Cricketers who play regularly for England tend to live longer than those who make only a few appearances, a study has shown.

Research by the University of St Andrews reveals that cricketers who represented their country more than 25 times lived on average almost five years longer than those who played only a handful of Test matches.

The findings underline the thesis that those who succeed in life, such as captains of industry or senior civil servants, tend to live longer than humble toilers.

Only the burden of captaincy appears to reverse the trend; the study shows that team leaders live no longer than their lower-ranked colleagues.

Scouring the vast statistical output over many years of Wisden, Paul Boyle, a specialist in population and health geography, was able to gauge the impact of differing social status and levels of sporting success on life expectancy.

Cricket’s history provides a model of the class system, with gentlemen (amateurs) rubbing shoulders with players (professionals of working-class origin) until the distinction was dropped in 1963. Gentlemen who played for England more than 25 times lived on average to the age of 79.3, while those who played only a few Tests lived to be 75. Similarly the highest-achieving players lived to the advanced age 76.6, while players whose Test appearances were limited died at the average age of 71.5.

Professor Boyle, of the University of St Andrews, looked at the records of 418 cricketers who played for England between 1877 — the date of the first Test match — and 1963. He excluded from the study the 69 cricketers who were still alive when he carried out the study by extracting the data from the 2005 edition of Wisden.

Writing in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, Professor Boyle says that the results confirm his expectations. Firstly, cricketers born in later eras tend to live longer than those born in the middle of the 19th century, while the gentlemen lived longer than players. The latter inequality between the classes persists to this day.

Professor Boyle also found that cricketers who had been particularly successful lived longer. “Players who represented England frequently survived longer than gentlemen who represented England less frequently,” writes Professor Boyle. In these cases, the success achieved in a significant Test career overcame the disadvantages of a lowly birth.

“We already know much about the relationship between occupational circumstances and mortality — those in lower social or occupational classes have shorter life expectancies,” said Professor Boyle, a psychologist. “And we also know that poorer circumstances in early life may also affect longevity. However, little research has considered the influence of being ‘successful’ within a particular occupation.

“The results suggest that both early life circumstances and success have a role to play in life expectancy.”

However, the analysis fails in one case to conform to the pattern demonstrated in key socio-economic analyses of health, such as the Whitehall Study carried out over many years by Michael Marmot, of University College London.

He found that top civil servants, who control their lives, live much longer than their underlings. Translated to the cricket field, this implies that England captains should live longer than the players they captained. But Boyle’s study found no evidence that the cricket captains lived any longer, on average, than other team members.

Even those who captained England more than ten times did not enjoy a longer life. The greatest cricketer of all, W. G. Grace, who combined the attributes of the gentleman with the acquisitiveness of the player, failed to conform to the rule.

Despite appearing for England in 22 Tests, and captaining the side 13 times, he died at 67, barely seven years after retiring from first-class cricket.

Players may have been discriminated against in the class-ridden era of cricket, but they had more success in the game. Of the annual Gentlemen v Players matches between 1806 and 1962, the players won 125, the gentlemen 68. The rest were drawn.

Final score

Sir Jack Hobbs, England’s best batsman in the early years of the 20th century, played 61 Test matches, and lived to be 81

Douglas Jardine, who captained England on the notorious “Bodyline” tour to Australia in 1932-33, died at the age of 58

Wilfred Rhodes, slow left-arm spin bowler and record wicket taker, who made his last appearance for England at the age of 52, lived to be 96

C.B. Fry, the definitive gentleman, played 26 Tests for England and lived to be 84

Len Hutton, England’s captain in the early 1950s, was a player rather than a gentleman. He died in 1990, aged 74

Source: Times Database

Explore Health

• Expert Advice

• Health Features

• Mental Health

• Alternative Medicine

• Child Health

• Health Club