Senior citizens who held their own

The battle for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy finally begins tomorrow after weeks of pre-series hype, most of which involved India's "seniors", their poor form in Sri Lanka, and bizarre voluntary retirement schemes. The men in question - Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman and Anil Kumble - are all in their 30s. This week's List looks at players who have scored the most runs and taken the most wickets after passing a certain age.

Players who are over the 35-year hill on the current circuit come under tremendous scrutiny, but it wasn't always so. As many as 102 cricketers have played Tests after turning 40: Alec Stewart, who was 40 years and 153 days old when he played South Africa at The Oval in 2003 is the most recent. Stewart is the only one to have played 100 Tests after turning 30 (107 out of a total 133 Tests). Bob Taylor, another former England wicketkeeper, played 29 Tests after 40, which is the most by anyone.

Twelve out of the top 20 leading 40-plus run-scorers are Englishmen. That's largely because 52 players out of the 102 have played for England. Jack Hobbs tops the list: he played 27 Tests after he was 40 and scored 2440 runs at an average of 58.09. His highest score, 211 against South Africa at Lord's, came when he was 42.

Most runs after the age of 40 - Tests

Player	Mat	Inns	Runs	HS	Ave	100	50		Career	Mat	Runs	%
JB Hobbs (Eng)	27	43	2440	211	58.09	8	11		1908-1930	61	5410	45.10
EH Hendren (Eng)	24	42	1901	205*	50.02	3	12		1920-1935	51	3525	53.92
TW Graveney (Eng)	19	29	1243	151	44.39	3	6		1951-1969	79	4882	25.46
G Boycott (Eng)	14	28	999	137	38.42	3	4		1964-1982	108	8114	12.31
EAB Rowan (SA)	10	19	919	236	51.05	2	6		1935-1951	26	1965	46.76
HW Taylor (SA)	13	22	843	121	40.14	2	5		1912-1932	42	2936	28.71
GA Gooch (Eng)	13	24	798	210	33.25	1	3		1975-1995	118	8900	8.96
RB Simpson (Aus)	10	19	738	176	38.84	2	3		1957-1978	62	4869	15.15
AW Nourse (SA)	13	23	722	111	32.81	1	4		1902-1924	45	2234	32.31
FE Woolley (Eng)	12	20	721	154	40.05	1	4		1909-1934	64	3283	21.96
WW Armstrong (Aus)	10	13	616	158	56.00	3	1		1902-1921	50	2863	21.51
WG Grace (Eng)	13	22	595	75*	28.33	0	5		1880-1899	22	1098	54.18
RW Taylor (Eng)	29	46	521	54	14.08	0	1		1971-1984	57	1156	45.06
FR Brown (Eng)	12	18	480	79	28.23	0	3		1931-1953	22	734	65.39
R Illingworth (Eng)	11	18	402	65	25.12	0	2		1958-1973	61	1836	21.89
B Sutcliffe (NZ)	8	14	392	151*	35.63	1	3		1947-1965	42	2727	14.37
WR Hammond (Eng)	8	13	366	79	30.50	0	2		1927-1947	85	7249	5.04
W Rhodes (Eng)	11	21	360	73	22.50	0	1		1899-1930	58	2325	15.48
CH Lloyd (WI)	5	8	356	114	50.85	1	2		1966-1985	110	7515	4.73
W Bardsley (Aus)	8	11	319	193*	31.90	1	0		1909-1926	41	2469	12.92

The oldest person to play Test cricket is Wilfred Rhodes, who was 52 when he played against West Indies in Kingston in 1930. However, he played only 11 Tests after 40 because of the war, scoring 360 runs and taking 22 wickets. Incidentally, Rhodes' final Test was also the last for the England opener George Gunn, one of four cricketers to have played Test cricket after turning 50.

Graham Gooch was 22 when he made his debut in 1975 but scored more than half his runs after turning 35. Before his 35th birthday Gooch scored 4337 runs at 37.71 in 36 Tests. Between the ages of 35 and 42, Gooch averaged nearly 49, scoring 4563 runs in 52 matches with 12 hundreds.

The batsman to have scored the most runs after the age of 30 is Matthew Hayden. He made his debut in 1993, when he was 23, but played only 21 Tests by the time he turned 30. His career stats at that point were: 1319 runs at an average of 39 with only three centuries. Since then he has scored 6923 runs, averaging over 57, with 27 hundreds in 73 Tests.

Three bowlers in the table below made their debuts after 40. Bert Ironmonger was Test cricket's second-oldest debutant when he played against England in Brisbane in 1928 at the age of 46 years and 237 days. In the next Test of the series he was pushed to third by Don Blackie, who was 46 years and 253 days old on debut in Sydney. South Africa's Geoff Chubb was the third to debut after 40, against England at Trent Bridge in 1951.

No bowler has taken 100 wickets after turning 40: Clarrie Grimmett's tally of 96 at an average of 21.11 in 16 Tests is the highest. He is one of four bowlers to debut after 30 and reach the 100-wicket milestone. The other three are Bruce Yardley, Dilip Doshi and Mohammad Rafique. Stuart Clark needs 19 wickets to join that club.

Grimmett also leads the list of highest wicket-takers after 35. He took 192 wickets from 33 Tests after turning 35; Shane Warne, who played the same number of matches past that age, took 181 wickets.