Which umpires officiated together most often in international matches?

This week in our stats series Did You Know? where we present well known and lesser-known facts on a theme, we look at umpiring records and trivia. All numbers are from men's matches only.

386 Number of international matches in which Aleem Dar has been one of the on-field umpires - the most by any umpire. He has stood in 132 Tests (the most), 209 ODIs (second-most) and 46 T20Is (second-most). Rudi Koertzen, with 331 international matches, comes second. Steve Bucknor (309 matches) and Billy Bowden (308) are the others to have officiated in 300-plus matches. Koertzen has stood in the most ODIs (209 matches) and Ahsan Raza is the leader in T20Is (49).

31 Number of international matches Dickie Bird and David Shepherd officiated in together as umpires - the most by a pair. Twenty-six of their 31 matches together were ODIs. The umpiring pair to share most Tests are the Australians Col Egar and Lou Rowan, who stood in 19 Tests together. In T20Is, Ahsan Raza and Shozab Raza have paired in 17 matches together.

69 Alfred Jones' age in the last Test he umpired in - Australia against England at the MCG in 1929 - which makes him the oldest umpire in international matches (between Test-playing teams). He was 69 years and 275 days old at the start of that Ashes Test. In the 1979 ODI World Cup, John Langridge stood in four matches when he was 69, and Lloyd Budd in four matches at 65. In T20Is between Test nations, the oldest umpire is Irishman Alan Neill, who was 63 years old when he officiated in the game between Ireland and Zimbabwe in 2019.

22 The youngest umpire in an international match was George Coulthard, at 22 years, 154 days, in the third Test ever played, in 1879. The youngest umpire in matches between Test-playing teams in the last 120 years is Indian Bala Murali, who stood in the New Zealand v West Indies ODI in Margao in 1994 at age 25. West Indian Leslie Reifer made his umpiring debut when he was 26 years and 358 days old, in the West Indies v India T20I at Lauderhill in 2016, making him the youngest umpire in T20Is between Test-playing nations.

123 Number of umpires from India who have officiated in international matches, the most among all countries. Two other countries have had over 100 umpires - England (121) and Australia (106). However, only two Indians have stood as on-field umpires in over 100 matches - S Venkataraghavan (125) and S Ravi (107). Australia have nine umpires who officiated in over 100 matches, the most among all countries followed by seven England umpires.

31 Number of years that Frank Chester's international umpiring career lasted, the longest among all umpires. He stood in 48 Tests from 1924 to 1955. David Constant's career spanned nearly 30 years: he stood in 69 international matches between 1971 and 2001. Chester also has the record for most matches as umpire in first-class cricket history, standing in a record 774 matches.

46 Number of matches Shepherd umpired in ODI World Cups, the highest. Shepherd is also the only one to officiate in six World Cups - from 1983 to 2003. Bucknor and Dar have stood in five editions each. Dar has officiated in each World Cup from 2003 to 2019, and has the chance to equal Shepherd in the next edition. Bucknor stood in the World Cup finals in each of the five tournaments he officiated in (1992 to 2007). Shepherd and Dickie Bird officiated in three finals each.

5 Number of times Simon Taufel has won the David Shepherd Trophy, which was first awarded in 2004, as ICC Umpire of the Year. In fact, Taufel won it five years in a row from 2004 to 2008. Dar and Richard Kettleborough won it three times each, Kumar Dharmasena and Marais Erasmus have won it twice each and Richard Illingworth got his first trophy last year.

3 Only three officials have filled the roles of on-field umpire, TV umpire and match referee - Venkatraghavan, Cyril Mitchley and Shaid Wadvalla. The role of referee and TV umpire only came into existence in 1991.

121 Number of matches Nigel Llong has officiated as a TV umpire - the most. Ranjan Madugalle has been a match referee in 660 matches.

15 Indian umpires who have made their umpiring debut since 2000; there were 44 Indian umpires who made their debut in 1990s and 28 umpires in 1980s. In the 1960s and 1970s, 23 umpires had made their debuts.