The worst Test start, and captains dismissing each other

Of people who played a lot of Test matches, who made the worst start to their career? asked Roy Grandison from Cheltenham

I suppose the worst start by a batsman who went on to have a substantial Test career was by Marvan Atapattu, who's now the Sri Lankan captain. In his first Test, against India at Chandigarh in 1990-91, he bagged a pair; in 1992, against Australia in Colombo, he made 0 and 1; and in his third Test outing, against India at Ahmedabad in 1993-94, he collected another pair of ducks, making one run in six innings. He didn't feature again for three years, and must have feared finishing up with one of the most embarrassing Test averages of them all (0.16) ... but he returned against New Zealand in 1996-97, scored 25 and 22, and hasn't looked back since. Before the series in Australia started, Atapattu had made 4538 runs from his 73 Tests, at the excellent average of 40.88. That includes six double-centuries, more than any current player other than Brian Lara, who has seven. Among bowlers, two famous names who made slow starts were the Australian pair of Jeff Thomson, who managed 0 for 110 on his Test debut in 1972-73, but finished with 200 Test wickets, and Shane Warne, who laboured for 1 for 150 in his first Test, but is now well past 500 wickets.

Have the rival captains ever taken each other's wicket in the same Test? asked TR Ramaswami

It's only happened on eight occasions in Test history. The first time was at Auckland in 1955-56, in the first Test New Zealand ever won, after 45 matches and 26 years of trying. West Indies' captain Denis Atkinson was bowled by John Reid in the first innings, and returned the favour when New Zealand batted again, having Reid caught behind by Alfie Binns. The most recent occasion was in the Boxing Day Test at Durban in 2002, when Shaun Pollock and Waqar Younis exchanged wickets. The other instances were: Australia v England at Adelaide, 1962-63 (Richie Benaud and Ted Dexter); Australia v South Africa at Brisbane, 1963-64 (Benaud and Trevor Goddard); New Zealand v South Africa at Wellington, 1963-64 (Reid and Goddard); England v Australia at Lord's, 1975 (Tony Greig and Ian Chappell); England v Pakistan at Headingley, 1996 (Mike Atherton and Wasim Akram); and Pakistan v West Indies at Karachi, 1997-98 (Akram and Courtney Walsh).

Habibul Bashar has played in all Bangladesh's 30 Tests to date. Is this a record for an ever-present since a country's Test debut? asked Mohammad Soleiman from Dhaka

I'm afraid Habibul Bashar has quite a long way to go yet - the record is 56. The man concerned was Alistair Campbell, who played in Zimbabwe's inaugural Test against India at Harare in October 1992, and took part in their next 55 matches as well, before he missed the tour of Bangladesh in November 2001. In second place is another Zimbabwean, Andy Flower, who appeared in their first 52 Tests. In third spot is Imtiaz Ahmed, who played in Pakistan's first 39 Tests, starting in 1952-53. Habibul is next, currently sharing fourth place with Grant Flower of Zimbabwe.

I know that Stephen Waugh and Gary Kirsten both scored Test centuries against the other nine Test-playing nations. But has anyone scored ODI centuries against all the other Test-playing countries? asked Jan Jaimon from London, Ontario

There turns out to be only man who fits the bill: Ricky Ponting, of Australia, who has scored one-day centuries against the other nine Test teams. Sourav Ganguly, Herschelle Gibbs, Brian Lara, Sachin Tendulkar and Mark Waugh have all managed eight. Ganguly and Tendulkar have actually scored one-day centuries against ten different opponents, with the help of a couple of tons against non-Test countries.

Has there ever been an instance in a one-day international when all 11 batsmen reached double figures - and any cases of no-one reaching double figures at all? asked David Clark from Australia

There's never been a case of all 11 players reaching double figures in an ODI - but there have been three instances of ten. The first one was by West Indies against Australia at Bridgetown in 1990-91: the No. 11 Courtney Walsh was out for 4 to spoil the symmetry of the scorecard. Pakistan followed suit against West Indies at Dhaka in 1998-99: this time it was the first batsman, Shahid Afridi, who was out for 4 while everyone else reached 10. Zimbabwe joined the club against India at Rajkot in December 2000 (last man Brian Murphy was out for 1). At the other end of the scale there have been two cases of no-one managing to reach double figures in an ODI, both in low totals against Sri Lanka. The first case was in the 2003 World Cup, when Canada were shot out for 36 at Paarl, with the highest score being 9, by the opener Desmond Chumney and the captain, Joe Harris. Zimbabwe equalled this unwanted record recently at Harare in April 2004, when they were bowled out for the new one-day low of 35. The highest score was 7, by Dion Ebrahim and Extras.

Does any current or past Test player own more credit cards than the 17 stolen from Darren Gough last week? asked Jeremy Gilling from Sydney

Well, it did seem like rather a lot ... Oddly, the Wisden Archive doesn't record such things, although a quick straw poll around the office came up with possible candidates in England's Phil Edmonds and Bob Cowper of Australia, both former Test players who have reputedly made a lot of money from their various businesses since retiring from cricket. But I remember a story about Ilie Nastase, the often-controversial Romanian tennis player who was twice the Wimbledon runner-up in the 1970s, who once revealed that his credit card had been stolen. He said he hadn't reported the theft to the police, because "Whoever stole it is spending less than my wife."