Cricket Quiz Question for Today

First topic message reminder :

In two parts -

* Which former England captain celebrates his 53rd birthday today?; and

* the harder and more obscure part, what is the connection between his birth date and a certain Test number he reached?

Yup, Pakistani bowler

I also didnt realise just quite how god awful a batsman Allan Donald was, albeit in an era where expectations were very different.

Going by Pakistani bowler, Saqlain?

Mad for Chelsea wrote:Going by Pakistani bowler, Saqlain?

That was my thought that led me to check the actual guy ... he got a test century but only 900 and something career runs.

Gooseberry wrote:I also didnt realise just quite how god awful a batsman Allan Donald was, albeit in an era where expectations were very different.

also I would say that the balance between bat and ball was quite narrow, whereas more recently that balance seems to have moved to the bat.


In the 90s the top 10 batsmen scored 56,000 runs at 45.2, while the top 10 bowlers took 2800 wickets at 24

For the last 10 years that is 70,000 runs at 52 and 2800 wickets at 28.8

That's an odd statistic as I think the overall level of batting has gone down since the 90's, the bowling certainly has.

Surely the batsman is Waqar given he played a lot of Tests

Back to the ODI batsmen.

England - Bell
Aus - Ponting
NZ - Astle (hammer's choice not mine )
Ind - Sachin
Pak - Miandad
SL - Sangakarra
South Africa - Kallis
West Indies - Lara
Bangladesh - Tamim
Zimbabwe - A Flower

So, we all know that Cook went past 10,000 runs in Test Cricket this week which leads to this two part question:

Name the two batsmen to have scored more than Cook's 13,307 international runs for England.

Name the other five (ie excluding Cook +2 from above) players to have scored more than 10k international runs for England

Pietersen and Stewart?

Plus - Gooch, Bell, Colly, Boycott, and Gower?

Strauss surely is one of the five

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Strauss surely is one of the five

Probably. I doubt Colly is. Not sure why I chose him?

Trescothick could be another one?

Not sure on Strauss, did he actually play that many tests?

Gooch for sure.
KP

Stewart
Bell

Collingwood / Strauss?

Wait ..Extras must be top of the list

Gooseberry wrote:Not sure on Strauss, did he actually play that many tests?

Gooch for sure.
KP

Stewart
Bell

Collingwood / Strauss?

Didn't Strauss play 100+ tests? I'm fairly sure he'll be on the list somewhere. Gooch, KP, Stewart, Strauss, Bell would be my certs. I'd go Tresco and Colly for the other two. The two who scored more than Cook would be KP and Bell I think, just don't think Gooch and Stewart played enough ODIs...

Gooch played ODIs his entire career. There may not have been as many back then but he had about 20 years as an active international so it must be a pretty high (100+) figure. Most of the more recent top test batsmen have tended to dip in an out of other formats.
Tresco Im not sure on, with him retiring early and pretty much totally missing out on T20.
Bell Im less confident on too. He dipped in and out of all formats but did start young.

Yeah I probably underestimated Straus' test caps. Maybe ovegging Colli who wouldve had a fair few games batting down the order not having the chance to score runs.

KP number 1 - 13,797

Bell 2 - 13,331

Gooch 4 - 13,190
Stewart 5 - 13,140
Strauss 7 - 11,315
Tresco 8 - 10,326

(colly 9 - 9,934)

Actually one of the early quiz answers gives us a bit of a clue to one of the names who must be pushing Cook!

Gooch would beat Bell but for the latters 188 T20 runs

LondonTiger wrote:KP number 1 - 13,797

Bell 2 - 13,331

Gooch 4 - 13,190
Stewart 5 - 13,140
Strauss 7 - 11,315
Tresco 8 - 10,326

(colly 9 - 9,934)

Who was 6 then? Gower?

Yup Gower 6 - 11,401.


It will be interesting to see just how long it takes Joe Root (currently 24th, 6,652) to reach 10k, bearing in mind he currently plays all 3 formats.


Of course other countries leading run scorers are much higher.

Yeah Root ... 3.5 years he has 6652 runs to his name. If plays another 7 years at that rate and retires around 33 he would be just shy of 20,000 international runs. Not a patch on Tendulkar of course.

Yeah, the sheer length of Sachin's career, plus the number of matches makes his aggregate look pretty secure.

468 ODIs!!! In total England have played 664.

Tendulkars T20 record was crap though, you cant really consider him an all time great because of that

New question for you chaps. Please admire the cunningly contrived link to today's Test.

There are no Surrey players in the England XI for today's Test. However, eleven Surrey players have played Test cricket for England this century. I am referring to individuals who were Surrey players when selected - not players who only played Tests before Surrey signed them or players who only played Tests having left Surrey. Can you name the eleven.

guildfordbat wrote:New question for you chaps. Please admire the cunningly contrived link to today's Test.

There are no Surrey players in the England XI for today's Test. However, eleven Surrey players have played Test cricket for England this century. I am referring to individuals who were Surrey players when selected - not players who only played Tests before Surrey signed them or players who only played Tests having left Surrey. Can you name the eleven.

I'll leave answering them all to others

But just to get the ball rolling I'll suggest one that might get overlooked - Martin Bicknell.  (Last Test was in 2003) Odd career : two lots of two Tests - ten years apart.

Excellent start by Alfie. 10 to go ....

Without much thought: Butcher, Stewart, Ormond, Batty, Crawley

I'll give others a chance, not sure if the last one is right. Think I have a very obscure one that I will save for now....

No, Crawley was Lancashire.

Wondering who your "obscure" one is , VTR ? I'd have thought Ormond was obscure enough

But I'm leaving the remaining six for others . Unless I can suss that one out...

