Sunday, February 3, 2002 The column in which our database director answers your queries, large or small, about the history of the game
Who has scored the most double-centuries in Test cricket? asks Roshanga Wickremesinghe As so often with questions about Test batting, the answer is Don Bradman. Twelve of The Don's 29 Test centuries stretched past 200, and he's also the only person to pass 300 twice (he even managed a 299 not out as well). He scored eight double-centuries against England alone. Walter Hammond of England is next with seven, one ahead of Javed Miandad. The highest current player comes next - Marvan Atapattu of Sri Lanka, with five double-hundreds. Brian Lara has four, along with Greg Chappell, Sunil Gavaskar, Gordon Greenidge, Len Hutton and Zaheer Abbas. Who was the first man to take a hat-trick in a Test, and has anybody taken more than one? asks Brendan Bennett The first man to take three wickets with successive balls in a Test was Fred Spofforth, the 19th-century Australian fast bowler who was known as "The Demon". At Melbourne in 1878-79, in only the third Test of all, Spofforth twirled his luxuriant moustache and huffed out Vernon Royle, Francis MacKinnon and Tom Emmett. He finished with 6 for 48 and 7 for 62 - becoming the first person to take ten wickets in a Test - as Australia won by ten wickets. Three men have taken two Test hat-tricks. The first was Hugh Trumble, the tall Australian offspinner, who took one against England at Melbourne in 1901-02, and another at the same venue two years later, in his final Test. Next was Jimmy Matthews, a legspinner, who took two in the same match for Australia v South Africa at Old Trafford in the 1912 Triangular Tournament. And the most recent addition to the ranks was Wasim Akram, who took two in successive matches against Sri Lanka in 1998-99 - one at Lahore and the other at Dhaka, in the final of the first Asian Test Championship. Wasim has also taken two in one-day internationals - a record he shares with Saqlain Mushtaq - so he is international cricket's top hat-trick man with four. Who scored a century in a one-day international on his 21st birthday? asks Amrit Sharma This was Sachin Tendulkar's old school pal Vinod Kambli. He was born on January 18, 1972, and on his 21st birthday in 1993 he smacked England all round the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur. He just had time to reach 100 not out before the innings closed: at the other end Tendulkar was undefeated with 82 - they put on 164. I was stumped by this quiz question this week: Who played Tests for two different countries but was born in neither of them? Can you help? asks Donald Woodbridge The answer is John Traicos, the pencil-slim offspinner who holds another record - the longest gap between Test appearances. Athanasios John Traicos was born of Greek parents in Egypt in 1947, and he played in the last three Tests of South Africa's whitewash of Australia in 1969-70, the last Tests they played before being excommunicated from international cricket. Traicos lived in Rhodesia, later Zimbabwe, and continued to play for them. When Zimbabwe played their first Test match, in 1992-93, 45-year-old Traicos was in the side - over 22 years after his previous Test appearance - and took 5 for 86 from 50 miserly overs. He played three more Tests for them, and finished with 18 wickets (42.72) from his seven Test appearances for two countries. He later became chairman of Zimbabwe's selectors, before moving to Australia. Which Test cricketer played saxophone in a jazz-band? asks Matt Johnson This quiz favourite was Maurice Allom, the tall Surrey fast bowler who took a hat-trick - and four wickets in five balls - on his Test debut for England v New Zealand at Christchurch in 1929-30. Allom, who was later president of MCC, was a keen musician. His Wisden Almanack obituary (1996) states: "He was a skilful saxophonist who played with Fred Elizalde's band in the 1920s, and wrote two jolly books, The Book of the Two Maurices and The Two Maurices Again, with his friend and namesake Maurice Turnbull. Privately, he had a great sense of fun. This was less obvious when he found himself president of MCC in 1970, the year of the crisis over the South African tour, eventually called off after Government pressure. He followed this with eight less turbulent years as president of Surrey." Are there any collections of Neville Cardus's cricket-writing currently in print or available? asks Paul Mills There haven't been any recent re-releases of books by Neville Cardus, the much-loved Guardian cricket-writer who died in 1975. Your best bet would be to contact a bookdealer who specialises in secondhand cricket titles - there is a list of them in the Wisden Almanack every year (in the 2001 book it's on page 1613) - or you could try an internet site like amazon.co.uk or bookfinder.com. Cardus did write a lot of articles for Wisden over the years - try putting his name into the search box at the top of this page. If you have a question, e-mail it to steven.lynch@wisden.com. We can't normally enter into individual correspondence, but a selection of questions and answers will be published here each week. More Ask Steven columns January 2002 November 2001 October 2001 September 2001 August 2001 © Wisden CricInfo Ltd
