The next time you see Usain Bolt in action may not be on a running track, but with a cricket bat in his hand after revealing he is considering an offer from Shane Warne to play Twenty20 cricket in Australia next season.
The superstar Jamaican sprinter lit up the London 2012 Games, taking gold medals in the 100 metre, 200m and 4x100m relay, but could soon be running a mere 22 yards between the wickets.
Bolt is a massive fan of cricket and played the sport in his home nation at junior level and revealed his prowess during a charity match in 2009 when he clean-bowled Chris Gayle.
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Bowled over: Bolt is giving serious consideration to paying cricket in Australia
And now legendary leg-spinner Warne has
offered him the opportunity to participate in Australia's Big Bash
League which runs between December 7 and January 9. Bolt will consider
the offer, if he can get enough time off.
'Warne contacted me and asked me about if I am serious and if I really want to do it then he can put in a few words that should get it done. So we will see if I get the time off. I will try.'
And of all the various forms of the game, the Twenty20 version is Bolt's favourite as he can relate to the high tempo drama to which he is accustomed in the field of athletics.
'Twenty20, I love it. Just the fact that it is so exciting, it's about going hard the whole time, not just about playing shots.
'It's about being aggressive and I like that style of batsman.'
Warne took to Twitter to see if he could garner support for Bolt to join up with him at Melbourne Stars.
He said: 'Who would come watch @usainbolt play cricket for the Melb Stars in 2012 ? Should I continue chatting to him & try and make it happen ?'
He followed that up with a series of further tweets, hoping his 854,000 followers would join the campaign to get Bolt to Australia for the beginning of the Big Bash season.
All rounder: Bolt enjoys batting and bowling - outside his regular job of sprinting, that is
'Please get my last tweet trending & R/T so we keep the momentum going it will help the cause,everyone jump on board if u want this to happen.
'I would really appreciate if you could retweet my tweet re Melb stars & Usain Bolt, promise it will help Follow me if you want updates guys.'
Mike McKenna, project manager for the BBL on behalf of Cricket Australia is, understandably, very keen for Bolt to join the league. But only if he can reach the required standard.
'We'd be very keen to have someone like Usain Bolt involved in some way in the BBL,' McKenna said.
'He's very keen on cricket, he's been close to the Australian cricket team and I'd imagine he is pretty quick between the wickets.
If the shirt fits: Warne posted this picture on Twitter of Bolt holding up a Melbourne Stars shirt with his name on the back
The Jamaican is considering a number of options after his heroics in London, and has made no secret of his desire to pursue a career in football, and in particular at Manchester United.
The fastest man in the world would like a trial at Old Trafford, so he could show Sir Alex Ferguson his prowess, or he'd coach the likes of Nani, Ashley Young and Antonio Valencia to be as good as Cristiano Ronaldo.
'I don't know if Alex Ferguson will offer me a trial or not,' he told the Sun. 'But even if it doesn't happen I would like to come and help coach the attacking players at United like I did with Ronaldo - anything I can do to make sure the title does not end up with Manchester City again.'
VIDEO: Bolt bowls out West Indies batting legend Gayle
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