Cricketing Brothers Trivia Quiz

Answer: Alabaster

Jack Alabaster was the Test player, and New Zealand's leading spinner for 17 years. His brother Gren, who was a teacher of mine at Te Aroha College in the 1960's, played for Northern Districts for most of his career.

Answer: 0

Eric played 457 First Class matches for Surrey between 1939 and 1962 scoring over 14,500 runs with ten centuries, and taking 833 wickets with his right arm off breaks, but was never picked for England. Alec managed England teams in two overseas tours and was chairman of the England selectors for thirteen years, and a selector for ten more.

He was knighted in 1996 for his services to cricket.

Answer: Benaud

Richie, the doyen of TV cricket commentators, is a little better known than his brother John. Richie played 63 times for Australia, from 1952 to 1964 and captained the team in 28 Tests. He took 236 wickets and had a highest score of 122. Richie was the first player in Test history to complete the double of 200 wickets and 2,000 runs. John had a very different career, and played just three Tests in 1972 and 1973, scoring one century.

Although Bill Lawry, Keith Stackpole and Jonathan Agnew all played Test cricket, none of them had brothers who did too.

Answer: Chappell

Ian, Greg and Trevor Chappell. Ian and Greg both captained Australia, and it was Greg who instructed brother Trevor to bowl the final ball of a One Day International underarm, to prevent New Zealand's Brian McKechnie from hitting a six, which would have won them the game.

Not a popular move! Ian and Greg scored a century each against New Zealand at the Basin Reserve, Wellington in 1974, Greg scored 247* and 133 and Ian 145 and 121.

Answer: Crowe

Jeff and Martin Crowe are the cricketers. Cousin Russell is the movie star! Jeff captained New Zealand in six Tests, and Martin in 16 of his 77 Tests. Martin set a record for the most Test centuries for New Zealand: 17. Russell Crowe won an Oscar as "Gladiator".

Answer: Grace

W.G. Grace was certainly the 'King of Cricket' and the best known cricketer of his generation. He played 870 first class matches, scoring over 54,000 runs with 124 centuries. He also took 2,800 wickets. His brothers E.M. (Edward) and Fred each played one Test match for England (the same match) but neither played Test cricket again.

Answer: Hollioake

Adam played 35 ODI's from 1997 to 1999, and played four Tests, having a top score of 45. Ben was killed in Australia on 23rd March, 2002. He lost control of the car he was driving in Perth and hit a concrete wall. He had played just two Tests, making his debut in the same Test as brother Adam. Ben also played 20 ODI's.

Answer: Howarth

New Zealand's Howarth brothers are unique is many ways. Hedley's career had almost ended before Geoff's began, but both of them contributed hugely to the team. Hedley was NZ's leading left arm spin bowler, played 30 Tests between 1969 and 1977 and took 86 Test wickets. Geoff captained NZ in 30 Tests from 1980 to 1985, winning eleven, which was the second highest number of wins for a NZ captain.

He scored six Test centuries, including 122 and 102 against England at Eden Park, Auckland in 1978.

Answer: Kirsten

Peter Kirsten played twelve tests following South Africa's readmittance to international cricket, and half brother Gary joined him in the Test team in 1993. Peter hit one century, and in his last Test match, opened the batting with Gary. By the end of 2002, Gary had hit sixteen centuries.

His innings of 150 against Bangladesh in October 2002 made him the first man in history to hit centuries against all nine other Test playing countries. Graeme & Peter Pollock never opened together. As far as I know, neither Hansie Cronje or Andrew Hudson had a half brother.

Answer: Strang

Paul Strang played county cricket for Kent and Nottinghamshire, and had 24 Tests for Zimbabwe. Younger brother Bryan played 26 Tests, and had a top score of 53. The Flowers played many more Tests, the Rennies many fewer. The Whittalls are cousins.