As so often with questions about Test batting, the answer is Don Bradman. Twelve of The Don's 29 Test centuries stretched past 200, and he's also the only person to pass 300 twice (he even managed a 299 not out as well). He scored eight double-centuries against England alone. Walter Hammond of England is next with seven, one ahead of Javed Miandad. The highest current player comes next - Marvan Atapattu of Sri Lanka, with five double-hundreds. Brian Lara has four, along with Greg Chappell, Sunil Gavaskar, Gordon Greenidge, Len Hutton and Zaheer Abbas. Who was the first man to take a hat-trick in a Test, and has anybody taken more than one? asks Brendan Bennett The first man to take three wickets with successive balls in a Test was Fred Spofforth, the 19th-century Australian fast bowler who was known as "The Demon". At Melbourne in 1878-79, in only the third Test of all, Spofforth twirled his luxuriant moustache and huffed out Vernon Royle, Francis MacKinnon and Tom Emmett. He finished with 6 for 48 and 7 for 62 - becoming the first person to take ten wickets in a Test - as Australia won by ten wickets. Three men have taken two Test hat-tricks. The first was Hugh Trumble, the tall Australian offspinner, who took one against England at Melbourne in 1901-02, and another at the same venue two years later, in his final Test. Next was Jimmy Matthews, a legspinner, who took two in the same match for Australia v South Africa at Old Trafford in the 1912 Triangular Tournament. And the most recent addition to the ranks was Wasim Akram, who took two in successive matches against Sri Lanka in 1998-99 - one at Lahore and the other at Dhaka, in the final of the first Asian Test Championship. Wasim has also taken two in one-day internationals - a record he shares with Saqlain Mushtaq - so he is international cricket's top hat-trick man with four. Who scored a century in a one-day international on his 21st birthday? asks Amrit Sharma This was Sachin Tendulkar's old school pal Vinod Kambli. He was born on January 18, 1972, and on his 21st birthday in 1993 he smacked England all round the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur. He just had time to reach 100 not out before the innings closed: at the other end Tendulkar was undefeated with 82 - they put on 164. I was stumped by this quiz question this week: Who played Tests for two different countries but was born in neither of them? Can you help? asks Donald Woodbridge The answer is John Traicos, the pencil-slim offspinner who holds another record - the longest gap between Test appearances. Athanasios John Traicos was born of Greek parents in Egypt in 1947, and he played in the last three Tests of South Africa's whitewash of Australia in 1969-70, the last Tests they played before being excommunicated from international cricket. Traicos lived in Rhodesia, later Zimbabwe, and continued to play for them. When Zimbabwe played their first Test match, in 1992-93, 45-year-old Traicos was in the side - over 22 years after his previous Test appearance - and took 5 for 86 from 50 miserly overs. He played three more Tests for them, and finished with 18 wickets (42.72) from his seven Test appearances for two countries. He later became chairman of Zimbabwe's selectors, before moving to Australia. Which Test cricketer played saxophone in a jazz-band? asks Matt Johnson This quiz favourite was Maurice Allom, the tall Surrey fast bowler who took a hat-trick - and four wickets in five balls - on his Test debut for England v New Zealand at Christchurch in 1929-30. Allom, who was later president of MCC, was a keen musician. His Wisden Almanack obituary (1996) states: "He was a skilful saxophonist who played with Fred Elizalde's band in the 1920s, and wrote two jolly books, The Book of the Two Maurices and The Two Maurices Again, with his friend and namesake Maurice Turnbull. Privately, he had a great sense of fun. This was less obvious when he found himself president of MCC in 1970, the year of the crisis over the South