He may have won six Olympic gold medals and eight World Championships becoming the fastest man on earth but legendary Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt as a child dreamt of becoming a Test cricket sensation.
And once he hangs up his running shoes, Bolt wants to become a professional footballer in a club in England.
In fact, had Bolt not specialised in track and field event, he would probably have played cricket, smashing sixes and taking wickets, says the athlete in his first full-length autobiography “Faster Than lightning” published by Harper Collins.
And why notIJ For, Bolt was excited watching the likes of another Jamaican cricket icon and paceman Courtney Walsh and batting legend Brian lara and hung out with friends “smashing sixes around the school field” in his hometown.
“I really liked the kids who enjoyed cricket and I would hit it off with anyone who had a bat and a ball”, says the athlete.
Bolt believes he had all the ingredients of a good cricketer — bowling with speed coming down hard on batsmen, a fast fielder and as a batsman.
“In cricket, when I bowled, I could come down on the wicket hard, with speed and I was quick in the field... At the age of eight, I was taking wickets of cricketers a lot older than me, guys that were 10 or 11 years old...It wasn’t long before I had opened the batting for Waldensia (his village school) a couple of years earlier than most kids even made the team”, says Bolt.
“I loved cricket but I never thought I could make anything of my speed other than as a bowler”, he says.Bolt acknowledges track and field was not something that had interested him before.Bolt expresses his desire to become a professional footballer.
“When I finish with track and field, I’ll change sports and move on. If I can’t race at the top level by 2016, then I want to turn my hand to another game-football, most probably because I can play and with enough effort I can get better....I reckon I could something special to a team in England”, says Bolt, avowed Manchester United fan since he was a child.