• Welcome to the Cricket Web forums, one of the biggest forums in the world dedicated to cricket.

    You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join the Cricket Web community today!

    If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us.

The first player younger than you to play for your Country

AndrewB

International Vice-Captain
The thing I found noticeable was that for about 5 years England were picking the odd player who was younger than me, but as late as 2001 (Lord's Test v Aus) 10 of the side was still older than me (all but Trescothick); then in the next few years a whole generation of England players slightly older than me (Atherton, Stewart, Butcher, Hick, Hussain, Thorpe, Ramprakash, Cork, Gough, Caddick, Tufnell etc) dropped out of the side, to be replaced by Trescothick, Strauss, Vaughan, Pietersen, Bell, Flintoff, Hoggard, Harmison, Anderson etc.

Just 3 years after that Lord's Test, there was an England side with 10 players younger than me (Oval 2004: all but Giles), and after that there were just a few more picks for Butcher and Thorpe, a surprising debut and handful of Tests for Udal, and a couple more years of Giles. I suspect this was a quicker swing from "mostly older" to "mostly younger" than most people get.
 

Top