African tour, eventually called off after Government pressure. He followed this with eight less turbulent years as president of Surrey." Are there any collections of Neville Cardus's cricket-writing currently in print or available? asks Paul Mills There haven't been any recent re-releases of books by Neville Cardus, the much-loved Guardian cricket-writer who died in 1975. Your best bet would be to contact a bookdealer who specialises in secondhand cricket titles - there is a list of them in the Wisden Almanack every year (in the 2001 book it's on page 1613) - or you could try an internet site like amazon.co.uk or bookfinder.com. Cardus did write a lot of articles for Wisden over the years - try putting his name into the search box at the top of this page. If you have a question, e-mail it to steven.lynch@wisden.com. We can't normally enter into individual correspondence, but a selection of questions and answers will be published here each week. More Ask Steven columns January 2002 November 2001 October 2001 September 2001 August 2001 © Wisden CricInfo Ltd
Who was the first man to take a hat-trick in a Test, and has anybody taken more than one? asks Brendan Bennett The first man to take three wickets with successive balls in a Test was Fred Spofforth, the 19th-century Australian fast bowler who was known as "The Demon". At Melbourne in 1878-79, in only the third Test of all, Spofforth twirled his luxuriant moustache and huffed out Vernon Royle, Francis MacKinnon and Tom Emmett. He finished with 6 for 48 and 7 for 62 - becoming the first person to take ten wickets in a Test - as Australia won by ten wickets. Three men have taken two Test hat-tricks. The first was Hugh Trumble, the tall Australian offspinner, who took one against England at Melbourne in 1901-02, and another at the same venue two years later, in his final Test. Next was Jimmy Matthews, a legspinner, who took two in the same match for Australia v South Africa at Old Trafford in the 1912 Triangular Tournament. And the most recent addition to the ranks was Wasim Akram, who took two in successive matches against Sri Lanka in 1998-99 - one at Lahore and the other at Dhaka, in the final of the first Asian Test Championship. Wasim has also taken two in one-day internationals - a record he shares with Saqlain Mushtaq - so he is international cricket's top hat-trick man with four. Who scored a century in a one-day international on his 21st birthday? asks Amrit Sharma This was Sachin Tendulkar's old school pal Vinod Kambli. He was born on January 18, 1972, and on his 21st birthday in 1993 he smacked England all round the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur. He just had time to reach 100 not out before the innings closed: at the other end Tendulkar was undefeated with 82 - they put on 164. I was stumped by this quiz question this week: Who played Tests for two different countries but was born in neither of them? Can you help? asks Donald Woodbridge The answer is John Traicos, the pencil-slim offspinner who holds another record - the longest gap between Test appearances. Athanasios John Traicos was born of Greek parents in Egypt in 1947, and he played in the last three Tests of South Africa's whitewash of Australia in 1969-70, the last Tests they played before being excommunicated from international cricket. Traicos lived in Rhodesia, later Zimbabwe, and continued to play for them. When Zimbabwe played their first Test match, in 1992-93, 45-year-old Traicos was in the side - over 22 years after his previous Test appearance - and took 5 for 86 from 50 miserly overs. He played three more Tests for them, and finished with 18 wickets (42.72) from his seven Test appearances for two countries. He later became chairman of Zimbabwe's selectors, before moving to Australia. Which Test cricketer played saxophone in a jazz-band? asks Matt Johnson This quiz favourite was Maurice Allom, the tall Surrey fast bowler who took a hat-trick - and four wickets in five balls - on his Test debut for England v New Zealand at Christchurch in 1929-30. Allom, who was later president of MCC, was a keen musician. His Wisden Almanack obituary (1996) states: "He was a skilful saxophonist who played with Fred Elizalde's band in the 1920s, and wrote two jolly books, The Book of the Two Maurices and The Two Maurices Again, with his friend and namesake Maurice Turnbull. Privately, he had a great sense of fun. This was less obvious when he found himself president of MCC in 1970, the year of the crisis over the South African tour, eventually called off after Government pressure. He followed this with eight less turbulent years as president of