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In the week that Theresa May became the oldest person to enter 10 Downing Street as Prime Minister since James Callaghan in 1976, the remarkable Misbah-ul-Haq became the oldest person to play in a Test match in England since Brian Close, oddly enough, in 1976.Close, who was 46 when he was asked to pad up against Michael Holding, Andy Roberts and Wayne Daniel, had, 27 years earlier, become Englands youngest ever Test player. Misbahs achievement, at 42 , was even more extraordinary. The first Test against England at Lords was the first he had ever played in that country. Indeed of his young and exciting team, only four - including the great Younis Khan and Mohammad Amir - had toured England before.It was after their last tour of England in 2010, and the spot- fixing scandal that besmirched their last Test appearance at Lords, that Misbah was brought in, as it were to clean out the Augean stables. He has been outstanding in every respect . It is naturally tempting to compare him with Imran Khan, the only other Pakistan captain capable of bringing disparate and willful talents together to form a conglomerate of something like greatness. But the real comparison is with one of history s outstanding captains, Frank Worrell, who led the West Indies to glory in the early 1960s. Both men had something special, something that fulfilled a need felt by a particular team, full of hugely talented individuals at a particular time. Both were essentially father figures - Imran never really managed that - and had an unchallengeable authority that did not need to be demonstrably seen to be followed.Misbahs century on his first appearance in a Test in England was a lustrous adornment to a special Lords day. Pakistan were not exactly in difficulty when he arrived but they should have been doing better. As so often, he showed the way. He is always an immensely sensible batsman but he is so much more than that. The way Englands change bowlers - on the day at least, Steven Finn and Moeen Ali - were dealt with was as clinical as it was elegant.The Lords Test will be remembered for many things apart from Misbahs century. It was one of those games whose bare result - a Pakistan win by 75 runs - tells very little about the intensity of the contest, particularly on the gripping final day. The performances of Yasir Shah and Chris Woakes were especially telling but if there is an abiding memory, it will be Misbahs celebratory press- ups on reaching his century. It has always been more or less assumed that he is the fittest man in the side - although in the field he is s beginning to show signs of what property lawyers call fair wear and tear. Be that as it may, his achievement was remarkable for a 42-year old.Andrew Miller, speaking on ESPNcricinfo, said it was a throwback to the days of Jack Hobbs. Hobbs famously completed a hundred first- class centuries after his 40th birthday. He was exceptional but not unusual. When he toured Australia for the fifth and last time in 1928-29 under Percy Chapman (aged 28) England won 4-1. Hobbs turned 46 on the tour, Phil Mead 41, Patsy Hendren and Ernest Tyldesley both 40.Even in relatively recent times forty-plus players have featured in England Test sides. Alec Stewart carried on till he was 40, just. Eddie Hemmings was 41 when Kapil Dev hit him for four successive sixes to save the follow-on at Lords in 1990. This was the game in which Graham Gooch made a triple century and another hundred; he too went on till he was well over 40.But for a player not from England to go on for so long is highly unusual. The historical reason for this is the professional structure of the English game. English players, operating in the county system, had careers that could last for decades. It was different in, say, Australia, where in Richie Benauds time even the best could not go on indefinitely. Great players like Alan Davidson and Neil Harvey left the game relatively early: Harvey, the last survivor of Don Bradmans 1948 Invincibles, made four Ashes tours of England but when he retired he was only 33. Bradman himself made four tours of England. He turned forty at the end of that 1948 tour.It was the same elsewhere. Even Worrell was only 38 when he made his third and final tour of England in 1963. Clive Lloyd, a comparable figure in some ways, turned 40 at the end of the triumphant tour of England in 1984. Of course overseas players who played in county cricket, like Lloyd, Viv Richards, Gordon Greenidge, Zaheer Abbas and Courtney Walsh, tended to have longer careers. But none of them, not Sachin Tendulkar or Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the old war horses of the modern era, played a Test in England after turning 40.Bert Sutcliffe, the classy New Zealand left hander, toured England in 1965 at the age of 41. It was not a success . He never really recovered from being hit on the head by a ball from Fred Trueman, himself hardly a stripling at 34.Commendable though Misbahs achievements are, it is difficult to see him as a trend-setter in respect of the age of Test cricketers. Its a different world. Misbah was a special man for a particular occasion, which he rose to in a way that no one could really have anticipated. We must take him for what he is - a magnificent aberration, and a rare and joyous combination of the ordinary and the extraordinary.Want to be featured on Inbox? Send your articles to us here, with Inbox in the subject line. Pascal Siakam Jersey .Y. -- Paul Byron and Matt Stajan scored as the Calgary Flames started a five-game road trip with a 2-1 overtime win over the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday afternoon. C.J. Miles Jersey . 