World record holder Usain Bolt prepares for a charity invitational celebrity cricket match on October 18, 2009 at the Kaiser Sports facility in St. Ann, Jamaica. The one-day event also featured West Indies stars inc. Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan... (© AFP / Getty Images)
Multiple World holder, World and Olympic champion Usain Bolt returned to his cricketing roots on Sunday (18) in Jamaica playing in a charity match, just down the coast from his home town of Trelawny.
Despite Bolt’s athletics success there is no doubting that Jamaica and the whole of the West Indies still worship their sporting religion of Cricket, and the world’s finest sprinter used to be a keen cricketer and used to open the batting for his school.
Bolt’s superb bat and ball coordination showed on Sunday at the Kaiser Sports Ground. Taking to the batting crease he smashed a six off the bowling of West Indies team captain Chris Gayle, making a total of 13 in his innings, before the ‘fastest man in the world’ ironically got run-out dashing for a single.
But Bolt was not done for the day. The 23-year-old with his side in the field took up the ball and produced some fine bowling which included taking the wicket of Gayle who usually opens for the West Indies.
The cricket ground was packed with spectators for the mini tournament to raise funds for school sports equipment.
"It has been tremendous for the fans to see him out here playing cricket, it has been a great day and we hope to have him back again next year," said Gayle who was also the event organiser.
"I was pretty good as a kid and my cricket coach said I should concentrate on bowling because I was pretty quick running in," commented Bolt.
Reuters and The Times