Surrey." Are there any collections of Neville Cardus's cricket-writing currently in print or available? asks Paul Mills There haven't been any recent re-releases of books by Neville Cardus, the much-loved Guardian cricket-writer who died in 1975. Your best bet would be to contact a bookdealer who specialises in secondhand cricket titles - there is a list of them in the Wisden Almanack every year (in the 2001 book it's on page 1613) - or you could try an internet site like amazon.co.uk or bookfinder.com. Cardus did write a lot of articles for Wisden over the years - try putting his name into the search box at the top of this page. If you have a question, e-mail it to steven.lynch@wisden.com. We can't normally enter into individual correspondence, but a selection of questions and answers will be published here each week. More Ask Steven columns January 2002 November 2001 October 2001 September 2001 August 2001 © Wisden CricInfo Ltd
The first man to take three wickets with successive balls in a Test was Fred Spofforth, the 19th-century Australian fast bowler who was known as "The Demon". At Melbourne in 1878-79, in only the third Test of all, Spofforth twirled his luxuriant moustache and huffed out Vernon Royle, Francis MacKinnon and Tom Emmett. He finished with 6 for 48 and 7 for 62 - becoming the first person to take ten wickets in a Test - as Australia won by ten wickets. Three men have taken two Test hat-tricks. The first was Hugh Trumble, the tall Australian offspinner, who took one against England at Melbourne in 1901-02, and another at the same venue two years later, in his final Test. Next was Jimmy Matthews, a legspinner, who took two in the same match for Australia v South Africa at Old Trafford in the 1912 Triangular Tournament. And the most recent addition to the ranks was Wasim Akram, who took two in successive matches against Sri Lanka in 1998-99 - one at Lahore and the other at Dhaka, in the final of the first Asian Test Championship. Wasim has also taken two in one-day internationals - a record he shares with Saqlain Mushtaq - so he is international cricket's top hat-trick man with four.
Who scored a century in a one-day international on his 21st birthday? asks Amrit Sharma This was Sachin Tendulkar's old school pal Vinod Kambli. He was born on January 18, 1972, and on his 21st birthday in 1993 he smacked England all round the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur. He just had time to reach 100 not out before the innings closed: at the other end Tendulkar was undefeated with 82 - they put on 164. I was stumped by this quiz question this week: Who played Tests for two different countries but was born in neither of them? Can you help? asks Donald Woodbridge The answer is John Traicos, the pencil-slim offspinner who holds another record - the longest gap between Test appearances. Athanasios John Traicos was born of Greek parents in Egypt in 1947, and he played in the last three Tests of South Africa's whitewash of Australia in 1969-70, the last Tests they played before being excommunicated from international cricket. Traicos lived in Rhodesia, later Zimbabwe, and continued to play for them. When Zimbabwe played their first Test match, in 1992-93, 45-year-old Traicos was in the side - over 22 years after his previous Test appearance - and took 5 for 86 from 50 miserly overs. He played three more Tests for them, and finished with 18 wickets (42.72) from his seven Test appearances for two countries. He later became chairman of Zimbabwe's selectors, before moving to Australia. Which Test cricketer played saxophone in a jazz-band? asks Matt Johnson This quiz favourite was Maurice Allom, the tall Surrey fast bowler who took a hat-trick - and four wickets in five balls - on his Test debut for England v New Zealand at Christchurch in 1929-30. Allom, who was later president of MCC, was a keen musician. His Wisden Almanack obituary (1996) states: "He was a skilful saxophonist who played with Fred Elizalde's band in the 1920s, and wrote two jolly books, The Book of the Two Maurices and The Two Maurices Again, with his friend and namesake Maurice Turnbull. Privately, he had a great sense of fun. This was less obvious when he found himself president of MCC in 1970, the year of the crisis over the South African tour, eventually called off after Government pressure. He followed this with eight less turbulent years as president of Surrey." Are there any collections of Neville Cardus's cricket-writing currently in print or available? asks Paul Mills There haven't been any recent re-releases of books by Neville Cardus, the much-loved Guardian cricket-writer who died in 1975. Your best bet would be to contact a bookdealer who specialises in secondhand cricket titles - there is a list of them in the Wisden Almanack every year (in the 2001 book it's on page 1613) - or you could try an internet site like amazon.co.uk or bookfinder.com. Cardus did write a lot of articles for Wisden over the years - try putting his name into the search box at the top of this page. If you have a question, e-mail it to steven.lynch@wisden.com. We can't normally enter into individual correspondence, but a selection of questions and answers will be published here each week. More Ask Steven columns January 2002 November 2001 October 2001 September 2001 August 2001 © Wisden CricInfo Ltd
