ASHES winner Steve Harmison will kick off his second career on Tuesday night when he takes charge of non-league football club Ashington for the first time in their Northern League Cup match against Bishop Auckland.

But the former England fast bowler is far from the first international cricketer to also try their hand at football.

Here Northern Echo Sport lists five other players who have graced both sports:

Denis Compton

Darlington and Stockton Times:

Perhaps the ultimate cross-sport athlete, Compton played 78 Test matches for England and at the same time made 54 appearances for Arsenal between 1936 and 1950, winning League and FA Cup honours in the process.

Sir Ian Botham

Darlington and Stockton Times:

All-rounder Botham was offered the chance to recover from injury by signing for Scunthorpe United in 1980. Botham - who chose cricket over football as a junior - went on to make 11 appearances in the football league as a central defender.

Sir Viv Richards

The great West Indies batsman had a somewhat less distinguished football career, turning out occasionally for his native Antigua. Richards played in the 1974 World Cup qualifying campaign which included an 11-0 defeat to Trinidad & Tobago.

Brian Close

Darlington and Stockton Times:

The gritty Yorkshireman (pictured shaking hands with Ben Hollioake in 1997) juggled prospective football and cricket careers in his teens, signing schoolboy forms for Leeds United and playing in a youth international for England against Scotland in 1948 before committing full-time to cricket in 1948.

Arnie Sidebottom

Sidebottom started his career in football, making 16 appearances for Manchester United from 1972 to 1975 before moving on to Huddersfield and Halifax. He did not win his first Yorkshire county cap until 1980, and won a solitary Test call-up against Australia in 1985.