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.
![On a two-day visit to India, legendary swimmer Michael Phelps had his first brush with cricket in Delhi.](https://images.thequint.com/thequint%2F2019-03%2Fb4699c51-4974-47d6-89ad-e891b69ac2be%2FDM1L1590.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&fmt=webp&width=720)
![On a two-day visit to India, legendary swimmer Michael Phelps had his first brush with cricket in Delhi.](https://images.thequint.com/thequint%2F2019-03%2F1afc7d23-a522-4787-bf41-324e3028d2cc%2FDM1L1605.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&fmt=webp&width=720)
“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
![On a two-day visit to India, legendary swimmer Michael Phelps had his first brush with cricket in Delhi.](https://images.thequint.com/thequint%2F2019-03%2Fa17d9070-a3c9-4f96-bed1-dd2e99be4614%2F_L_R__Delhi_Capitals__wicketkeeper_batsman_Rishabh_Pant_guides_Michael_Phelps_to_hold_the_bat.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&fmt=webp&width=720)
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.
![On a two-day visit to India, legendary swimmer Michael Phelps had his first brush with cricket in Delhi.](https://images.thequint.com/thequint%2F2019-03%2F02a7c765-469a-4bac-9df7-da9f4d03dc40%2FScreen_Shot_2019_03_27_at_3_09_19_pm.png?auto=format%2Ccompress&fmt=webp&width=720)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)