This was Sachin Tendulkar's old school pal Vinod Kambli. He was born on January 18, 1972, and on his 21st birthday in 1993 he smacked England all round the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur. He just had time to reach 100 not out before the innings closed: at the other end Tendulkar was undefeated with 82 - they put on 164.
I was stumped by this quiz question this week: Who played Tests for two different countries but was born in neither of them? Can you help? asks Donald Woodbridge The answer is John Traicos, the pencil-slim offspinner who holds another record - the longest gap between Test appearances. Athanasios John Traicos was born of Greek parents in Egypt in 1947, and he played in the last three Tests of South Africa's whitewash of Australia in 1969-70, the last Tests they played before being excommunicated from international cricket. Traicos lived in Rhodesia, later Zimbabwe, and continued to play for them. When Zimbabwe played their first Test match, in 1992-93, 45-year-old Traicos was in the side - over 22 years after his previous Test appearance - and took 5 for 86 from 50 miserly overs. He played three more Tests for them, and finished with 18 wickets (42.72) from his seven Test appearances for two countries. He later became chairman of Zimbabwe's selectors, before moving to Australia. Which Test cricketer played saxophone in a jazz-band? asks Matt Johnson This quiz favourite was Maurice Allom, the tall Surrey fast bowler who took a hat-trick - and four wickets in five balls - on his Test debut for England v New Zealand at Christchurch in 1929-30. Allom, who was later president of MCC, was a keen musician. His Wisden Almanack obituary (1996) states: "He was a skilful saxophonist who played with Fred Elizalde's band in the 1920s, and wrote two jolly books, The Book of the Two Maurices and The Two Maurices Again, with his friend and namesake Maurice Turnbull. Privately, he had a great sense of fun. This was less obvious when he found himself president of MCC in 1970, the year of the crisis over the South African tour, eventually called off after Government pressure. He followed this with eight less turbulent years as president of Surrey." Are there any collections of Neville Cardus's cricket-writing currently in print or available? asks Paul Mills There haven't been any recent re-releases of books by Neville Cardus, the much-loved Guardian cricket-writer who died in 1975. Your best bet would be to contact a bookdealer who specialises in secondhand cricket titles - there is a list of them in the Wisden Almanack every year (in the 2001 book it's on page 1613) - or you could try an internet site like amazon.co.uk or bookfinder.com. Cardus did write a lot of articles for Wisden over the years - try putting his name into the search box at the top of this page. If you have a question, e-mail it to steven.lynch@wisden.com. We can't normally enter into individual correspondence, but a selection of questions and answers will be published here each week. More Ask Steven columns January 2002 November 2001 October 2001 September 2001 August 2001 © Wisden CricInfo Ltd
The answer is John Traicos, the pencil-slim offspinner who holds another record - the longest gap between Test appearances. Athanasios John Traicos was born of Greek parents in Egypt in 1947, and he played in the last three Tests of South Africa's whitewash of Australia in 1969-70, the last Tests they played before being excommunicated from international cricket. Traicos lived in Rhodesia, later Zimbabwe, and continued to play for them. When Zimbabwe played their first Test match, in 1992-93, 45-year-old Traicos was in the side - over 22 years after his previous Test appearance - and took 5 for 86 from 50 miserly overs. He played three more Tests for them, and finished with 18 wickets (42.72) from his seven Test appearances for two countries. He later became chairman of Zimbabwe's selectors, before moving to Australia.
