He has competed in a record five Olympic Games, won more Olympic medals than any athlete, and holds more records than any other swimmer in the world – but when Michael Phelps landed in India during the Indian Premier League, he wasn’t going to leave without an initiation into cricket.
The 28-time Olympic medal winner – who was in the national capital for the launch of Under Armour – attended Delhi Capitals’ Indian Premier League match against the Chennai Super Kings at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium on Tuesday, 26 March.
“This was my first time. The first (cricket) match I’ve ever seen. I’ve always been around sports, I love sports –every kind of sports. And being able to see a sport that is played and watched by so many millions of people, was an experience of trying to learn a new game. It was like a mixture between baseball and basketball in the way that they work together as a team and the strategy of it all. It was pretty neat to be able to dive into the sport.”Michael Phelps
The following day, Phelps met the Delhi Capitals squad in the national capital where Rishabh Pant showed the 33-year-old American – who retired from competitive swimming after the 2016 Rio Olympics – how to swing a bat.
“Being able to hit a couple of tennis balls with the bat was fun and it’s very similar to a baseball swing and a golf swing. So it was just neat being able to play a sport that I’ve never played before,” said Phelps.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)