Chains of players

Chains linking each country's first Test to its most recent (as at the end of 2014) i.e. the first named player appeared in the country's inaugural Test, each player in the chain appeared in at least one match alongside the next player, and the last played in its most recent match:

Australia (1877) - 10

JM Blackham - SE Gregory - C Kelleway - DG Bradman - RN Harvey - RB Simpson - GM Wood - SR Waugh - RT Ponting - MJ Clarke

England (1877) - 10

G Ulyett - WG Grace - W Rhodes - LEG Ames - DCS Compton - MC Cowdrey - JH Edrich - GA Gooch - AJ Stewart - JM Anderson

West Indies (1928) - 7

LN Constantine - GA Headley - CL Walcott - GS Sobers - CH Lloyd - DL Haynes - S Chanderpaul

New Zealand (1930) - 8

ML Page - J Cowie - B Sutcliffe - RO Collinge - RJ Hadlee - MD Crowe - CL Cairns - BB McCullum

India (1932) - 7

CK Nayudu - L Amarnath - VL Manjrekar - EAS Prasanna - Kapil Dev - SR Tendulkar - Virat Kohli

Pakistan (1952) - 4

Hanif Mohammad - Younis Ahmed - Wasim Akram - Taufeeq Umar

Sri Lanka (1982) - 2

A Ranatunga - DPMD Jayawardene

Zimbabwe (1992) - 2

GW Flower - Hamilton Masakadza

Bangladesh (2000) - 2

Mohammad Rafique - Shakib Al Hasan

No continuous chain exists for South Africa, since no-one played for them both before and after the apartheid ban. One chain of 8 connects their first Test (1889) with their last before the ban (1970), and another of 2 connects their first after readmission (1992) with their most recent:

FW Smith - JH Sinclair - AW Nourse - HW Taylor - B Mitchell - AD Nourse - DJ McGlew - PM Pollock

AA Donald - JH Kallis

Most of the chains are not unique; one or more other players could be substituted for some of those in the chain to give another of the same length, although certain players must be included in order to minimise the length. Some countries' chains are very close to needing one link fewer: Garry Sobers played his first Test later in the same series in which George Headley played his last, and although Chris Cairns made his debut before Richard Hadlee retired, they never played together - so in each case the chain requires one extra link to cover a relatively short time gap. On the other hand, some countries' chains fit together neatly, with minimal overlap between successive players' careers: WG Grace's last Test was Wilfred Rhodes's first, and between them they span 50 years.

Some players are the last of their 'era', so when they retire their country will need one more link in its chain: Chanderpaul, Sangakara and Jayawardene are all the last player still active to have played with the previous one in the chain. Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe are nearing that point: Rangana Herath also played with Ranatunga, so when either he or Jayawardene retires, the other will become the last of their 'era'. Australia have just reached this position: until Ponting's retirement they only required a chain of 9, but now they have no active player left who played alongside Steve Waugh, so an extra link is needed. For the time being the new link could be any of a number of players, and it remains to be seen which of them will keep the chain at that length for the longest - probably not Clarke, as his career overlapped Ponting's by several years and another player who made his debut shortly before Ponting retired is likely to play on longer.

Including players from different countries, the first Test can be linked to the present day by a chain of only eight players (thanks to Charles Davis for this one):

JM Blackham - SE Gregory - FE Woolley - FR Brown - TW Graveney - DL Underwood - A Ranatunga – KC Sangakara