The young and the old, and Boucher's shirt

I recently read about Hasan Raza's Test debut at the tender age of 14. Is he the youngest debutant? And who is the youngest to get a century? asked Aswin Chari from Singapore

Hasan Raza, who is playing in the current Test against England at Multan, is indeed the youngest person to appear in a Test match - he was only 14 years 227 days old when he made his debut for Pakistan against Zimbabwe at Faisalabad in 1996-97. There is some doubt about his exact age, but independent tests at the time suggested that he was about 15, so the published date is not far wrong (if indeed it's wrong at all). For a full list of the youngest Test players, click here. The 12th man on that list, Mohammad Ashraful, is the youngest to score a Test century - he was 16 years 364 days old when he scored 114 against Sri Lanka in Colombo on the third day of his Test debut.

Shaun Udal is currently playing his first Test for England, aged 36. Have many people have been older on their Test debut? asked Jeffrey Cobb from Fareham

Shaun Udal was 36 years and 239 days old when the match started, making him the oldest debutant for England since John Childs, who was 81 days older when he made the first of his two Test appearances in 1988. In all 22 players have been older than Udal when winning their first cap for England: for a full list of the oldest Test debutants, click here.

Why did Mark Boucher have the number 200 printed on the back of his shirt in the fifth ODI between South Africa and New Zealand? asked Aamir Masood

Mark Boucher wore the special shirt because that match at Centurion was his 200th one-day international. He is the fourth South African to reach this landmark, after Jonty Rhodes (245 ODI appearances), Shaun Pollock (244) and Jacques Kallis (224). For a list of those with most ODI appearances, click here.

I read somewhere long ago about a Test played in the West Indies that was abandoned because the pitch was deemed unsafe to play on. Was that the only such occurrence? asked Prateek Goorha from Australia

It wasn't actually that long ago - the match in question was the first Test of England's 1997-98 tour, at Sabina Park in Kingston. There was less than an hour's play - 10.1 overs in all - during which time England limped to 17 for 3, with the busiest man on the ground being their physiotherapist, who kept having to run out to players who had been injured by balls flying unpredictably off the rutted surface. I've always felt particularly sorry for Mark Butcher, who hadn't expected to play, got a late call-up ... and was then dismissed by an unplayable lifter. This is the only instance in Test history of a match being abandoned after it had started because of an unfit pitch, although there was one ODI that suffered this fate - India v Sri Lanka at Indore on Christmas Day, 1997.

You wrote a couple of weeks ago about there having been only one Test in Multan - but surely there have been several played there? asked Siddiq Khan from Lahore

The question was in this column two weeks ago, and asked about grounds which had only staged one Test. What I meant was that there was a ground at Multan - the Ibn-e-Qasim Bagh Stadium - which had only staged one Test (against West Indies in 1980-81). Subsequent Test matches in Multan have been played at the new Multan Cricket Stadium. The current Test against England is the fourth to be played there.

I know that Mohammad Azharuddin scored a hundred in both his first and last Tests - has anyone else done this? asked Neeraj Bhardwaj from Canada

Apart from Mohammad Azharuddin there have been 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.