Former England football manager Gareth Southgate has been spotted at a couple of Rajasthan Royals games in the ongoing season of the Indian Premier League. Not just watching the games, he was even spotted sporting the official T-shirt of the Royals, who had won the first season of the IPL back in 2008.
Southgate revealed that he was a fan of cricket from his childhood days. Southgate was present at the Eden Gardens in to watch Rajasthan take on . Chasing a target of 207 runs, fell short by one run.
“Very often, when you play (football) at Wembley, the crowd is a little bit quieter. I have always been a fan of cricket. When I was a young kid, I used to watch Test matches all day long. I mean, I am going back to the era of Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar and players like that and then over the years, I got to know a lot of the players when I was playing for England, and I knew a lot of the England team,” Southgate told the ’s social media team in an interview during a match.
𝙁𝙤𝙤𝙩𝙗𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙍𝙤𝙮𝙖𝙡𝙩𝙮 🤝 𝘾𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙠𝙚𝙩’𝙨 𝙍𝙤𝙮𝙖𝙡𝙨 ⚽🏏
Passion for cricket 👌
Former England football manager Gareth Southgate is soaking up the experience with 🩷
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— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL)
“Last year, Ben Stokes came and talked to the England team. Also, with a lot of coaches, you learn a lot across sports, so that’s really why I am here,” Southgate said in a video posted by IPL and Rajasthan Royals on Instagram.
Southgate also spoke of learning from other sports as managers of elite sports teams.
He added: “Every sport is evolving rapidly, so much that coaches share, medical teams share, and yeah, it’s always fascinating to go outside your field and learn from other people. As I said, I love the sport. So it’s lovely to come here, and I have loved coming to India. It is the first time I have been to India. It has been amazing.”
