Cricket Tour Sightseeing Trivia Quiz

Answer: tennis

Ash Barty was a high-achieving tennis player from a young age, winning the Wimbledon Girls Singles title (for players aged between 14 and 18) at the age of 15. The following year she competed in the adult competition. At the age of 18, after a year of more success in doubles than in singles, she announced that she was taking a break from competitive tennis, because she wasn't enjoying it. That was when she took up the game of cricket, which she had at that time only played as a backyard game.

Although she only played semi-professional cricket for about a year, she showed an ability to transfer her eye-hand skills to the new game, and found the team elements of it very attractive. After playing for her local club, Western Suburbs (of Brisbane) and being the team's top scorer in the match that won the league grand final, she was recruited to play for the Brisbane Heat in the first season of the WBBL, and scored 39 runs off 27 balls in her first match. (For those who don't know cricket, that is very impressive!)

At the end of the WBBL season she announced that she was returning to tennis, refreshed and eager to play. And play she did, reaching the Number One ranking in 2019, only the second Australian woman after Yvonne Goolagong Cawley to do so. She held that spot on and off until her retirement in March of 2022, while ranked at the top, announcing that she no longer had the drive for competition at the highest level. She has maintained a close connection to the sport, mentoring young players, especially Aboriginal girls.

Answer: Bengal tiger

I know the image isn't what you expect to see, but it is a leucistic Bengal tiger, Panther tigris tigris. Leucism is a lack of pheomelanin (which produces the typical orange colour of a Bengal tiger) in the coat. The stripes eliminate all the other options, which have spots.

Other official national symbols of Bangladesh include the dotara (musical instrument), ha-du-du (team sport, also called kabbadi), golden birdwing (butterfly), banyan fig (tree) and shapla or hairy water lily (flower).

Answer: Hinduism

The image shows a detail from a UNESCO World Heritage site, the Brihadishwara Temple to the Hindu god Shiva.

Hinduism is by far the largest religion practised by Indians, with around 80% of the population. Second is Islam, with around 15% of the population. Because India's population is so large (just under 1.5 billion in May of 2023), this means that there are more Muslims living in India than in any other country except for Indonesia and Pakistan - over a tenth of all Muslims in the world are in India. This seems surprising, given that the split of the Indian Raj into the modern countries of India, Pakistan and East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) was made on the basis of religion, to establish the two Pakistans as Muslim countries, and India as a Hindu country!

Answer: United Kingdom

The image shows an adaptation of the Royal Banner of England, showing the three lions which are worn on the batting helmets of the English cricket team. The Sri Lankan cricket team is known as the Lions.

Sri Lanka, conveniently located in the Indian Ocean on the route from Europe to the East Indies, came under control in part or in whole by several European countries. Portugal established a fort near Colombo in 1517. Following a lengthy period of skirmishes, Vimaladharmasuriya I moved the seat of his kingdom to a more secure location in Kandy in 1592, allowing the Portuguese virtually complete control of the coastal regions.

In 1638 the king signed a treaty with the Dutch East India Company, so that their combined forces could force the Portuguese out. When this had been accomplished in 1656, the Dutch reneged on their agreement, and did not abandon the lands they had taken from the Portuguese.

In 1796 the British took control of the coast, to prevent the French troops of Napoleon from occupying the island they renamed Ceylon. In 1815 the British occupied Kandy, and the Kandyan Convention gave them control of the whole island. In 1944 Ceylon was granted dominion, rather than colonial, status, with full independence to be established by 1948.

Answer: Pakistan

Of the options, only Pakistan is a former part of the British Empire, and a country where cricket is played with great passion.

The Khyber Pass is in the northwest of the country, on the border with Afghanistan. It runs through the White Mountains, providing the main link between the Indian subcontinent and the nations in central Asia. This made it of both commercial and military importance. From a commercial perspective, it gave access to and from India, allowing transport of trade goods in both directions. From a military point of view, it was a vital defense position, as the narrow pass flanked by steep cliffs slowed down the progress of troops. If you expand the image, you can see the fortress of Alimusjid perched on a promontory.

Answer: Pashtuns

Afghanistan is one of the newest nations to become a full member of the ICC, in 2017, but they have a cricketing tradition extending back to the middle of the 19th century, when British troops played cricket in Kabul. Real cricket interest, however, came about when Afghan refugees in Pakistan became fans of the game, and brought it back to Afghanistan when they returned in the 1990s.

Historically, the term Afghan was used to refer specifically to the ethnic group of Pashtuns, or (especially for those who live in India) Pathans. They are an East Iranian group, now living mostly in Afghanistan, India and Pakistan - the region shown in green on the map. Their primary language is Pashto; those who live in Pakistan also use Urdu, the Indians Hindu, and those in Afghanistan Dari. More Pashtuns now live in Pakistan and India than in Afghanistan - the largest group of Pashtuns are residents of Karachi.

From about the 3rd century CE until the 18th century, the group were called Afghans, a name indicating a connection with horses. Depending on your linguist, it may be breeders of horses or it may be riders of horses, especially in combat. Then the word Afghan started to be applied to all the residents of the area, and the term 'Afghanistan' to describe the country first appeared in 1855.

