How many Test cricketers have won medals in the World Athletics Championship?

Stuart Broad took a hat-trick in a Test, and was also a victim in one. How many others have been on both sides of a hat-trick? asked Abhishek Chakravorty from India
You're right that Stuart Broad not only claimed a Test hat-trick - in fact he took two, against India at Trent Bridge in 2011, and Sri Lanka at Headingley in 2014 - but was also part of one, as the last victim of Peter Siddle's birthday hat-trick in Brisbane in 2010-11.

In men's ODIs, there are also six: Kapil Dev (India), Mohammad Sami (Pakistan), Brett Lee (Australia), Thisara Perera (Sri Lanka), Rubel Hossain (Bangladesh) and Zimbabwe's Prosper Utseya, who was actually part of two hat-tricks as well as taking one. For the ODI list, click here.

And there are two in men's T20Is: Khalid Ahmadi of Belgium and Uganda's Kenneth Waiswa. For that list, click here.

There are no instances in women's Tests or ODIs, but four in T20Is: by Marizanne Kapp (South Africa), Megan Schutt (Australia), Fahima Khatun (Bangladesh) and Onnicha Kamchomphu (Thailand). For that list, click here.

Does the famous match at the Wanderers when South Africa scored 438 to win still hold the record for the highest aggregate in a one-day international? asked Abdurrahman Bakhsh from South Africa
On that memorable evening in Johannesburg in March 2006, Australia ran up 434 for 4, but South Africa edged past them with 438 for 9. The match aggregate of 872 runs not only remains the ODI record - next comes the 825 of India (414 for 7) vs Sri Lanka (411 for 8) in Rajkot in 2009-10 - but is still the highest in any List A (senior one-day) match. It came under threat at Trent Bridge in 2016, when the Royal London Cup game between Nottinghamshire (445 for 8) and Northamptonshire (425) featured 870 runs. In all, there have now been 11 List A games with 800 or more runs.

Seven different St Lucia bowlers took a wicket in an innings in a CPL match earlier this month. Was this a record for any T20 game? asked Sandesh Acharekar from India
Seven St Lucia Kings bowlers took a wicket in their recent Caribbean Premier League match against Barbados Royals in Gros Islet - Matthew Forde grabbed three, and the six other bowlers one apiece (there was also a run-out, from the first ball of the innings). This equalled the record for senior T20 cricket: there have now been no fewer than 25 instances of seven, including five in official internationals. Earlier this year, seven Ireland bowlers took wickets as they upset Bangladesh in Chattogram.

Derbyshire's Luis Reece scored a double-hundred and a century in the same game earlier this season. How often has this happened? asked Michael Edwards from… Derbyshire
Left-hander Luis Reece made 131 and added 201 not out as Derbyshire followed on against Glamorgan in Derby last month.

Reece provided the 73rd instance of this double in first-class cricket, but only the second for Derbyshire, after the Australian Chris Rogers against Surrey at The Oval in 2010. The first to do it anywhere was CB Fry, with 125 and 229 for Sussex against Surrey in Hove in 1900 (the only instance before the First World War). Zaheer Abbas achieved the feat four times, all for Gloucestershire, remaining not out in all eight innings.

The figure of 73 includes eight occurrences in Tests, the most recent by Marnus Labuschagne for Australia against West Indies in Perth in 2022-23, and also the two instances of a triple and a single century in the same Test - by Graham Gooch for England vs India at Lord's in 1990, and Kumar Sangakkara for Sri Lanka vs Bangladesh in Chattogram in 2013-14.

Also, in the main number are the two cases of two double-centuries in the same first-class match, by Arthur Fagg for Kent against Essex in Colchester in 1938, and Angelo Perera for Nondescripts vs Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo in 2018-19.

As the World Athletics Championships are going on at the moment, I wondered if any Test cricketers had ever won medals? asked Andrew Simpson from England
By the time the World Athletics Championships began, in 1983, increased professionalism meant it was increasingly difficult for anyone to rise to the top in more than one sport, as had been relatively commonplace in earlier years. But you should never say never: I believe there is one world athletics medallist who also played a cricket Test match. Sunette Viljoen won the silver medal in the women's javelin in Daegu in 2011, and bronze in Beijing in 2015; in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 she won an Olympic silver medal too. Before her athletics career took over, Viljoen played one Test for South Africa, against India in Paarl in 2001-02. She also played 17 one-day internationals, and featured in the 2000 World Cup. One imagines you wouldn't have wanted to try a quick single to her in the field.

There was another close connection to Test cricket in the most recent world championships. Rai Benjamin won the bronze medal in the men's 400 metres hurdles, having won silver in the same event in 2019 and 2022; he also won silver (and a gold in the 4x400m relay) at the Tokyo Olympics. He's the son of the former West Indian fast bowler Winston Benjamin, who played 21 Tests and 85 ODIs between 1986 and 1995.

Also in Budapest, Brandon Starc - the brother of Australian fast bowler Mitchell Starc - finished eighth in the men's high jump.