‘Neville can replace Crawley’ – Fans stunned by Man Utd icon’s cricket skills as he and Carragher take on Broad in the nets
FANS were impressed by Gary Neville’s surprising cricket skills as he and colleague Jamie Carragher were put through their paces by English legend Stuart Broad.
The bowler is a huge Nottingham Forest fan and was at the City Ground for their Friday night clash against Newcastle.
Given his ties to the Tricky Trees, Sky Sports recruited Broad to get Neville and Carragher out of their comfort zone with some cricket.
The pair went into the inside crease, with Broad bowling some expert balls their way.
Decked out in full cricket gear, both Neville and Carragher initially struggled to rise to the challenge, with the former Liverpool defender once joking of his rival: “This is worse than his Valencia moment!”
But the longer the challenge lasted, the clearer it became that there was a quality gap between the experts.
And Neville, the former opening batsman at his local cricket club Greenmount, impressed both Broad and Sky Sports viewers.
One wrote on Twitter: “Think Nev can open instead of [Zak] Crawley.”
Another viewer left with a similar theme as they said, “Neville can’t be worse than Crawley to be honest.”
While another fan said: “[Neville is] a much better hitter than a manager.”
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Other tweeters dug up an old Bury Times newspaper headline showing a young Neville alongside Australian opener Matthew Hayden as they charted runs for Greenmount.
The former Manchester United full-back managed to respond impressively to some of Broad’s fierce bowling, bouncing the ball back in the bowler’s direction on numerous occasions.
But Carragher has struggled to connect with most of Broad’s balls and even had his wickets taken out once.
Broad, 36, declared Neville the winner at the end of the challenge.
However, a fun day for England’s cricketers ended on a weak note when his beloved Forest side conceded a late penalty to lose to Newcastle.
