The regular Monday column in which Steven Lynch answers your questions about (almost) any aspect of cricket:
Two Australian women recently played in their 100th one-day international. How many others have done this? asked Rae Clarke from Sydney
The two you're talking about were
Cathryn Fitzpatrick and
Karen Rolton, who both won their 100th one-day caps in the first match of the recent Rose Bowl series against New Zealand at the Albion ground
in Brisbane. They were the sixth and seventh women to join the list, which is headed by another Australian,
Belinda Clark, and
Debbie Hockley of New Zealand, who both played 118 matches. The other 100-cap wonders are the England pair of
Clare Taylor and
Jane Smit, both with 105, and
Emily Drumm of New Zealand, who played 101. For a full list,
click here.
I noticed in a recent article about Mohammad Azharuddin that he played 99 Tests, and also scored a century in his first and last matches. Has anyone else done either of these things? asked Patek Sharma from Chennai
You're right,
Mohammad Azharuddin did indeed win 99 Test caps. No-one else has won quite as many without making it to 100: Curtly Ambrose played in 98 Test matches, and Nasser Hussain 96. Apart from Azhar, three other batsmen have scored hundreds in their first and last Tests, and they are all Australians: the current Indian coach
Greg Chappell,
Reggie Duff and
Bill Ponsford. This excludes any current players, and the two men -
Andy Ganteaume and
Rodney Redmond - who scored a century in their
only Test match.
Ed Joyce and his brother made their one-day international debuts in the same match, which must be unique. Have any other members of the family played for Ireland? asked Donald Allsopp from Greenwich
Ed Joyce and his younger brother
Dominick both made their official ODI debuts
at Belfast last June. They both opened the batting: Dublin-born Ed scored 10 for England, but Dominick made a duck for Ireland. Their older brother
Gus Joyce also played for Ireland, in the annual first-class game against Scotland in 2000. And they have twin sisters,
Cecelia and
Isobel, who have played official ODIs for Ireland's women's team. Isobel Joyce told the BBC in 2003: "There are nine children in our family so we all used to play in the back garden. Our brothers used to teach us how to bowl because they thought it was funny, but then we got quite good at it." The only other instance of brothers playing against each other in a Test or a one-day international was back in 1891-92, when Alec and George Hearne played for England
at Cape Town against a South African side which included their brother, Frank. A cousin, JT Hearne, also played for England in that match. Frank Hearne had earlier played for England,
against South Africa, in 1888-89, and settled there after that tour. His son, GAL Hearne, later played for South Africa too.
A friend told me recently about a cricket match he watched in Canada in 1989 between West Indies and the Rest of the World, and how it had a crowd of 46,000. Can you tell me some more about this match? asked Sid Raheem from the USA
Your friend has a pretty good memory - this was a match played
in the Toronto SkyDome on November 5, 1989, to raise money (over half a million dollars) for the United Way of Greater Toronto charity. The dome's roof was closed (it was freezing cold outside!). According to
this article on the Canadian Cricket Association's website the crowd was 40,570. As you can see from
the scorecard the West Indies XI (actually there were 12 of them, with Viv Richards captaining) made 228, Carlisle Best top-scoring with 70, then the strong World XI replied with 217, Dave Houghton making 86 and Duleep Mendis 65.
As far as I can tell it has happened only once - and an awfully long time ago! It was a match between Kent and England
at Canterbury back in 1844.
William Clarke, an underarm bowler and a pioneering figure in those days of wandering "England" teams, ended Kent's first innings with the wicket of
John Fagge, then started the second with the wickets of
Ned Wenman and Fagge, again, batting at No. 3 this time instead of No. 11.
I read a news article that said Russell Crowe was being lined up to play Bill Woodfull in a new film about Bodyline. Is he any relation of the New Zealand Test-playing Crowes? asked Amy Franklin from Adelaide
Russell Crowe is the cousin of
Martin and
Jeff Crowe, the former New Zealand captains: like them he was born in New Zealand (although he was brought up in Australia). They all played together for a Crowe XI in a match
in Malta in 1999 (Russell outscored Martin, which I imagine pleased him immensely!). As far as the film goes, it will be interesting to see whether it comes to fruition - there have been various plans for a Bodyline film over the years, but the bravest attempt remains the Australian TV mini-series of a few years ago. The news story I read said that Crowe might play "Bill Woodruff", and also talked about the England bowling spearhead "Harold Lawford", which was rather worrying ...