LONDON (Reuters) – The more Test matches an England cricketer plays the longer he is likely to live, a survey revealed yesterday.

But test captains should beware – being in charge does not necessarily extend their lifespan.

After trawling through old editions of the cricketing bible Wisden, Professor Paul Boyle found that cricketers who played more than 25 times for their country lived almost five years longer than those playing just a handful of Tests.

"The results suggest that both early life circumstances and success have a role to play in life expectancy," he said after the University of St. Andrews research was published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

"Basically if you are successful, you suffer less stress and feel positive about yourself which appears to have a beneficial effect," he concluded.

Boyle analysed the lifespan of 418 test match cricketers who were born between 1827 and 1941.

The records differentiated between "gentlemen amateurs" and "professional" players, helping to provide an indicator of how their social backgrounds affected them.

The amateur "gentlemen" from privileged backgrounds were found to have lived longer than professional players who came from working-class backgrounds.

His intriguing research showed that "gentlemen amateur" players lived on average to the age of 79.3 years while those who played only a sprinkling of tests lived to 75.0

Professional players who made many test appearances lived to an average of 76.6. Those playing in just a few tests lived to an average of 71.5 years.

Thirteen percent of the players had taken part in 25 or more Test matches.

A similar proportion had captained the England side at least once.

Although this might be considered the pinnacle of success, it had no impact on their longevity, Boyle found.

Image and self-belief clearly work wonders.

"Studies of inequality have shown that people who see themselves as better off than others around them tend to do better," he concluded.