Cap (sport)

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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 Corinthians F.C.:

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.

The first football international, Scotland versus England with the players wearing caps
The first football international, Scotland versus England with the players wearing 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 had not 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 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.

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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.

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

See also: List of football (soccer) players with 100 or more caps#Women


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

See also: List of football (soccer) players with 100 or more caps#Men

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

In cricket, there are two types of caps. Firstly, there is 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 do not automatically award caps to players on their first appearance; instead, they have 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.

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 Sanath Jayasuriya of Sri Lanka with 402, followed by Sachin Tendulkar of India with 400.

See List of Test cricket records and List of ODI cricket records for further details.

In rugby league, this record is held by former New Zealand captain, Ruben Wiki, who has 50.

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

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cap_%28sport%29"
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