Passing the paton back to 1877

[adub]

I can also only get to 12 for only Australians.

Nathan Lyon 1st Test: Sri Lanka v Australia at Galle, Aug 31-Sep 3, 2011 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo
Ricky Ponting 1st Test: Australia v Sri Lanka at Perth, Dec 8-11, 1995 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo
Craig McDermott 4th Test: Australia v West Indies at Melbourne, Dec 22-27, 1984 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo
Steve Rixon 1st Test: Australia v India at Brisbane, Dec 2-6, 1977 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo
Bob Simpson 1st Test: South Africa v Australia at Johannesburg, Dec 23-28, 1957 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo
Jim Burke 4th Test: Australia v England at Adelaide, Feb 2-8, 1951 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo
Linday Hassett 1st Test: England v Australia at Nottingham, Jun 10-14, 1938 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo
Don Bradman 1st Test: Australia v England at Brisbane, Nov 30-Dec 5, 1928 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo
Charles Kelleway 1st Test: Australia v South Africa at Sydney, Dec 9-14, 1910 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo
Clem Hill 1st Test: England v Australia at Lord's, Jun 22-24, 1896 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo
George Giffen 1st Test: Australia v England at Melbourne, Dec 31, 1881 - Jan 4, 1882 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo
Tom Horan 1st Test: Australia v England at Melbourne, Mar 15-19, 1877 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo

 

[Oasisbob]

I think I have found a route back in just seven test matches:

In 2003 Jimmy Anderson played with Alec Stewart: scorecard

In 1991 Alec Stewart played against Viv Richards: scorecard

In 1976 Viv Richards played against Brian Close: scorecard

In 1949 Brian Close played with Freddie Brown:scorecard

In 1932 Freddie Brown played with Frank Wooley: scorecard

In 1909 Frank Wooley played against Syd Gregory: scorecard

In 1890 Syd Gregory played with Jack Blackham: scorecard

and that takes you back to the first ever test match.

 

[Red]

You can shorten that by replacing Gavaskar and Simpson with Colin Cowdrey.

Cheers - didn't see that Cowdrey had played Imran.

1. Jack Blackham (1877 1894)

2. WG Grace (1880 - 1899)

3, Wilfred Rhodes (1899 - 1930)

4. George Headley (1930 - 1954)

5. Trevor Bailey (1949 - 1959)

6. Colin Cowdrey (1954 - 1975)

7. Imran Khan (1971 - 1992)

8. Sachin Tendulkar (1989 - 2013)

9. Dave Warner (2011 - ?)

 

[Red]

I can also only get to 12 for only Australians.

Nathan Lyon 1st Test: Sri Lanka v Australia at Galle, Aug 31-Sep 3, 2011 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo
Ricky Ponting 1st Test: Australia v Sri Lanka at Perth, Dec 8-11, 1995 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo
Craig McDermott 4th Test: Australia v West Indies at Melbourne, Dec 22-27, 1984 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo
Steve Rixon 1st Test: Australia v India at Brisbane, Dec 2-6, 1977 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo
Bob Simpson 1st Test: South Africa v Australia at Johannesburg, Dec 23-28, 1957 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo
Jim Burke 4th Test: Australia v England at Adelaide, Feb 2-8, 1951 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo
Linday Hassett 1st Test: England v Australia at Nottingham, Jun 10-14, 1938 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo
Don Bradman 1st Test: Australia v England at Brisbane, Nov 30-Dec 5, 1928 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo
Charles Kelleway 1st Test: Australia v South Africa at Sydney, Dec 9-14, 1910 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo
Clem Hill 1st Test: England v Australia at Lord's, Jun 22-24, 1896 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo
George Giffen 1st Test: Australia v England at Melbourne, Dec 31, 1881 - Jan 4, 1882 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo
Tom Horan 1st Test: Australia v England at Melbourne, Mar 15-19, 1877 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo

Keep thinking there must be a way to use Boon or Border instead of McDermott and Rixon but I think you're right. Thought that Border had played under Simpson's captaincy in the 70s but he debuted under Yallop.

