As West Indies play their 500th Test, Shivnarine Chanderpaul won his 158th Test cap. Abhishek Mukherjee looks at the men with most frequent Test appearances for their respective sides.
Despite the fact that West Indies’ rich history has been studded with legends, only three men (Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Courtney Walsh and Brian Lara) have played in a quarter of their 500 Tests. Of course, this has a lot to do with the fact that the island nations have been playing Tests for close to a century.
Things are different for Sri Lanka (who have been playing for a 32 years), Zimbabwe (22 years) or Bangladesh (14 years). These tenures are not significantly more than a good cricket career, which means that men like Mohammad Ashraful (61 out of 85 Tests for Bangladesh: 71.8%), Grant Flower (67 out of 94: 71.3%), and Mahela Jayawardene (149 out of 233: 63.9%) have substantially high proportions than their counterparts across the world.
To be fair to the others (after all, one cannot expect Australians and Englishmen, with a 137-year old history of playing Test cricket) let us remove Zimbabweans and Bangladeshis from the list and find out who have played the highest proportion of Tests for their respective countries.
Note: This does not include Tests played for ICC World XI.
Player | Country | Tests | Tests by country | % |
Jacques Kallis | South Africa |
165 |
387 |
42.6% |
Sachin Tendulkar | India |
200 |
483 |
41.4% |
Mark Boucher | South Africa |
146 |
387 |
37.7% |
Rahul Dravid | India |
163 |
483 |
33.7% |
Javed Miandad | Pakistan |
124 |
382 |
32.5% |
Shivnarine Chanderpaul | West Indies |
158 |
500 |
31.6% |
Inzamam-ul-Haq | Pakistan |
119 |
382 |
31.2% |
Graeme Smith | South Africa |
116 |
387 |
30.0% |
Stephen Fleming | New Zealand |
111 |
394 |
28.2% |
Daniel Vettori | New Zealand |
111 |
394 |
28.2% |
Shaun Pollock | South Africa |
108 |
387 |
27.9% |
VVS Laxman | India |
134 |
483 |
27.7% |
Anil Kumble | India |
132 |
483 |
27.3% |
Wasim Akram | Pakistan |
104 |
382 |
27.2% |
Kapil Dev | India |
131 |
483 |
27.1% |
Saleem Malik | Pakistan |
103 |
382 |
27.0% |
Courtney Walsh | West Indies |
132 |
500 |
26.4% |
Gary Kirsten | South Africa |
101 |
387 |
26.1% |
Makhaya Ntini | South Africa |
101 |
387 |
26.1% |
Brian Lara | West Indies |
130 |
500 |
26.0% |
Sunil Gavaskar | India |
125 |
483 |
25.9% |
Not surprisingly, Chanderpaul is the only active cricketer on the list.
Let us now rope in Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, and Bangladesh (along with England and Australia, who do not stand with a chance to provide people who have played over a quarter of their Tests) and compare the toppers.
Note: This does not include Tests played for ICC World XI.
Player | Country | Tests | Tests by country | % |
Grant Flower | Zimbabwe |
67 |
94 |
71.3% |
Mohammad Ashraful | Bangladesh |
61 |
85 |
71.8% |
Mahela Jayawardene | Sri Lanka |
149 |
233 |
63.9% |
Jacques Kallis | South Africa |
165 |
387 |
42.6% |
Sachin Tendulkar | India |
200 |
483 |
41.4% |
Javed Miandad | Pakistan |
124 |
382 |
32.5% |
Shivnarine Chanderpaul | West Indies |
158 |
500 |
31.6% |
Stephen Fleming | New Zealand |
111 |
394 |
28.2% |
Daniel Vettori | New Zealand |
111 |
394 |
28.2% |
Ricky Ponting | Australia |
168 |
767 |
21.9% |
Steve Waugh | Australia |
168 |
767 |
21.9% |
Alec Stewart | England |
133 |
952 |
14.0% |
(Abhishek Mukherjee is the Deputy Editor and Cricket Historian at CricketCountry. He blogs here and can be followed on Twitter here.)