Which Test cricketer played saxophone in a jazz-band? asks Matt Johnson This quiz favourite was Maurice Allom, the tall Surrey fast bowler who took a hat-trick - and four wickets in five balls - on his Test debut for England v New Zealand at Christchurch in 1929-30. Allom, who was later president of MCC, was a keen musician. His Wisden Almanack obituary (1996) states: "He was a skilful saxophonist who played with Fred Elizalde's band in the 1920s, and wrote two jolly books, The Book of the Two Maurices and The Two Maurices Again, with his friend and namesake Maurice Turnbull. Privately, he had a great sense of fun. This was less obvious when he found himself president of MCC in 1970, the year of the crisis over the South African tour, eventually called off after Government pressure. He followed this with eight less turbulent years as president of Surrey." Are there any collections of Neville Cardus's cricket-writing currently in print or available? asks Paul Mills There haven't been any recent re-releases of books by Neville Cardus, the much-loved Guardian cricket-writer who died in 1975. Your best bet would be to contact a bookdealer who specialises in secondhand cricket titles - there is a list of them in the Wisden Almanack every year (in the 2001 book it's on page 1613) - or you could try an internet site like amazon.co.uk or bookfinder.com. Cardus did write a lot of articles for Wisden over the years - try putting his name into the search box at the top of this page. If you have a question, e-mail it to steven.lynch@wisden.com. We can't normally enter into individual correspondence, but a selection of questions and answers will be published here each week. More Ask Steven columns January 2002 November 2001 October 2001 September 2001 August 2001 © Wisden CricInfo Ltd
This quiz favourite was Maurice Allom, the tall Surrey fast bowler who took a hat-trick - and four wickets in five balls - on his Test debut for England v New Zealand at Christchurch in 1929-30. Allom, who was later president of MCC, was a keen musician. His Wisden Almanack obituary (1996) states: "He was a skilful saxophonist who played with Fred Elizalde's band in the 1920s, and wrote two jolly books, The Book of the Two Maurices and The Two Maurices Again, with his friend and namesake Maurice Turnbull. Privately, he had a great sense of fun. This was less obvious when he found himself president of MCC in 1970, the year of the crisis over the South African tour, eventually called off after Government pressure. He followed this with eight less turbulent years as president of Surrey."
Are there any collections of Neville Cardus's cricket-writing currently in print or available? asks Paul Mills There haven't been any recent re-releases of books by Neville Cardus, the much-loved Guardian cricket-writer who died in 1975. Your best bet would be to contact a bookdealer who specialises in secondhand cricket titles - there is a list of them in the Wisden Almanack every year (in the 2001 book it's on page 1613) - or you could try an internet site like amazon.co.uk or bookfinder.com. Cardus did write a lot of articles for Wisden over the years - try putting his name into the search box at the top of this page. If you have a question, e-mail it to steven.lynch@wisden.com. We can't normally enter into individual correspondence, but a selection of questions and answers will be published here each week. More Ask Steven columns January 2002 November 2001 October 2001 September 2001 August 2001 © Wisden CricInfo Ltd
There haven't been any recent re-releases of books by Neville Cardus, the much-loved Guardian cricket-writer who died in 1975. Your best bet would be to contact a bookdealer who specialises in secondhand cricket titles - there is a list of them in the Wisden Almanack every year (in the 2001 book it's on page 1613) - or you could try an internet site like amazon.co.uk or bookfinder.com. Cardus did write a lot of articles for Wisden over the years - try putting his name into the search box at the top of this page.
More Ask Steven columns January 2002 November 2001 October 2001 September 2001 August 2001
© Wisden CricInfo Ltd
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