WHEN you think of sporting siblings it is easy to think of the Charltons, Nevilles, Laudrups, Williams or even the Klitschkos. The Graysons do not automatically spring to mind, and yet the Bedale brothers have achieved success during their careers in two different sports. Not many have done that before.

Both Simon and Paul Grayson have egged each other along the way. Wherever Simon, the well-travelled ex-footballer who has carved out a career in management, and Paul, the cricketer who represented England before coaching Essex, have been, they have regularly phoned to keep one another on their toes.

That is still the case now, and perhaps even more so after Simon agreed to take on the huge challenge of reviving the fortunes of Sunderland, a club within walking distance – or at least by his own standards given the routes he has taken on for charity – of where his younger brother is heading up cricket operations at Durham University.

The pair, who grew up in North Yorkshire, could both have ended up playing their respective sports professionally, having been introduced to sport by their father Adrian, whose contribution to cricket in the area was recognised a couple of years ago in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List when he received the British Empire Medal. He also collected the Sir Bobby Robson Leading Light Award at The Northern Echo’s Local Heroes Awards in 2011.

Simon was an apprentice at Leeds United and went onto play in the Premier League with Blackburn, Leicester City and Aston Villa. Before this latest move to Sunderland he had managed Blackpool, Leeds United, Huddersfield and Preston.

Paul, younger by 15 months, started his career with Yorkshire before moving to Essex in 1995. He retired ten years later having racked up 8,655 runs and taken 136 wickets, which also earned him an England debut against South Africa in 2000.

Simon could have been a cricketer, but decided to concentrate on his football from the age of 12, while Paul went in the opposite direction and ended up in the same Yorkshire youth team as Darren Gough despite having trials with Leeds United and Middlesbrough.

“There has been plenty of banter down the years,” said Simon, earlier in his time with Preston. “I’d get a red card or score an own goal and knew straight away who would be the first to get in touch to take the mickey.

“Same if Paul got a duck. Or, even better, was out first ball. I’d be straight on the phone then. It probably came from how competitive we were as kids, even though eventually we chose different sports.

“Beneath all of that, though, we are very proud of each other. Paul got an international cap in one-day cricket and that made everyone in the family so proud. What an achievement to play for your own country. I do believe that competition spurred us both on, whatever sport we were playing.”

The sibling rivalry has proven healthy over the years, so it will be hoped working so close to one another again in the North-East will help Simon’s cause at Sunderland. There may be a large degree of scepticism about the appointment, centred largely on the fact he is not a big enough name, but the reasonable view should be that he knows what he is doing in the Football League.

That doesn’t guarantee success, but it should augur well. It is not as if he has never managed a club with a big stadium and a strong fan base before, he did so at Leeds during a difficult period and still led them to promotion and healthy finishes.

SIMON has never managed in the Premier League, but that remains an ambition unfulfilled. He had hoped to deliver that with Leeds, and now that will be the aim at the Stadium of Light.

He has proven over the years he is determined to work hard to achieve his targets and likes to have teams reflecting his own approach. He has regularly claimed to have formed a “bunch of lads who are committed and work hard for each other.”

Such a stance has earned him four promotions, highlighting how he can get players dancing to his tune … even if he has never been one to play musical instruments or sing like the Kaiser Chief boys who he booked in to perform at his gala ball in Leeds in March when £45,000 was raised for Prostate Cancer.

He has raised money since his close friend Steve Garbett died two-and-a-half years ago from the illness. Earlier this month he cycled on his second bike ride to Amsterdam in his friend’s memory before returning to join Sky Sports’ presenter Jeff Stelling on a marathon leg of his March for Men walk.

A challenge is certainly not something Simon shirks; clearly a good thing when you consider what he has inherited at Sunderland after relegation. Ellis Short, the club’s owner, has made the decision to scrap takeover talks and appoint the 47-year-old in time for him to lead pre-season friendlies and to assemble a squad depleted since falling out of the top-flight.

Yet he has still joined a club where the wage budget is likely to be three-times bigger – at least - than that he had at Deepdale and the target is promotion rather than being outsiders for a play-off spot.

He coped well with reviving Preston’s fortunes. When he took over from Graham Westley in February 2013 he inherited a squad where morale was low, there was no longer a connection with the coaching staff and there was a divide between the pitch and the stands.

He managed to keep Preston up that year, guided them to the play-offs the year after promotion 12 months later. He sensed he had the chance to take a ‘good size club a bit further and did that’.

That situation was not too dissimilar to the one he finds himself taking on at Sunderland. The man who led Blackpool, Leeds and Huddersfield to the Championship will now embrace the Wearside challenge like the others he has encountered in the past.

That Premier League dream still burns inside. But he realises if he is to ever get an opportunity at that level he will need to take a club there himself. With Sunderland?

"We all want to manage at the highest level we are capable of," said Simon. "There are a lot of talented British coaches. It's just a shame that the only way you get to coach in the Premier League is by taking a team there.

“That's proven by Sean (Dyche) at Burnley and Eddie (Howe) at Bournemouth. I can't remember the last time a team from the Premier League poached a manager from the Championship to go and work for them."

First thing’s first, though, and getting Sunderland up and running again is a decent place for Simon to start.