Sibling Rivalry Not Just Confined To Home

Sibling Rivalry Not Just Confined To Home

- Isabelle Westbury

Many single children long for another sibling, to act as a playmate, a competitor, or simply someone else to shoulder the blame for any juvenile mishaps. If they are sporty, the need for A.N. Other only increases because they then become someone to bowl to, to hit at or, if they’re really useless, simply to collect the balls.

No wonder then the recent rise of siblings surfacing in both international and domestic cricket. Nineteen-year-old Sam Curran’s call-up last week into the England T20 squad, in place of a rested Joe Root (or court-bound Ben Stokes), means that he will join his brother, Tom, three years his senior, on international duty. After some impressive performances for Surrey over the last few years, many have predicted long international futures for the duo.

Less fresh-faced but also enjoying a period of favourable headlines are the Marsh brothers, Shaun and Mitchell, whose twin tons at the SCG earlier this year saw them become the fifth set of brothers to both score tons in the same innings. We’ve also seen one Overton twin claim his first Test scalp, with his brother no doubt likely to follow suit. Only last week as well, the phrase ‘Agar to Agar’ featured for the first time in the over-by-over coverage of professional cricket, as 20-year-old Wes, playing for the Adelaide Strikers, sent down a couple of deliveries to his older brother Ashton, now a mainstay of the Perth Scorchers.

Ashton, Tom, and Shaun are all fine cricketers, with Test caps, runs and wickets to their names, but all have started, and for Shaun endured, their careers with whispers abound that quietly, just quietly, their younger brothers might be a little bit better.