I went to trials at Northants academy and got in. It was a crossroads between cricket and football.
— Ben Chilwell
Over the summer, you do have to take that time to relax and go on holiday with your mates and get away from football.
I feel like as a young player you have to play consistently because you're going to make mistakes. If you make mistakes you have to keep playing to learn from mistakes.
I have been at Leicester since I was 12 and to play for England at the King Power is obviously going to be my dream.
If you want to be a top player you have to play well for the whole season and then ten more seasons, not just three or four games.
Then started playing men’s cricket when I was 15. That’s when I stopped enjoying it. It was long days, 50-over games with men 15 years older who you don’t really have anything in common with, all talking about going to the pub.
I'm at Leicester and with Brendan Rodgers coming in we're all loving him being there and that's where my head's at.
I had what Leicester gave me but then I worked with a guy around my house, a guy that my agent recommended. I worked with him for the three weeks solid, leading back into pre-season. We were just doing horrible running. Minging running! It wasn't pretty to be fair!
I was enjoying my football, even though it wasn’t really going well. That’s when I said to my dad, who as a New Zealander was very keen on me playing cricket, that I would choose football.
Obviously there are questions when anyone comes up to the Premier League about whether they can cope.
When you’re young and search your name on Twitter to see what everyone is saying about you, which everyone does when you’re young… it was one of those things I had to get on with.
Maybe I was an even better cricketer than a footballer.
If I keep playing well for Leicester, all I can do is keep trying to knock on the door.
I'm very critical of myself and I know the levels I want to achieve so I'm very hard on myself. So the staff and players are very hard on me as well, which is what I want as I want to get to as high a level as possible.
I was an all-rounder but more of a batsman, maybe second-choice bowler.
I have always had confidence and known what I am capable of. So it is frustrating when you are not showing everyone.
There’s a lot of pressure we put on ourselves because we want to do well for ourselves and obviously do well for your country.
