Brothers in arms at World Cup
Sharing the same passion for the game and the same surnames, there
are five sets of brothers looking to claim a slice of cricketing history
at the World Cup.
Australia's twins Steve and Mark Waugh were part of Australia's 1999
World Cup winning squad, a feat many brothers here must be wishing to
emulate.
This edition of the showpiece event will see Nathan and Brendon
McCullum turn out for New Zealand; Kamran and Umar Akmal for Pakistan
and Niall and Kevin O'Brien for Ireland.
Kenya boasts of two sets of brothers in David and Collins Obuya and
Shem and James Ngoche. West Indies will have half-brothers Dwayne and
Darren Bravo perking each other up.
Darren paid tribute to Dwayne, who is older by five years and vastly
more experienced.
"He has played in all different formats of the game, in all different
parts of the world and he always gives me encouragement," 22-year-old
Darren told www.cricinfo.com "He works out a game plan quite nicely and
he tends to make it a bit easy for me and I really appreciate that.
Dwayne is always willing to giving me 100 percent support and I can't
ask for anything but that." If injury and selection decisions had not
got in the way, there would have been two more sets of brothers at the
tournament.
India's explosive batsman Yusuf Pathan won't have the younger Irfan
for company while Australian David Hussey will be without the more
experienced older brother Mike.
Irfan made his debut before Yusuf but was dropped from the team in
2009 for poor form and fitness.
Mike Hussey failed to recover from a hamstring injury in time for the
World Cup.
A peek into the history of the game shows Australia have a kanck of
producing a number of cricketing brothers. Two of them represented
Australia in the very first international Test match, played between
England and Australia in 1877.
Dave Gregory, who captained the side, and his brother Ned both played
in that match, although neither enjoyed a long career. Instead, that
distinction went to David's son, Sydney Gregory, who went on to play 58
Tests.
Greg and Ian Chappell played for the great Australian team of the
1970s and ended their careers with impressive statistics.
A third brother, Trevor, also represented Australia, although he only
played a small number of matches and is remembered mostly for his
notorious 'under-arm' delivery against New Zealand in a one-dayer in
1981.
Trevor, as he admitted later, was only following the instruction of
his elder brother Greg who was captain.
More recently, Steve and Mark Waugh played for Australia in long and
distinguished careers. Steve was a fighting cricketer and one of the
most valuable middle-order batsmen ever.
Mark, the more stylish of the two but less prolific, was once at the
receiving end of a verbal barb thrown at him by England fast bowler
James Ormond.
"There's no way you're good enough to play for England," Mark told
Ormond who retorted: "Maybe not, but at least I'm the best cricketer in
my family."
Ireland have brothers who play for different teams.
Dominick and Ed Joyce made their debuts for Ireland and England
respectively.
Ed Joyce has since returned to the Irish fold and will pad up against
England in Bangalore on March 2.
Pakistan's brotherly tale is no less fascinating.
Brothers Hanif, Mushtaq and Sadiq Mohammad all played against New
Zealand at Karachi in 1969-70. Another brother Raees was once the 12th
man for Pakistan.
NEW DELHI, AFP |