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Perfectly promoted, perfectly poised There was a determined effort from administrators to give the Womens Big Bash League the best chance to build on the gains made in season one. First, they carved out an opening weekend free of interference from the mens international calendar. Then they threw as much of it as possible on live television for a chance to quickly capture hearts and minds. It worked a treat.The marquee game of the four shown on Network Tens main station was Sydney Thunder versus Melbourne Stars on Saturday prime time, which generated nearly 680,000 viewers across the country at its peak, with an average just over half that number. It also happened to be the match of the round.Generating back-page newspaper coverage in the process, with 6000 spectators coming through the gates at North Sydney Oval across the six-game carnival, the foundation for WBBL02 has been laid. The quality and evenness of the contests followed, each team finishing the opening flurry of fixtures with a win and a loss. It is a season perfectly poised.Big guns bring ammo… As with any domestic hit-out, much of the success hinges on performances of the biggest names from home and abroad, and they didnt miss out at the first time of asking.Caribbean crusher Deandra Dottins unbeaten 60 in 44 balls enabled the Brisbane Heat to rally from a parlous situation to chase down the Sydney Sixers, including a blow off Ellyse Perry that nearly ended up on the moon.In both clashes between Adelaide Strikers and Melbourne Renegades, Sophie Devine saved the formers innings with her blade at number six, the New Zealand international carrying on where she left off last season with two brisk hands of 43 and 41 not out.Perth Scorchers stacked batting came correct in their second fixture against Hobart Hurricanes, thanks to 48 from Kiwi captain Suzie Bates and a fine half-century from Australian opener Elyse Villani. Bajan sensation Hayley Matthews won the first of those rubbers for the Tasmanian side, racking up a brisk 48 at the top of the order after taking two wickets.To cap off the round it was Perrys turn, converting her consistently brilliant performances from the international arena to the WBBL with an unbeaten 45, squaring the ledger for her Sixers against the Heat.…but small arms can still win skirmishes Thats right, it wasnt all about the big-name players. Emerging sorts and new arrivals put themselves firrmly in the public eye, none more so than a Renegade with a new claim to all-rounder status.ddddddddddddSophie Molineuxs weekend got major real estate in both major Melbourne newspapers. First she bowled tidily with 0-24 before making 37 not out as her team collapsed around her chasing 117. The next day, annoyed at the loss, she grabbed the first four wickets in the rematch with Adelaide, ran out their star import Charlotte Edwards, then smashed 28 not out from 18 balls to ensure this target of 129 was run down without incident. Teammate and fellow Molly (Strano) had a decent weekend alongside, with 3 for 16 in the first game and 1 for 20 in the second, meaning the two Mollies share the top of the leagues wicket-taking table. Another level with them is Harmanpreet Kaur, hardly classifiable as emerging after her exploits with India, but a new face in this league.She delivered with immediate effect for Sydney Thunder, not just with four wickets in their second-game win over Melbourne Stars, but her brilliant batting. The target of 147 set by Stars in the first match was steep, especially from 87 for 4 with 32 balls remaining, but Kaur very nearly ran it down, her 47 from 28 including a couple of gorgeous sixes over cover. In the rematch, she belted a couple more sixes in a score of 30 not out to stroll past Melbournes 116.To infinity and beyond Thankfully this year has no more of the strange scheduling that saw teams sometimes playing twice in a day, but they are often playing back to back. Theyre also getting around the country, after visits to Drummoyne and Albury in this first few days.This coming weekend gets some more locations on the list. Adelaide Strikers and Sydney Thunder kick things off on Friday at Penrith, then back it up again on the Saturday. The other sides each start on Saturday, then rematch at the same venue on the Sunday: Perth Scorchers host Brisbane Heat at the WACA, Melbourne Stars host Sydney Sixers in the very south-east corner of their hometown down in Cranbourne, and Melbourne Renegades escort Hobart Hurricanes on a road trip to Bendigo, which will hopefully be a bonding experience and rite of passage in which both sets of players learn to put aside their differences and grow as people in the process. Directed by John Hughes. ' ' '