January 11, FMS, University of Delhi

30 questions in the Prelims. Questions 1-10 are starred, which will be used

in case we have a tie. Questions 16-29 are visuals where you just

need to name the cricket related personality. +1 for every correct answer, there is no

negative marking though. 8 teams (2 from college/school) qualify for

the finals.

Nicknamed “Father”, Charles Marriott was a renowned googlybowler who, because of teaching duties at Dulwich College, only played for Kent in the summer holidays. He was almost 38 when picked to make his Test debut. He was a poor fielder though, and a genuine rabbit too- his career-best score being 21 and he averaged 4.40, taking more first-class wickets (711) than he scored runs (574), something that people credit the adversity for.

Issued on January 18, 1962, the world's first cricket stamp came from the Portuguese colony of Cape Verde, now an independent nation.

The first stamp to be released from a test playing nation happened a couple of months later though. Which country, whose name was inscribed in English, Urdu & Bengali on the same?

While Trevor Molony, who represented Surrey in three matches in 1921, did it to follow custom, people since have provided some interesting reasons for resorting to the same. Some of them are mentioned below:

Trinidadian cricketer Syed Mubarak Ali was no-balled 30 times for throwing in a match against Barbados in 1942

As rain threatened to end the match between Victoria and MCC in 1928–29, the MCC bowler Fred Barratt did it to allow Bill Woodfull to score a four to complete his hundred and Victoria to win.

Dilip Vengsarkar did it in the match between West Zone and England in 1984–85 when the latter delayed their declaration.

Similarly, when Lancashire batted on for too long against Oxford University at Oxford in 1990, Phil Gerrans, an Australian playing for Oxford, did the same.

Contrary to public perception, it was introduced in 1930 by Kent & Curwen. Believed to have immediately set a global trend, it was adopted by film stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood too such as Cary Grant, Errol Flynn, Laurence Olivier, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and C Aubrey Smith, all members of the famous “Hollywood Cricket Club”, thus taking it to newer highs.

In 2006, Mark Pettini scored the fastest FC hundred in just 24 minutes and 27 balls (not 24). It puts him level with Glen Chapple as the scorer of the equal-fastest hundred by balls faced, but Chapple's ton for Lancashire against Glamorgan at Old Trafford in 1993 took only 21 minutes. Murray Goodwin's equally farcical century for Sussex against Middlesex at Southgate in July 2006 took only 25 minutes, but 32 balls.

All these innings are however relegated to footnotes in the first-class records because of a particular reason. What precisely?

All these innings are relegated to footnotes in the first-class records because so-called "joke" bowling - non-bowlers sending down full-tosses and long-hops to give away cheap runs to set up a declaration - was being used at the time. In Pettini's case the bowlers were Leicestershire's opening batsman Darren Robinson, who returned figures of 4.4-0-117-0, and wicketkeeper Paul Nixon (5-0-69-0). Pettinifinished with 114 not out, all in boundaries (12 fours, 11 sixes), which is arguably another record.

The fastest authentic century in first-class cricket remains Percy Fender's 35-minute hundred for Surrey against Northamptonshire at Northampton in 1920, while the fastest-known by balls faced is David Hookes's 34-ball effort for South Australia against Victoria at Adelaide in 1982-83.

A Quiver Full of Arrows is a 1980 collection of twelve short stories by British writer and politician Jeffrey Archer.

One of the stories, titled “The Century” revolves around the protagonist, an unnamed Oxonian who has an ambition to succeed as a cricketer for Oxford and follow his famous father's footsteps.

The aforementioned character is in fact based on a real life cricketer, someone who Archer adored & looked up to throughout, who?

After Danielle Wyatt proposed Virat Kholiduring the T20 WC in 2014, another woman cricketer engaged in a fun Twitter war with her about the now Indian Test Captain, tweeting “Too late Don, he asked me last week!”.

Shown here exulting after taking a wicket, identify this England international.

This Guyana fast bowler missed the start of his first Test - against South Africa in Bridgetown in June 2010 -because he didn't know he was playing. After a late injury to NelonPascal (himself a late replacement for Darren Sammy), the lanky pace bowler was whistled up from the High Performance Centre a few miles away in Barbados. West Indies batted first, so he wasn't greatly missed.

He later bowled 13 expensive overs in the match, for the wicket of nightwatchman Paul Harris, and hasn't played again since.

Entry 1: 18.002: 09.503: 32.664: 52.50

Penultimate Entry: 101.39

“Dreadlock Holiday” is probably the most well-known pop song to mention cricket. 10cc's hit single reached number 1 in the UK in 1978. However, the song has only a tenuous connection with cricket, mentioning it in the chorus.

This particular bit though was immortalized decades later, what/how did the chorus go? What brought it back in to limelight?

We will start with the finals shortly!