Boy Wonders Trivia Quiz

Answer: Don Bradman

Don Bradman was born on August 27th 1908 and made his Test debut on November 30th 1928. He quickly became an integral member of the Australian team. His batting record is breathtaking: in Test cricket, he scored 29 centuries (in cricket, a century is a single batsman scoring 100+ runs in one innings) and averaged 99.94 runs between dismissals, with a top Test score of 334. Had he scored just four runs in his final innings, he would have averaged exactly 100 runs between dismissals across his entire Test career - an unprecedented achievement.

He finished his Test career in 1948, just days before his 40th birthday.

Answer: Sachin Tendulkar

Sachin Tendulkar made his Test debut at the tender age of just 16 in 1989. He went on to score 51 Test centuries and nearly 16,000 runs overall during a Test career that spanned 200 matches. The nickname "Little Master" stems from his height of 165 centimeters (5 feet 5 inches) combined with his batting prowess.

As well as his feats in Test cricket, he had a remarkable One Day International cricket career, scoring 18,426 runs in 463 matches.

Answer: Sir Garfield Sobers

Sir Garfield Sobers made his first class cricket debut at the age of 16 in 1953. His second first class game came nearly a year later. Despite his extremely limited cricket experience, he had shown his promise and his third first class match was his Test debut. During his Test debut, he scored 40 runs and took four wickets. It was a solid, if unspectacular, all-round performance that ensured Sobers soon became a regular fixture of the West Indies team. Sobers was knighted in 1975 for services to cricket.

The 1966 series between the West Indies and England was arguably Sobers' finest hour in Test cricket. Sobers played all 5 Tests, scoring 722 runs in 8 innings and taking 20 wickets as the West Indies defeated England 3 Tests to 1 (with one Test drawn).

Answer: Harbhajan Singh

Harbhajan Singh made his Test debut at 17 and became a successful spin bowler who regularly took wickets. However, his career also fluctuated for various reasons: he was in and out of the Test team due to other bowlers being favoured ahead of him and he was sanctioned several times for disciplinary issues. The "Turbanator" nickname is derived from a combination of the words "turban" (as a player, he was easily recognisable by the turban he always wore) and "terminator."

His notable hat trick (three wickets with three consecutive deliveries) came in the second Test against Australia during their tour of India in 2001. In Australia's first innings, Harbhajan took the wickets of Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist, and Shane Warne. He finished the Test with figures of 13 wickets for 196 runs as India won by 171 runs.

Answer: Daniel Vettori

Daniel Vettori was born in January 1979 and made his Test debut against England in February 1997. It was an inauspicious debut; he scored just five runs and took only two wickets as New Zealand were heavily defeated by an innings and 68 runs. It was, however, the beginning of a very successful career that saw Vettori take 362 wickets in 113 Tests. He also captained New Zealand on several occasions. Vettori was noted for wearing glasses when playing; most players in the modern era who require corrective lenses choose to wear contact lenses. He retired from Test cricket in 2014 and ended his international cricket career in March 2015.

The nickname "Harry Potter" comes from his uncanny resemblance to the fictional wizard Harry Potter.

Answer: Mohammad Amir

Mohammed Amir played his first Test against Sri Lanka in July 2009, taking six wickets and scoring 10 runs in two innings. His career, though, was put in serious jeopardy when he was first charged with, and then convicted of, spot fixing matches by deliberately bowling illegal deliveries at certain points in the match in return for payments from a betting syndicate. For his role in spot fixing, Amir was given a five-year ban from all cricket. The ban polarised former international players: some believed that the ban was too harsh for such a young player whilst others believed that Amir had understood the potential consequences of his actions and therefore a life ban was a more appropriate punishment. Having served the 5 year ban, Amir returned to international cricket in March 2015.

Two of the incorrect answers for this question, Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif, were also given bans for the same fixing scandal as Amir.

Answer: Hanif Mohammad

Hanif Mohammad was born in 1934 and made his Test debut at the age of 17 on October 16th 1952 against India. Despite a career spanning 17 years, Mohammad only played 55 Test matches, as he played during an era when Pakistan played very few Test matches.

His Test match triple century was scored in January 1958, in a match against the West Indies. He spent 970 minutes (16 hours!) at the crease, scoring 337 runs before being dismissed.

Answer: Waqar Younis

Waqar Younis made his Test debut against India in November 1989, in the same match that the legendary batsman Sachin Tendulkar made his Test debut. Younis became famous for the prodigious reverse swing he was able to extract out of his bowling. He took 373 wickets in 87 Tests between 1989 and 2003.

Younis' career was hit with snags: after the 1992 Pakistani tour to England, allegations of foul play were aimed against him as his style of bowling was unknown to them and they thought that he must have been tampering with the ball to achieve the results he did. Younis was quickly cleared of the tampering allegations and allowed to continue bowling without having to alter his bowling action. Interestingly, Younis' bowling style of extracting reverse swing from his bowling is now considered a highly prized ability in a fast bowler.

Burewala is the city in Vehari District, Punjab, where Younis was born.

Answer: Ricky Ponting

Ricky Ponting is widely regarded as one of the greatest batsman of all time. He was the third Australian player (after Allan Border and Steve Waugh) and seventh player overall to score 10,000 Test runs. In a career spanning 17 years Ponting scored a total of 13,378 runs at an average of 51.85, with 41 centuries.

The nickname "Punter" comes from Ponting's well known habit of placing bets, known as "punts" in Australia, on greyhound racing.

Answer: Muttiah Muralitharan

Muttiah Muralitharan was born in 1972 and made his debut for Sri Lanka on August 28th 1992. He quickly established a reputation as a tough spin bowler to face, with an unusual bowling action. This bowling action lead to Muralitharan being accused of throwing the ball many times during his career. He was never able to completely shake off these allegations, despite multiple biomechanical studies of his bowling action proving that it was not the same as the action the arm makes when someone throws a ball. Muralitharan's action was the result of a congenitally bent arm (a birth defect) hyper-extending when he bowled.

Muralitharan took 800 wickets in 133 Tests spanning from 1992-2010, including one with the final ever delivery of his Test career.