Cap (sport) Totally Explained

Everything about Cap Sport totally explained

A cap is an appearance for a select team, such as a school, county or international team in sports. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap (meaning an item of headgear) to every player in an international match of Association Football; however, the act of awarding a cap is now international and is applied to other sports. The practice was first approved on May 10, 1886 for Association Football, after a proposal made by N. L. Jackson, founder of the Corinthians:

That all players taking part for England in future international matches be presented with a white silk cap with red rose embroidered on the front. These to be termed International Caps.

Today it might seem an unusual and perhaps even a bizarre practice to present a player with an actual cap but in the early days of football the concept of each team wearing a set of matching shirts hadn't been universally adopted, with the result that a team's players would often take the field in a variety of different coloured shirts, and each side would distinguish itself from the other by wearing a specific sort of cap or other headgear. An early illustration of the first international football match between England and Scotland in 1872 shows the Scottish players wearing cowls and the English wearing a variety of school caps.
Actual caps are not usually given any more (caps for friendly matches still exist, and each player gets one cap per international competition), but the term "cap" for an international or other appearance has been retained. Thus, a cap is awarded for each game played and so a player who has played x games, for the team, is said to have been capped x times or have won x caps.

Association football (soccer)

The world record holder for the highest number of international caps on January 24, 2006 is American Kristine Lilly, who has over 300 caps in women's association football. In men's association football, the record is held by Mohamed Al-Deayea from Saudi Arabia who has 181 caps. The first footballer to win 100 international caps was Billy Wright of Wolves and England. Wright went on to appear 105 times for England, 90 of them as captain.

Records

Some current leading holders of association football caps (Women as of October 21 2007, Men as of 17 August 2007) are:

Women

340 - Kristine Lilly, United States world record holder (300th set on 18 January 2006; current to October 21 2007)
275 - Mia Hamm, United States
271 - Julie Foudy, United States
239 - Joy Fawcett, United States
204 - Tiffeny Milbrett, United States
192 - Brandi Chastain, United States
192 - Fan Yunjie, China
191 - Li Jie, China
188 - Hege Riise, Norway
182 - Zhao Lihong, China
176 - Christie Rampone, United States
175 - Shannon MacMillan, United States
173 - Liu Ailing, China
171 - Bente Nordby, Norway
171 - Birgit Prinz, Germany
169 - Kerstin Stegemann, Germany
168 - Kate Markgraf, United States
168 - Carla Overbeck, United States
167 - Briana Scurry, United States
166 - Sun Wen, China

The United States has had the most women with 100 or more caps, with twenty to date.

Men

181 - Mohamed Al-Deayea, Saudi Arabia world record holder (set on 11 May 2006)

178 - Claudio Suárez, Mexico

170 - Hossam Hassan, Egypt

164 - Cobi Jones, United States

164 - Adnan Al Talyani, United Arab Emirates

163 - Sami Al Jaber, Saudi Arabia

156 - Martin Reim, Estonia

150 - Lothar Matthäus, Germany

149 - Ali Daei, Iran

143 - Mohammed Al-Khilaiwi, Saudi Arabia

143 - Marko Kristal, Estonia

143 - Iván Hurtado, Ecuador

143 - Thomas Ravelli, Sweden

142 - Cafu, Brazil The United States has had the most men with 100 or more caps, with ten to date; Landon Donovan is virtually certain to become the 11th, as he's 99 caps as of April 25 2008.

Cricket

In cricket, there are two types of caps. Firstly, there's the international type, as described above. Some countries also award a domestic type generally known as a "county cap". The latter system is most commonly applied in English county cricket. Most counties don't automatically award caps to players on their first appearance; instead, they've to be "earned" through good performances. Indeed, one can play at the highest domestic level for several years, and have a quite significant career in first-class cricket, without ever winning a cap.

Records

The world record for the number of caps in Test cricket is held by the former Australian captain Steve Waugh who has 168. In One Day International cricket the current record holder is Sachin Tendulkar of India with 417.
See List of Test cricket records and List of ODI cricket records for further details.

Rugby league

In rugby league, this record is held by former New Zealand captain, Ruben Wiki, who has 55.

Rugby union

In rugby union, eight players have reached 100 or more international caps (totals as of 20 October 2007):

George Gregan, — 139

Jason Leonard, — 119 (114 for England, 5 for the British and Irish Lions)

Fabien Pelous, — 118

Philippe Sella, — 111

Gareth Thomas, — 103 (100 for Wales, 3 for the British and Irish Lions)

Stephen Larkham, — 102

David Campese, — 101

Alessandro Troncon, — 101Further Information

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