 

[adub]

I think I have found a route back in just seven test matches:

In 2003 Jimmy Anderson played with Alec Stewart: scorecard

In 1991 Alec Stewart played against Viv Richards: scorecard

In 1976 Viv Richards played against Brian Close: scorecard

In 1949 Brian Close played with Freddie Brown:scorecard

In 1932 Freddie Brown played with Frank Wooley: scorecard

In 1909 Frank Wooley played against Syd Gregory: scorecard

In 1890 Syd Gregory played with Jack Blackham: scorecard

and that takes you back to the first ever test match.

Excellent effort if you take out the debut game qualifier. I doubt for pure played with/against you can better 7.

 

[fredfertang]

Excellent effort if you take out the debut game qualifier. I doubt for pure played with/against you can better 7.

No I don't think you can - thought I might be able to by changing the rules to include playing and umpiring careers, in which case you can have Charles Bannerman to take you from 1877 - 1902, and Venkat from 1965 - 2004, but I still can't get it below seven

 

[adub]

Keep thinking there must be a way to use Boon or Border instead of McDermott and Rixon but I think you're right. Thought that Border had played under Simpson's captaincy in the 70s but he debuted under Yallop.

Yeah there's a few little near misses there. Ponting not playing under AB and AB not playing under Simmo though knocks the great man out of any shortest list. The ones that hurt are not having Lindy play in Simmo's debut and Syd Gregory not playing in Kelleway's debut. That would drag it back to 10. Similarly Rixon did play with Boony but Philips was the keeper in Boon's debut and it wouldn't shorten the list just swap with Billy.

 

[adub]

No I don't think you can - thought I might be able to by changing the rules to include playing and umpiring careers, in which case you can have Charles Bannerman to take you from 1877 - 1902, and Venkat from 1965 - 2004, but I still can't get it below seven

7 overlapping careers in 140 years is awesome in itself. Would just be being greedy to expect better than that.

 

[Fred Tetanus]

Are we looking for it to conclude with a player who is involved in a test match right now or just one that hasn't retired yet?

 

[adub]

If England was playing a Test today Anderson and Cook would be in the side so yeah go for it.

 

[AndrewB]

I think I have found a route back in just seven test matches:

In 2003 Jimmy Anderson played with Alec Stewart: scorecard

In 1991 Alec Stewart played against Viv Richards: scorecard

In 1976 Viv Richards played against Brian Close: scorecard

In 1949 Brian Close played with Freddie Brown:scorecard

In 1932 Freddie Brown played with Frank Wooley: scorecard

In 1909 Frank Wooley played against Syd Gregory: scorecard

In 1890 Syd Gregory played with Jack Blackham: scorecard

and that takes you back to the first ever test match.

You can get back to the 4th ever Test (and the first in England) in 6 matches: Grace played with Rhodes (1), who played against Headley (2), who played against Graveney (3), who played with Underwood (4), who played against Ranatunga (5), who played with Herath (6). This gives 7-match chains without using any of the players in the chain above.

If India had only played WI in about 1990, Tendulkar could have played against Richards and we'd have a 6-match chain up to 2013.

Another challenge is to find the best possible XI who span the whole 140 years: here's a first attempt (number 1 played in the first match and with/against number 2, etc):

JB Hobbs (4)
SM Gavaskar (8)
DG Bradman (5)
Younis Khan (11)
GS Sobers (7)
FS Jackson (2)
KR Miller (6)
Wasim Akram (9)
JM Blackham (1)
SK Warne (10)
SF Barnes (3)

 

[AndrewB]

Incidentally, can you span the 46 years of ODIs with 2 matches? You can get pretty close (Keith Fletcher played against Arjuna Ranatunga, who played with Mahela Jayawardene and against Shahid Afridi, who both played ODIs in 2015), but I can't see any way to get to a player who can reasonably be regarded as current.