Australia might have lost a few of their ageing stars after last summer but as Greg Baum discovers in the Age, some cricketers have a good 50 years left in them by the time they reach their late 30s.

One Friday night in 1944, Brendan Lyons, captain of Xavier's first XI, was despairing of how to bowl to Scotch's schoolboy prodigy and future Test opener Colin McDonald. In the study hall that night, Lyons "surreptitiously" read a coaching manual in which Don Bradman advised that a fast bowler should sometimes surprise by delivering from a yard behind the stumps. First over next morning, the emboldened Lyons clean bowled McDonald. Doubtless, Lyons' arm is not as high now. Nonetheless, there he was yesterday at Royal Park, bowling a couple of presentable overs into the teeth of a howling northerly and glaring at a batsman who pulled him disrespectfully for four. Lyons, 80, was the most senior of the "world's oldest XI" — average age 75.5, birth certificates provided — which played the "world's oldest second XI", all over 70. These were men who look upon age as a sundry.