Answer: Zambia

One of the world's largest waterfalls (with a width of around 1700 metres, a bit more than a mile, and a maximum fall of over 100 metres), Victoria Falls was given that name by the Scottish missionary David Livingstone in 1855. In Lozi, one of the Bantu languages of the region, it is called Mosi-oa-Tunya. This name, which translates into English as Thundering Smoke, conveys something of the sight and sound of the fall. So does its Tonga name, Shungu Namutitima, which translates as Boiling Water.

Livingstone recorded that the locals at that time called them Seongo or Chongwe, both of which mean The Place of the Rainbow, because the high spray from the fall of over 100m creates rainbows. The height of the spray usually reaches 400m (about a quarter of a mile), and in high flow double that. It can be seen from a distance of 50 km (30 miles).

Answer: Protea

More precisely, the national flower is the king protea (Protea cynaroides), one of over 1500 species of the genus. It is also called the king sugarbush because its nectar is very sweet, and attracts a wide range of birds and bees. The genus Protea is so called because the various members have a lot of different forms.

The king protea, for example, has at least 80 recognised varieties, with a range of flower colours and shapes. But one thing they have in common is that the flowers are large - the largest of all proteas, with a span of up to 30 cm (12 in).

Answer: Angles

Freidrich Engels, who coauthored 'The Communist Manifesto' with Karl Marx, was German, but lived well after England had acquired its name.

What follows is a potted history intended to explain the connection between Angles and England. It is far from thorough!

The Angles were a tribe belonging to the Ingaevones, a group of Germanic people living along the North Sea coast of Germania. As well as the Angles (living on the southern part of Jutland and some of northern Germany), this group included the Jutes (on the northern part of Jutland), the Saxons, then the Friesians ranging westwards along the coast,

Somewhere around 500 CE the Angles and the Saxons invaded and settled in the eastern part of the island now known as Great Britain. The Angles took over in the region of East Anglia, while the Saxons settled further to the south. As the Angles gained in political power, their name became attached to their territory, and eventually came to be used in reference to the whole of England. In Old English their name was Ængle, which evolved into Engle, hence England.

Answer: Emerald Isle

Eire is the name that the British decreed, in 1938, would be used for the Irish Free State, established as a dominion of the British Empire in 1922. The Irish name was Éire, and the accentless spelling decreed by Great Britain is considered incorrect. Their constitution said that the name in English should be Republic of Ireland, and that is the name ultimately acknowledged in 1948. The rest of the island did not join them, and remains a separate country, Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom. In many sporting competitions, including cricket, both countries compete together as an all-Ireland team.

The nickname Emerald Isle fits in with the intensely green foliage of the island. The term was first used in print in a 1795 poem by William Drennan, 'When Erin First Rose'. Here is the relevant stanza of that poem:

'Alas! for poor Erin that some are still seen,
Who would dye the grass red from their hatred to green;
Yet, oh! when you're up, and they're down, let them live,
Then yield them that mercy which they would not give.
Arm of Erin, be strong! but be gentle as brave;
And uplifted to strike, be still ready to save;
Let no feeling of vengeance presume to defile
The cause of, or men of, the Emerald Isle.'

Answer: Cuba

Cuba was a Spanish colony, with little cricketing history - baseball is another matter!

The three incorrect options are the homes of three of the greatest Windies players. Clive Lloyd, who led the team to three victories in the ICC World Cup, is from Guyana; Garfield Sobers, widely considered one of the all-time great all-rounders of the game, hails from Barbados; Brian Lara, a prolific batter whose score of 400 not out in a Test against England made him the first player to reach that score, was born in Trinidad and Tobago.

The other former British colonies in the Windies are Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Overseas British Territories (i.e., currently still colonies) are Anguilla, British Virgin Islands and Montserrat; Cayman Islands and Turcs and Caicos Islands are former members of the Windies currently competing on their own. Sint Maarten is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and the US Virgin Islands are a Territory of the United States.

Answer: Pink and White Terraces

These terraces were formed by deposits from geothermal springs which deposited the chemicals they carried as the water cooled on the surface. The White Terraces (whose Maori name means Fountain of the Clouded Sky) were located at the northeast end of Lake Rotomahana, while the Pink Terraces (whose Maori name means Tattooed Rock) were near the south end of the western end of the lake. Their pink colour came from sulfides of antimony and arsenic in the water that formed them. European settlers were excited by their drama, and a number of photographers and painters visited the site to capture them. The image used for this quiz, one of the many paintings produced by Charles Blomfield, was painted in 1886, shortly before their demise. While the White Terraces were much larger than the Pink Terraces, it was the highest level of pools of the latter which were the most popular bathing spot.

On 10 June 1886 Mount Taramera erupted, in what was at the time the largest and deadliest explosion in over 500 years. A new rift valley was formed which ran through Lake Rotomahana, and the terraces disappeared from sight, presumed to have been destroyed during the catastrophic changes to the region. In 2011, New Zealand's Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences announced that they had rediscovered portions of the terraces about 60m underneath the surface of the lake, whose surface has risen during the eruption. The announcement about the Pink Terraces came first, followed (on the 125th anniversary of the eruption) by that regarding the White Terraces.