Stumped by a Test delay
QUESTION Pakistan cricketer Fawad Alam waited almost 11 years between international call-ups. Is this a record in any sport?
Fawad alam was picked in July 2009 to play Test cricket for Pakistan on a tour of Sri lanka. He didn’t play another Test until being recalled for this year’s series against England, a gap of ten years and 259 days.
However, he did play limited-overs cricket for the Pakistan national side in the interim, including appearances in 2014’s asia Cup.
The record for the longest hiatus between Test call-ups for a player in the same international side is held by George Gunn. He went on England’s 1911-12 tour of australia, but didn’t re-appear on the Test scene until the 1929-30 tour of west Indies, 17 years and 316 days after his last appearance in England’s colours.
This gap is exceeded by John Traicos, a Rhodesian who played for South africa in their 1969/70 series against australia. after this South africa was banned from Test cricket due to apartheid.
Traicos continued to play for Rhodesia, which was treated as a province of South africa for the purposes of their domestic competition, the Currie Cup.
after Rhodesia became Zimbabwe, Traicos represented their side in the 1983, 1987 and 1992 world Cups.
Zimbabwe were granted Test status in 1992, with Traicos playing in their first matches against India, a gap of 22 years and 222 days since he’d last graced the Test arena.
Tim Mickleburgh, Grimsby, Lincs.
FooTballER Ian Callaghan beats Fawad alam’s record with his 11 years and 49 days between caps for England.
Callaghan, who played a record 857 times for liverpool, won his first international cap in a friendly against Finland in 1966. His second cap came in the world Cup against France.
later in his career, Callaghan switched to midfield. In 1977, his swan-song season, he won the division one title and European Cup with liverpool. That year, Ron Greenwood picked the 35-year-old player twice more for England.
Dave Warner, Fleckney, Leics.
QUESTION Is there a scientific term to describe the habit of some animals to play dead? How common is this?
FakInG death to evade a predator is called Thanatosis, from the Greek term meaning put to death.
Scientists believe most cases are an automatic function, a state of motor inhibition known as tonic immobility (tonic in this sense refers to a continuous tension in the muscles).
This behaviour is most dramatically displayed by the Virginia opossum, hence the colloquialism playing possum, but it is common across the animal world.
In the vertebrate world, it has been widely recorded in mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians.
In invertebrates, it has been shown to occur in crustaceans, stick insects, spiders, butterflies, stoneflies, water scorpions, cicadas, crickets, mites, beetles, ladybirds, damselfly larvae, ants, bees and wasps.
Paul Finchley, St Andrews, Fife.
QUESTION Did the U.S. Navy strike a deal with the Mafia to protect the docks during World War II?
duRInG world war II, the u.S. office of naval Intelligence suspected Italian and German agents had infiltrated the new York docks and were planning sabotage.
matters came to a head on February 9, 1942, when the SS normandie, a famous French luxury cruise liner that was being converted into a troop transport, went up in flames. Rumours circulated that this was the work of nazi saboteurs, particularly in light of the arrest of 33 German agents in the duquesne spy ring a few months earlier. In fact, there is evidence it was an accident caused by sparks from a welder’s acetylene torch. Remarkably, the u.S. office of naval Intelligence’s response was to strike a protection deal with the new York mafia, who controlled much of the labour on the docks, in what was called operation underworld.
officers enlisted the help of Joseph ‘Socks’ lanza, the boss of the Fulton Fish market and a prominent racketeer for the Genovese crime family.
He agreed to supply union cards to agents operating undercover in the market and aboard coastal fishing fleets. naval Intelligence was concerned profascist sympathisers of Italian dictator benito mussolini were working as longshoremen and stevedores in new York.
lanza claimed the mafia’s co-operation could only be secured with the aid of the imprisoned kingpin Charles ‘lucky’ luciano. despite having spent six years of a 40-year sentence in jail for operating a prostitution ring, luciano still wielded absolute power on the docks.
with his mob accountant meyer lansky acting as an intermediary, luciano agreed to assist the government and ordered his capos to act as lookouts and report any suspicious activity. In return, he wanted his sentence to be reduced.
The mob also assisted in the allies’ 1943 amphibious invasion of Sicily by providing maps of the island’s harbours and photographs of its coastline. They were helped by the Sicilian mafia, who wished to see mussolini removed because he had tried to eradicate them.
luciano filed a petition for executive clemency on may 8, 1945 — the day world war II ended in Europe. Ironically, the man who had prosecuted him a decade earlier, new York Governor Thomas E. dewey, pardoned luciano in January 1946, though he revoked his u.S. citizenship and ordered his deportation to his native Italy.
The effectiveness of operation underworld has been questioned, but no other ships were set ablaze in the new York docks for the duration of world war II.
Jeremy Fowler, London N12.
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