Given their age difference, fathers and sons seldom play serious cricket for the same XI. When they do, they invariably include an ageing father or a very young son, often both. This list, thus, features some fathers with unusually long first-class careers.

This is not an exhaustive set, which is a rather long one. Nor does not it include fathers and sons who played on opposite sides (like Dave and Dudley Nourse; or Lala and Surinder Amarnath in a National Defence Fund match of 1963/64 that got first-class status).

1. Grace: WG, WG Jr, and CB

At 42 years 305 days, WG Grace had the third-longest first-class career of all time. So vast was the span that his sons, WG Jr and CB, played their last games before their father played his last. WG Jr, who died at only 30, played most of his 57 first-class games alongside his father. Younger brother CB played only four times – and his father featured in all four (and his brother in two).

2. Quaife: Willie and Bernard
3. Bestwick: Billy and Robert

There is a reason we are clubbing these pairs together. The Quaifes had a reasonable overlap in the 1920s for Warwickshire, while the Bestwicks played together twice for Derbyshire in 1922. History was created when the two counties met that year at Derby: the Bestwicks bowled in tandem during the 49-run fifth-wicket stand between the Bestwicks. It is the only known instance of a father and a son bowling at another such set in first-class cricket.

4. Constantine: Lebrun and Learie

In 1900, Lebrun Constantine became the first West Indian to score a hundred on English soil. His son Learie’s achievements transcended his stature as an early West Indian cricketing giant: a prominent voice against racism, he went on to become the first Black peer of the United Kingdom. They played together for Trinidad against Barbados in the final of the 1922/23 Inter-Colonial Tournament.

5. Gunn: George and George Jr

George Gunn was one of four cricketers to play Tests after their 50th birthday, so it was natural that he would feature on this list. Father and son overlapped for Nottinghamshire between 1928 and 1932. They created history against Warwickshire at Edgbaston in 1931 by becoming the first father-son duo to score hundreds in the same first-class innings.

6. Deodhar: DB and Sharad

One of only two players to have played first-class cricket before the First World War and after the Second, you expect Deodhar to feature on this list. His last first-class match – as captain of Maharashtra Past and Present against Rest of India – marked the debut for his son. In the first innings, they both fell to CK Nayudu...

7. Nayudu: CK and CN

... who, as the owner of the longest first-class career, is the next entry. Like WG Grace, CK Nayudu’s career transcended that of his sons CN and Prakash. While CK never played alongside Prakash, he and CN (and CK’s brother, Test cricketer CS) did feature in the same XI for Uttar Pradesh in the 1956/57 Ranji Trophy. CN and Prakash played together as well.

8. Morild: Carsten and Claus

Denmark had an exceptional run in the 1979 ICC Trophy, defeating Fiji, Malaysia, Canada, and Bangladesh to reach the semi-final. Had they not lost the semi-final to Sri Lanka, Denmark would have played in that year’s World Cup. Playing for them throughout the tournament was Carsten Morild – the star of their famous win against the Netherlands, in 1972 – and his son Claus.

9. Lashkari: Anil and Neil

The Morilds were the first father-and-son pair to play international cricket – but that record is a shared one: when Denmark were playing their 1979 ICC Trophy opener against Fiji, so were the USA and Israel. Anil Lashkari, who had played Ranji Trophy for Gujarat and even for representative Indian sides, led and opened batting for the USA in that edition, while his son Neil batted at one-down.

10. Fergusson: George and Alejandro

Tony Ferguson of Argentina was good enough to feature in the all-South America team that toured England in 1932. His son George and grandson Alejandro played for the country in the 1994 ICC Trophy. Now 47, Alejandro still represents Argentina and is almost certainly the only cricketer to have represented a nation for more than 31 years.

11. Streak: Denis and Heath

Test cricket came too late for Denis Streak, who nevertheless represented Zimbabwe at lawn bowls. Well past his prime at 46, he did turn up for Matabeleland alongside son Heath – later a Zimbabwe Test captain – to defeat Mashonaland County Districts in the final to win the 1995/96 Logan Cup.

12. Chanderpaul: Shivnarine and Tagenarine

A specialist red-ball batter (he is yet to make his T20 debut), Tagenarine’s presence at the crease reminds old-timers of Shivnarine and has, like his father, a Test double ton (they are only the second pair, after Hanif and Shoaib Mohammad, to do this). Yet, he has been unable to establish himself in the Test XI. Father and son made news when they represented Guyana for 12 games in the 2010s.

13. Uala Taitoe Kaisala and Douglas Finau

Wicketkeeper Kaisala and seam bowler Finau can be credited for the first father-and-son pair to play ICC-approved international games. Of Kaisala’s eight T20Is, five have been alongside Finau. Against Vanuatu in September 2022 at Port Vila, the pair even batted together.

14. Timor-Leste, Suhail Sattar and Yahya Suhail

When Timor-Leste played their first T20I, against Indonesia at Bali in November 2025, the XI featured the Suhail Sattar and his son Yahya. Both have featured in all eight T20Is for Timor-Leste till date. Apart from their respective debuts, they also batted together against Myanmar later that month.

15. Mohammad Nabi and Hassan Eisakhil

The Grand Old Man of Afghan Cricket, Nabi wants to play alongside his son for Afghanistan. During the 2026 BPL, he took a step towards that direction. Having played against Hassan in the past, he now played with his son for Noakhali Express against the Dhaka Capitals – a first in franchise cricket. The pair added a quick 59 for the fourth wicket.

In amateur men’s cricket

Beyond the world of professional cricket, father-son combinations are not a rarity: in fact, they can become the star attraction. Last week in Australian Grade Cricket, Jamie Cox played under his son Lachlan, while Australia U19 captain Oliver Peake played alongside his father Clinton, still the only cricketer to score a triple hundred in a Youth Test.

They were not the first instances. Towards the end of his career, Lance Cairns turned up for Counties against Northland in the 1988/89 Fergus Hickey Rosebowl. He took two wickets in each innings, but was comfortably outdone by son Chris, who got nine in the match.

In 1999/00, the touring Pakistanis played a 50-over tour game against the Australian Cricket Board Chairman’s XI. Adam Lillee finished with 3-29, but the showstopper was father Dennis, with 8-4-8-3 against a team of international cricketers. At fifty, he bounced out opener Ghulam Ali... caught by Adam, of course.

What about mothers?

The pioneers were Metty Fernandes and her daughter Naina Metty Saju, who played six T20Is together for Switzerland in 2025. In July 2025, Saju caught Estonia’s Beenish Wani off her mother’s bowling.

Still the only teenager to lead England in international cricket, Arran Brindle made it to the headlines again in May 2021, when she and her 12-year-old son Harry put on an unbroken 143 to help Ownby Trojans beat Nettleham by 10 wickets.

And finally, the umpires

There are three recorded instances of a father and a son standing in as on-field umpires: Tom Sewell and Tom Sewell Jr (Gentlemen v Players, The Oval 1863); Frank and Louis Tarrant (Southern Punjab v MCC, Amritsar 1933/34); and MG Vijayasarathi and MV Nagendra (Mysore v Andhra, Bangalore 1960/61).

And in an ODI in Nairobi in 2006, when Mashrafe Mortaza appealed for leg-before against Kenya’s Hitesh Modi, the umpire who raised the finger was Subhash, the batter’s father.