Top five cricketers who had excelled in academics as well

Anil Kumble with teammates after his farewell testThough the origin of cricket can be traced back to the early 16th century in England, it wasn’t introduced in India until the late 18th century. And in just over a couple of hundred of years, the sport has attained the reputation of a religion in the subcontinent. Here in India, we don’t really support our team- be it an international match or an IPL game- we literally worship them. The players are not just merely human beings in our eyes, they are more like demigods.But have we ever wondered, how these ‘demigods’ had fared back when they were in schools and colleges? Here is a list of top five cricketers who had been outstanding in academics as well:

#1 William Gilbert WG Grace

WG Grace in action against Chesterfield

The old man of the sport who is widely considered as one of the greatest cricketers of all time was a medical practitioner. The Big Un though never went to any university since his father wanted him to pursue a medical career.

He was once approached by both Oxford University Cricket Club and Cambridge University Cricket Club. Instead, a 20-year-old William Grace enrolled himself at Bristol Medical School in 1868. In 1879, Grace qualified as a medical practitioner.

Grace stacked up 1,098 international runs for England in the 22 test matches that he had played scoring 5 fifties and a couple of hundreds in the process.