Southampton hero Benali credits Hampshire legend as inspiration

I have actually enjoyed a little bit of a break this summer and I fondly look back on my younger years where sports were a bit more seasonal.

I always remember at school loving to try and participate in other sports. Cricket, athletics, and I never really played tennis but liked following it.

I think that sort of helped build that hunger for football because you had a bit of a switch off from it, whether it's you watching it or playing it.

It was great to see Hampshire host an England cricket match on Tuesday. There's always been that close affinity, I think, with Saints and Hampshire.

The two stadiums were literally a stone's throw away from one another at the Dell and the old County Ground, until we moved at a similar time.

I wanted to write a few words about Gordon Greenidge, who I am sure many of you will remember as a brilliant cricketer for Hampshire and West Indies.

He was a swashbuckling player and I am pretty sure he holds the record for the biggest knock on the County Ground, if I'm not mistaken. 

Gordon Greenidge (Image: Daily Echo)

As a youngster, I loved just going down the road at the time to watch the cricket - with the added connection that Gordon was a family friend.

To this day, I have still got one of those miniature signature bats with the 1980 West Indies team - obviously, Gordon's name was on there.

There is also the likes of Malcolm Marshall, Michael Holding, Clive Lloyd and Desmond Haynes - such iconic names of the sport, from a dominant team.

I remember being on cloud nine, feeling like I was the cat that got the cream. I had another of Gordon's Gray-Nicolls bats that I never put away.

It was that sort of kind gesture that grew my love for the game, and hopefully it made me realise the impact myself as a footballer could make.

I remember back when VHS recorders first came out, there was a Hampshire game that was being televised and, of course, that was a rarity.

My mate and I thought it would be funny to put the recorder in and run up to the ground, knowing where the cameras would be pointed.

We didn't go in but stood on a wall outside jumping and waving for a good five minutes, and then ran back to check the recording and spotted ourselves.

Even through my Saints career, sometimes we would report back for pre-season and we could hear the cricket going on as we would run past.

But thinking about this all reminded me that I haven't spoken to Gordon in many years, and I am sure we all have relationships where we could check in.

I was so fortunate to spend a bit of time with him at his home in Barbados one year as a young man, in the early days with my wife, Karen.

It would be nice to tell him all these years on sort of what an impact he and all of his kind gestures had on me as a young lad. I was very proud and happy.

There is still plenty of cricket in our family with my son-in-law, Lewis McManus, having won six of his first seven T20 matches with Northamptonshire this season.

Fingers crossed there will be an opportunity to experience finals day with them, although there will be divided loyalties if Hampshire also progress!

But it has been nice to switch off from the football a little bit and think about some other sports, and I'd like to get back to Wimbledon again sometime.

I have only ever been once and that was thanks to a very kind invitation from Chris Wilkinson's parents, when he was competing in the doubles.

I loved the whole thing about it. Watching sport in the sunshine, a little punnet of strawberries. It's a great way to enjoy a summer's day.

I also wanted to give a little shout-out to an event taking place at Solent University next Saturday, which I am going to be popping down to myself.

It's named 'The GAFF', The Gymbucks Athletic Fitness Festival, and I know the organiser has put a lot of time and money into getting it up and going.

I will be on a panel of speakers but there's loads of other stuff going on with local and national partners, so give it a search if you're interested!

Have a good weekend,

Franny Benali.