Big leads, and England's Indians

Was Ricky Ponting's lead at Brisbane the biggest any captain has had and still decided against making the other team follow on? asked James Millar from Canberra

Rather surprisingly, perhaps, that lead of 445 at Brisbane wasn't the biggest - at Kingston in 1929-30 England's captain Freddie Gough-Calthorpe decided to bat again despite a lead of 563. England had made 849, with Andy Sandham contributing 325, Test cricket's first triple-century, to which West Indies replied with 286. England then made 272 for 9 before Calthorpe declared, setting a target of 836! The previous record in Ashes Tests also came at Brisbane, although at the Exhibition Ground rather than the Gabba. In 1928-29, in what was Don Bradman's first Test, England's captain Percy Chapman decided against enforcing the follow-on despite a lead of 399. Both this match and the Kingston one were timeless matches, which were supposed to be played to a finish with no time limit - although in Jamaica the match was eventually left drawn as the England team had to leave after nine days to catch the boat home.

Was KS Duleepsinhji the first Indian-born cricketer to play for England? asked Zahran Fouzi from Sri Lanka

Actually "Duleep" was the sixth Indian-born man to play in a Test for England. The first was his even more famous uncle, KS Ranjitsinhji - "Ranji" made his Test debut at Old Trafford in 1896, scoring 62 and 154 against Australia. The others between then and Duleep's debut in 1929 were Teddy Wynyard (born in Saharanpur), Dick Young (Dharwar), Neville Tufnell (Simla) and Douglas Jardine (Bombay). In all England have capped 16 Indian-born players. The others, in the order in which they made their debut, are: the Nawab of Pataudi senior (born in Pataudi), Errol Holmes (Calcutta), "Mandy" Mitchell-Innes (Calcutta), George Emmett (Agra), Colin Cowdrey (Bangalore), John Jameson (Bombay), Bob Woolmer (Kanpur), Robin Jackman (Simla), Nasser Hussain (Madras) and Min Patel (Bombay). For a full list of Indian-born players who have played Tests for other countries, click here.

Who was the first run-scorer, wicket-taker and century-maker in one-day internationals? asked Mustafa Shafiq from Bahrain

The first run and wicket came, not surprisingly, in the first official one-day international, the one arranged at short notice at Melbourne in 1970-71. The first wicket was taken by Australia's Alan "Froggy" Thomson, and the first run was scored by Geoff Boycott. The first century didn't come until the second such match, at Old Trafford in 1972, when Dennis Amiss made 103 for England against Australia.

Last time I checked Chris Cairns had the record for the most sixes in Test cricket. Is this still the case, or has Brian Lara overtaken him? asked Thomas St Romain from St Lucia

Well, Brian Lara did go past Chris Cairns's tally of Test sixes during the current series in Pakistan. After that series, Lara had 88 sixes to Cairns's 87 - but both of them were behind Australia's Adam Gilchrist, who had smacked 93 sixes before the second Ashes Test at Adelaide started. For a full list of Test cricket's leading six-hitters, click here.

How many players opened the batting for England with Geoff Boycott, and who were they? asked John Ross

Geoff Boycott had 16 different opening partners in Tests, the most regular of them being Graham Gooch, with whom he opened the innings on 49 occasions. The most surprising name on the list came in Boycott's very first Test, against Australia at Trent Bridge in 1964 - it was the Middlesex allrounder Fred Titmus, who was pressed into service at the top of the order when John Edrich withdrew shortly before the match started. The others were, in the order in which they appeared: Edrich, Bob Barber, Ken Barrington, John Murray, Eric Russell, Colin Milburn, Colin Cowdrey, Brian Luckhurst, Dennis Amiss, Mike Brearley, Brian Rose, Derek Randall, Alan Butcher and Wayne Larkins.

Regarding your answer two weeks ago about the most hundreds in a calendar year, has Mohammad Yousuf now broken that record? asked Ashok Patel from Southall

I'm very glad that I put "watch out for Mohammad Yousuf" at the end of that particular answer, because he has scored three Test centuries in the last fortnight, taking his tally for 2006 to nine, which does indeed break the old record of seven, set by Viv Richards in 1976 and equalled by Aravinda de Silva in 1997. Yousuf has also broken Richards's record of 1710 runs in a calendar year (also in 1976), finishing 2006 with 1788 runs from 11 matches at an eye-popping average of 99.33. Returning to centuries, we still have to watch out for Ricky Ponting, who has scored seven in eight Tests in 2006 so far, with two more to come.