Rivalry and role models: the benefit of a cricketing brother

Known for their combative nature and fiercely competitive attitude, the pair honed their skills against each other in backyard games – featuring proper leather cricket balls – that Ian described as “more battleground than playground”. The older by almost five years, Ian would force his brother to play as England, while he represented their own nation. “Because of the imaginary Ashes Tests, I never looked upon Greg as a brother,” he would later say. “Where I was concerned, he was an opponent.”

Pitted against each other from a young age, the Waugh twins, Steve and Mark, responded by doing all they could to develop in different directions off the pitch. “Being competitive and being able to be seen as individuals drove a wedge between us that took years to remove,” Steve said soon after retirement, revealing: “We don’t talk to each other a lot.”

The history of fraternal cricketers is as old as the sport itself. From the Grace trio of WG, EM and Fred turning out for England against Australia in 1880, through Pakistan’s Mohammads, New Zealand’s Crowes and Zimbabwe’s Flowers, cricket is littered with instances of siblings excelling at the highest level. To those ranks might soon be added two young pairs who have flourished in the English domestic game this season, maintaining a closer bond than some of their Australian predecessors.

Batting together for the first time in professional cricket last week, Somerset duo James Rew, 21, and his 17-year-old younger brother Thomas shared a One-Day Cup match-winning century stand. Two days later they repeated the trick with a 95-run partnership to set up another victory. James is Somerset’s leading County Championship runscorer in a summer that has also seen him called into England’s Test squad, while Thomas last month hit England Under-19s’ fastest ever one-day century, with 131 off 89 balls against India.

A couple of hundred miles up the M5 and beyond, Rehan Ahmed, 21, and his brother Farhan, 17, have been making a similar dual impact. The elder sibling has 23 County Championship wickets to accompany topping Leicestershire’s runscoring charts, with Farhan steadily becoming a permanent fixture in Nottinghamshire’s red- and white-ball teams. The pair could follow up two T20 Blast meetings with one in the Hundred when Trent Rockets play Manchester Originals on Tuesday.

Part of the Somerset infrastructure for the best part of 25 years, director of cricket Andy Hurry has seen England’s fast-bowling twins Craig and Jamie Overton tread a path through the club’s ranks that the Rew brothers are now following.

“First and foremost, there’s a huge amount of respect for each other,” he says of how both sets of siblings have navigated familial rivalry and ­expectation to succeed in the county game. “But there’s also a huge competitive element as well. That’s helped to drive all of them to be the best they can possibly be.

“I think that’s the secret sauce in how they’ve pushed each other, celebrated each other’s success, but that success has driven them. It’s a healthy dynamic between both sets of brothers. I see a lot of sincere appreciation when the other one does well.”

Speaking last winter, Thomas Rew described his older brother as a “huge influence”, telling him directly: “I’ve learned a lot from watching you grow up so I think that has sort of crept into my game without really knowing it”.

Reminiscent of the Chappells’ ­garden cricket Tests, sport – not just the one they have ended up pursuing professionally – has played a key role. “We were very competitive when we were younger and still are,” said James. “There’s been some major tantrums on sporting pitches. Squash is where we get most competitive.”

The Ahmed brothers’ journey has benefited from remarkable foresight dictating the pair perfecting different skillsets and representing neighbouring counties. Farhan told ESPNCricinfo earlier this year: “Dad said, ‘Rehan’s going to be a leggie [leg-spinner] so you’re going to be the offie [off-spinner]. That’s how you’re going to play in the same [international] team in the future. I want you all to play together in the same team.’”

The Ahmeds are nothing if not precocious. Rehan remains England’s youngest male player capped across all three international formats; Farhan last year became the youngest player to feature for Nottinghamshire in the County Championship, taking 10 wickets. This summer he claimed his county’s first T20 Blast hat-trick.

Like Thomas Rew, Farhan has ­happily paid tribute to his older brother: “He’s already a role model that I’ll always look up to.”

At Gloucestershire, Jack and Matt Taylor, Tom and Ollie Price, and Ben and Luke Charlesworth take the club’s current brotherly tally to three. Across the rest of the English game are the Allison, Brookes, Clark, Curran, Currie, Parkinson, Root and Thomas siblings, all of whom have benefited from being cricketing brothers.

Even Greg Chappell begrudgingly recognised it, recently suggesting he and Ian “had our differences” – many of which played out in public throughout their careers – but that his older brother “has always been my hero”.

Photograph by Harry Trump/Getty Images