Hart, capped 75 times, enjoyed returning to London Road, where he spent many happy times as a youngster before his football career took off with Shrewsbury Town.

Hart, 31, had not played for his home town club in the Birmingham League since 2007, but he quickly fitted straight back in.

Ed Foster, the Shrewsbury vice-chairman who played alongside Hart in the winning draw against Knowle & Dorridge, said: “It’s nice from the club’s point of view that someone like Joe is interested in coming to play cricket for us.

“It shows really how he does value the club, the guys that are there, and the time that he’s spent in the past at the cricket club.

“There’s been a couple of chances that Joe might have played throughout the summer really since the football season ended.

“He was keen to come and have a game of cricket. We had known about it for a week or so. It was just a case of working out whether we would be able to accommodate him in the side and we were pleased that we could.”

Hart batted at nine, chipping in with six, before being caught behind while he later took a catch for one of Mike Barnard’s six wickets as he helped Shrewsbury claim 15 points from a winning draw.

Foster said: “I think he surprised quite a few guys in the opposition side when he played out his first few balls because it certainly showed that he had some talent with the bat.

“The cover drive he hit for four was as good as anyone in our side could have hoped for as well.

“The surprise really was when he was out because he actually walked when not many people, including the umpire, thought he had hit it.

“It was quite a sporting moment as he took himself off to the dressing room.”

Hart returned to training at Manchester City earlier this week after spending last season on loan at West Ham United.

His appearance at London Road coincided with England, for whom he was a regular in the World Cup qualifying campaign, reaching the semi-finals in Russia by beating Sweden 2-0.

As much as he enjoyed the chance to pull on his whites again, Foster expects that it was likely to have been a one off.

“It was just an opportunity for him to come back and see a lot of people and contribute to the game,” he added. “He’s obviously got bigger things to focus on for the rest of the summer.
“But he certainly seemed to enjoy the day and that’s all anyone could have hoped for.”