Cricket isn’t the next-door neighbour of the beautiful game, but it has some key idiosyncrasies that goalkeepers can relate to.

This is what they call a relentless summer of sport, a never-ending siege of balls flying towards the net or over it in football, tennis, and cricket. Viewers won’t be able to switch off. Now they know how goalkeepers feel.

The football season is never-ending in a World Cup year, but it was quite the thing to see England’s squad indulging in that most famous of summer pursuits, cricket, at their American pre-tournament base camp in Miami. The United States played the first-ever international cricket match against co-hosts Canada in 1844. There’s history there, believe it or not.

Jordan Pickford’s forward defensive certainly caught the eye. Although John Stones didn’t seem to be overly impressed, The Sun described Pickford’s batsmanship as “solid - a good sign ahead of the Croatia tie.” The Everton goalkeeper was a bit jumpy in the opener, but it was only his first innings. Keepers in all sports are full of kinetic energy. They just have to save it for the right moments.

Goalkeepers, like cricket’s men and women behind the stumps, need to put their blinkers on for the ball-to-ball stuff. That laser focus is even more extreme in cricket, as a day in the field can be six hours plus of taking awkward throws from different angles across the whole ground. Wicketkeepers are the talkers in the team, cajoling, directing and suggesting in-game changes. They get to see the picture from both ends of the ground. Sound familiar?

It’s not just about the ball. Wicketkeepers can read triggers, patterns, and human behaviours much better because they get to pan across the field.

“If you're internalising everything and just focusing on your own game, you can't concentrate on anything external, which is hugely important to the captain, bowlers and the rest of the team,” said former England wicketkeeper Matt Prior in a chat with the BBC. That gem could have come from the goalkeeping handbook.

Dropped catches lose matches. Everything that spills out from the big gloves is seen as a mistake; the similarities between the posts are inevitable. It takes huge character to push through the blame game and keep going. Winning and losing as a team is all very well, but the (number) one feels the pain a lot more.

Plenty of goalkeepers understand that the Millennium job spec requires multiple skills, way beyond the original basics of association football. Shot-stopping used to be enough. Not any more. Analogue capacity has given way to Big Tech.

The modern-day cricket keeper is similarly asked to build a creative license well beyond the specialism. Cricket teams now want more aggressive wicketkeeper-batters, valuing runs over glovework. They have to add balance to the side despite the technicality of the key role. This is the way of the elite sporting world.

Former England stopper Nigel Martyn has just been picked for the England senior over-60s side and can vouch for the benefits that years in the whites gave him: 'I’ve never been much of a runner, but I always loved diving around and catching balls, I was a natural goalkeeper and wicketkeeper,' he told The Guardian. Martyn actually played alongside fellow international Paul Robinson for their local village club in Yorkshire. That is quite the international duo.

Joe Hart is another who has introduced the hardball game to the players, famously during the COVID months at Tottenham's indoor training ground. Hart bowled Harry Kane, much to his delight, but he has also spoken about how cricket and goalkeeping are aligned in coming to terms with failure. If a batsman is out first ball, they have hours, possibly days to think it over before getting another chance. It’s a character builder.

There was never much chance of Hart or Martyn playing the red ball game during a Premier League season because of the risk of injury. Dislocated digits are even more of a thing. Cricket’s keepers also stand up to the stumps and need super sharp reactions and anticipation as the ball flies past. The hazard lights are always on for someone mad enough to put their hand(s) up.

Cricket provides that sense of camaraderie that so many goalkeepers thrive on. There’s even longer to make bonds for life, given that sessions can end up where footballers used to go - the bar. The game within the game is also a classic of creating one-on-one situations that are very much part of the lone eagle in the team set-up.

Batsman versus bowler is like a penalty shootout over six balls an over. Words are exchanged, and mind games can rattle the cage and bring the mistake. When legendary Aussie tough nut Steve Waugh survived an easy catch to South African Herschelle Gibbs, Waugh shouted at the fielder: 'How does it feel to have dropped the World Cup?' That is almost Emiliano Martinez-like sledging.

Andy Goram played in front of thousands of fans at Ibrox and Old Trafford, but his fondest memories were when batting against a touring Australian team that was about to crush England in the Ashes. Goram’s first love was cricket, for the fierceness on the field but the frivolity and beers off it.

The Scottish legend could take any flak from Sir Alex Ferguson after being on the receiving end of fearsome fast bowler Merv Hughes’s expletives. ‘You should have stuck to f***ing football,' was one such tirade.

The Guardian once wrote that 'wicketkeeping is the secret society of the cricketing fraternity. The rest of us don't understand and only notice them when they make a crass error or a blinding catch. It's hard work.'

Bingo. Goalkeepers need someone somewhere to notice all the stuff that goes unsung. But that’s the life they chose. They have spiritual brothers and sisters in England’s favourite summer sport...

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How Cricket And Football Are Both Inkeeping With The Art Of Goalkeeping