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

VTR wins an extra special star prize today as he has named a twelfth Surrey player to have played Test cricket this century - Jimmy Ormond, someone who was missed by my team of highly paid researchers who came up with this question.

VTR is also correct about Butcher and Stewart (it is long established that ''Alec Stewart'' is a correct answer to over 50% of quiz questions concerning Surrey).

However, VTR misses out with Batty and Crawley. Batty did play Test cricket but only when he was a Worcs player whilst Creepy has never been a Surrey player.

So to recap we have so far:
Martin Bicknell
Mark Butcher
Alec Stewart
Jimmy Ormond.

With apologies once more, that leaves 8 to get ....

Graham Thorpe
Mark Ramprakash
Ian Salisbury
Ian Ward

Craig White?

My super obscure one: Rikki Clarke

Kevin Pietersen
Chris Tremlett

Alex Tudor

Hammersmith harrier wrote:Graham Thorpe
Mark Ramprakash
Ian Salisbury
Ian Ward

Excellent work from HH. Thought Ward might have been a tricky one.

Did Dernbach ever play a test?

VTR wrote:Craig White?

My super obscure one: Rikki Clarke

White wasn't a Surrey player but Clarke with a couple of Tests against Bangladesh was. That was the one I thought you would have most difficulty with.

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Did Dernbach ever play a test?

No. 12th man once but never actually played.

Hammersmith harrier wrote:Kevin Pietersen
Chris Tremlett

Spot on again. They're the two most recent ones.

Question for Guildford:

!/ Was Ed Giddins with Surrey at the time he played for England in 2000 ?   and
2/ Does 2000 qualify as this century ?

Is he VTR's "obscure"  ?

Oh I see we have had it answered in the meantime...

So:

Butcher
Stewart
Bicknell
Ormond
Thorpe
Runs-for-cash
Salisbury
Ward

all confirmed.

KP
Tremlett
Tudor

are all correct I think.

Not sure Rikki Clarke was a Surrey player when he played for England though. Dernbach never played a Test (thank goodness!). So that leaves maybe one to find...

Edit: see it's now been answered

Rikki Clarke was my obscure one, and correct, so I think we have all 12

VTR wrote:Alex Tudor

That's it and wraps up all the Surrey England Test players this century -

Tudor, Butcher, Stewart, Thorpe, Ward, Clarke, Bicknell, Salisbury, Ramps, Ormond, Tremlett and Pietersen.

alfie wrote:Question for Guildford:

!/ Was Ed Giddins with Surrey at the time he played for England in 2000 ?   and
2/ Does 2000 qualify as this century ?

Is he VTR's "obscure"  ?

Oh I see we have had it answered in the meantime...

Just to confirm that Ed Giddins' brief Test career was already over when he joined Surrey in 2001.

So that's three Stars , two Comets ...one Starlet ...and six that didn't ever catch fire ? Which would be hard on Bicknell perhaps as he didn't really get a fair run...

guildfordbat wrote:

VTR wrote:Alex Tudor

That's it and wraps up all the Surrey England Test players this century -

Tudor, Butcher, Stewart, Thorpe, Ward, Clarke, Bicknell, Salisbury, Ramps, Ormond, Tremlett and Pietersen.

For a team with an illustrious history of producing England players, that's not a very illustrious list TBH. Of those, Ramps, Tremlett and KP aren't really Surrey products (not that Tremlett or Ramps were great for England while they played for Surrey anyway), and only Stewart, Thorpe, and to a lesser extent Tudor (unlucky with injuries of course) and Butcher, had productive England careers.

Still beats Middlesex though, for whom I can only think of Strauss, Morgan and Finn. Tuffers and Ramps played the odd Test (not sure when Ramps left for Surrey?), maybe Fraser? I think Richard Johnson had moved on by the time he played for England. Oh, and Owais Shah played a few of course.

guildfordbat wrote:

alfie wrote:Question for Guildford:

!/ Was Ed Giddins with Surrey at the time he played for England in 2000 ?   and
2/ Does 2000 qualify as this century ?

Is he VTR's "obscure"  ?

Oh I see we have had it answered in the meantime...

Just to confirm that Ed Giddins' brief Test career was already over when he joined Surrey in 2001.

Thanks guildford ...I wasn't sure when he had joined Surrey. I was trawling for obscurity

Mad for Chelsea wrote:

guildfordbat wrote:

VTR wrote:Alex Tudor

That's it and wraps up all the Surrey England Test players this century -

Tudor, Butcher, Stewart, Thorpe, Ward, Clarke, Bicknell, Salisbury, Ramps, Ormond, Tremlett and Pietersen.

For a team with an illustrious history of producing England players, that's not a very illustrious list TBH. Of those, Ramps, Tremlett and KP aren't really Surrey products (not that Tremlett or Ramps were great for England while they played for Surrey anyway), and only Stewart, Thorpe, and to a lesser extent Tudor (unlucky with injuries of course) and Butcher, had productive England careers.

Still beats Middlesex though, for whom I can only think of Strauss, Morgan and Finn. Tuffers and Ramps played the odd Test (not sure when Ramps left for Surrey?), maybe Fraser? I think Richard Johnson had moved on by the time he played for England. Oh, and Owais Shah played a few of course.

MfC - very much agree with your comments about Surrey and England players this century. Although Tudor did have some bad luck with injuries, I suspect that too often later on they were in his head as much as his body.

At a members' forum at the Oval yesterday, Alec Stewart confirmed the Club's commitment to (still) developing England Test players. Stewart added that one reason why Rory Burns had been appointed as vice-captain this season rather than Zafar Ansari was so that the latter could concentrate more on his all round game and development as a potential Test player.

So not a quiz question as such but which county would have the strongest crop of England since 2000 - as I think the list of Surrey players would be better than most

Yorkshire, or maybe Durham?