canada, making him ineligible for that tournament. But he's already setting his sights on future World Cups, something that eluded him in football despite traveling to the 1998 and 2002 tournaments as David Seaman's understudy.

The competition for places doesn't discourage him. "I trained with the two wicketkeepers picked for the World Cup and they are both excellent," he said. "The competition does drive you on to push the people ahead of you."

For now, Martyn is simply savoring the camaraderie and the chance to represent his country again, proving that second acts in sports can be just as thrilling as the first.