Football legend Geoff Hurst plays cricket with the members of West Indian side

On December 8, 1941, football legend Geoffrey Hurst (knighted later) was born. Hurst remains the only person to score a hat-trick in the FIFA World Cup final. Rewind to Wembley in 1966 and England playing at home had qualified to the tournament final for the first time. West Germany were one goal up in the 12th minute and it was Hurst who scored the equaliser in the 19th minute and scored another as England went one goal up. West Germany’s 89th minute equaliser stretched the match to extra-time and 11 minutes later a goal (dubbed controversial by many) from Hurst sealed it for England.

Cricket was Hurst’s first love for many years. He loved wicket-keeping and skipped many football practice sessions to play cricket. He went on to play for Essex and played a First-Class match against his county of birth, Lancashire. He represented England till 1972 and ended his international football career with 24 goals from 49 matches, but his love for cricket remained intact.

In the above picture, we see Hurst playing with the members of the West Indian cricket team as Hurst tries his hand at batting a football at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge ground in London on July 23, 1980. West Indian were visiting the ground before their floodlit match against Surrey. We see some luminary fielders captured in frame — (from left) Deryck Murray, Clyde Walcott, Viv Richards and Alvin Kallicharan.