Did You Know?

Which is the only father-son pair to score centuries on Test debut?

And which pair of brothers scored centuries in each innings of a Test?

Bharath Seervi
06-Aug-2020
Chris Broad was the match referee for the two Tests his son, Stuart, played against West Indies  •  Getty Images

Chris Broad was the match referee for the two Tests his son, Stuart, played against West Indies  •  Getty Images

In the recent England-West Indies Test series, the father-son duo of Stuart Broad and Chris Broad were both involved in two Tests - as player and referee. In this week's Did You Know, we explore families ties in cricket, and in Tests in particular.
1 The Broad duo became the first father-son pair to be involved in an international game as match referee and player. There have been a few other instances of a player and his father or brother playing different official roles. The last such instance was in 2006 when Hitesh Modi played and his father Subhash Modi was the umpire. Three times Subhash was the on-field umpire and once the TV umpire when his son played for Kenya, between 2001 and 2006. Before the Modis, in 1994, in Paul Strang's debut Test, his father, Ronald Strang, was TV umpire. In 1978, in Azmat Rana's ODI debut, his brother Shakoor Rana was the on-field umpire. In the late 1880s, Alec Bannerman's brother Charles was on-field umpire in two Tests.
646 Runs scored by Chappell brothers in the Wellington Test of 1974, which is the most by brothers in a Test. Both brothers scored hundreds in both innings of the Test, the first and only such instance so far. Greg Chappell scored 247 and 133 and Ian 121 and 145. Only four other pairs of brothers have scored hundreds in the same innings: Sadiq and Mushtaq Mohammad, the Flowers, Waughs and Marshs. The Chappells and Waughs have done it twice each while the other pairs did it once. In ODIs, the highest aggregate by brothers in an innings is 223, between the Flowers against Bangladesh in Bulawayo in 2001.
4 Only one set of four brothers have played Tests. Hanif, Mushtaq, Sadiq and Wazir Mohammad played for Pakistan. The four played 173 Tests among them and scored 29 Test centuries. At Mushaq's retirement in 1979, Hanif and Mushtaq were Pakistan's top two run-getters in Tests. Hanif's son, Shoaib Mohammad, also played 45 Tests for Pakistan.
3 Instances of three brothers playing in the same Test. Two of those instances were in the 1800s: All three Grace brothers - WG, Edward and Fred - played against Australia at The Oval in 1880 and the Hearnes played in an England-South Africa Test in Cape Town in 1891-92. Alec and George Hearne played for England while Jack played for South Africa. The last instance was when three of the Mohammad brothers - Hanif, Mushtaq and Sadiq - played for Pakistan against New Zealand in Karachi in 1969-70. That was Hanif's last Test and Sadiq's debut. In Harare in 1997, three different pairs of brothers played for Zimbabwe - Flowers, Rennies and Strangs.
7 Number of married couples to have played international cricket. The first such pair were Roger Prideaux and Ruth Westbrook, who played in the 1960s. Amy Satterthwaite and Lea Tahuhu, Marizanne Kapp and Dane van Niekerk, and Mitchell Starc and Alyssa Healy are couples playing international cricket currently.
1 Lala Amarnath and Surinder Amarnath are the only father-son pair to score centuries on Test debut. Incidentally, both did not score another century in their not-so-long Test careers.
2 Sets of trios - grandfather, father and son - who have played Test cricket. The Headleys, George and Ron played for West Indies while Dean Headley played for England. Jahangir Khan played for India while his son and grandson, Majid and Bazid, played for Pakistan.
2 Sets of four brothers who have played ODIs. Of Sri Lanka's Ranatungas - Arjuna, Dammika, Sanjeeva and Nishantha - apart from Arjuna, the other three did not have significant careers, playing only 19 ODIs combined. Four brothers also played for Kenya: Lameck Onyango, Nehemiah Odhiambo, Shem Ngoche and James Ngoche.
With inputs from Shiva Jayaraman

Bharath Seervi is stats sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo @SeerviBharath