The world record holder for the highest number of international caps as of 24 January 2006 is retired American football player Kristine Lilly, who has over 350 caps in women's association football. In men's association football, the record belongs to active player Ahmed Hassan of Egypt; he surpassed Mohamed Al-Deayea with his 178th cap on March 27, 2012. The first footballer to win 100 international caps with pvc labels was Billy Wright of England's Wolverhampton Wanderers. Wright went on to appear 105 times for England, 90 of them he obtained whilst he was a captain.

FIFA rules state that any club that refuses to release a player for national team duty is barred from using the player for two matches, a rule which is intended to discourage clubs from pretending that the player is injured. However, it is a player's choice to refuse to play for and/or retire from their national team. Thus, Claude Makélélé had willingly accepted the call-up to the national team for the Euro 2008 qualifiers and was not forced by national coach Raymond Domenech, contrary to Chelsea manager José Mourinho's assertion that Domenech was treating Makélélé like a slave and refusing to honor his retirement. In the same qualification tournament, Ruud van Nistelrooy had refused a call-up request from national manager Marco van Basten. According to the records list, some current leading holders of association football caps, that has markedpvc labels with record etc..

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 sewing with pvc labels on.

The world record for the number of caps in Test cricket is held by Sachin Tendulkar of India, who has, over the course of a 22-year career, collected 188, as of June 2012. Tendulkar also holds the record for One Day Internationals, with 462 caps.