Eoin Morgan earns plaudits after playing cricket in park with Afghan family

Credit: PA

England’s World Cup-winning captain Eoin Morgan has been praised after taking time to play cricket in a park with a "lovely Afghan family".

Morgan, who led England to their maiden Cricket World Cup triumph in a thrilling final against New Zealand at Lord’s earlier in July, shared a picture of himself with the family on Twitter which received more than 35,000 likes.

He tweeted: "On the walk home from dinner this evening I was asked to play a game with this lovely Afghan family.. #ThePowerofsport".

England men's cricket team won their first World Cup trophy earlier this month. Credit: PA

Former England bowler Tim Bresnan was full of praise for England’s leading run-scorer in ODIs, tweeting: "This deserves a million RTs #powerofsport".

Afghanistan bowler Rashid Khan described Morgan as a "legend" and former England footballer Peter Reid simply replied to the picture with four clapping-hands emojis.

Morgan’s park game was likely less intense than his meeting with Afghanistan during the group stage of the World Cup, where the England captain broke the record for most sixes in a one-day international innings in a sizzling 148 from 71 balls.

The 32-year-old’s 17 maximums overhauled the previous benchmark of 16, jointly held by Chris Gayle, Rohit Sharma and AB De Villiers, while his 57-ball ton was the fourth quickest in the World Cup’s 44-year history.

England's Eoin Morgan celebrates their win with the trophy during the ICC World Cup Final at Lord's, London. Credit: PA

Morgan was also widely praised the day after England’s World Cup win for championing the diversity within his team.

"We had Allah with us as well," said Morgan, responding to a question regarding whether or not the luck of an Irishman got England over the line.

He continued: "I spoke to Adil (Rashid), he said Allah was definitely with us. I said we had the rub of the green.

"It actually epitomises our team. It has quite diverse backgrounds and cultures… to actually find humour in the situation that we were in at the time was pretty cool."

A total of 8.3 million viewers watched the closing stages of England v New Zealand after it was made available on Channel 4 as well as Sky Sports, putting the England men’s cricket team back on free-to-air television for the first time since the famous Ashes series of 2005.