March 25
1868:
England all-rounder and pace bowler Bill Lockwood (12 Tests from 1893 to 1902; 231 runs and 43 wickets) was born.

1868:
England off-spinner Walter Mead (1 Test in 1899) was born.

1879:
England off-spinner Rockley Wilson (1 Test in 1921) was born.

1888:
England all-rounder Morice Bird (10 Tests from 1910 to 1914) was born.

1889:
At 23 years 144 days, MP "Monty" Bowden became the youngest player to led England in a Test match - against South Africa at Cape Town.

1889:
England opener Bobby Abel (120) at Cape Town scored the first ever first-class hundred on South African soil.

1944:
Australian pace bowler Ross Duncan (1 Test in 1971) was born.

1953:
Pakistani batsman Haroon Rashid (23 Test from 1977 to 1983; 1217 runs) was born.

1958:
Indian pace bowler Yograj Singh Bhundel (1 Test in 1981) was born.

1969:
Kiwi left-arm spinner Norman Gallichan (1 Test in 1937) died aged 62.

1971:
Indian off-spinner Aashish Kapoor (4 Tests from 1994 to 1996)

1973:
Pakistanis Majid Khan and Mushtaq Mohammad provided the first instance to two batsmen missing their respective hundreds by one run in Test history - against England at Karachi.

1977:
New Zealand leg-spinner Brooke Walker since 2000 was born.

1981:
Australian fast bowler Tim Wall (18 Tests from 1929 to 1934; 56 wickets) died aged 76.

1992:
Pakistan won the fifth edition of the World Cup by defeating England by 22 runs at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

26th March...
1849:
Australian pace bowler Ted Evans (6 Tests 1881 to 1886) was born.

1862:
South African batsman WHM "Dicky" Richards (1 Test in 1889) was born.

1874:
England all-rounder Jack Mason (5 Tests from 1897 to 1898) was born.

1889:
England's left-arm spin bowler Johnny Briggs takes 8-11 against South Africa at Cape Town to capture 15 wickets for 28 in a single day of a Test match.

1914:
Australian batsman Ray Robinson (1 Test in 1936) was born.

1916:
ngland all-rounder and batsman Bill Edrich (39 Tests from 1938 to 1955; 2440 runs and 41 wickets) was born.

1925:
Pakistani batsman Maqsood Ahmed (16 Tests from 1952 to 1955; 507 runs) was born in Amritsar, India.

1937:
England all-rounder and off-spinner Albert Relf (13 Tests from 1903 to 1914; 416 runs and 25 wickets) died aged 62 (suicide).

1950:
England's left-handed batsman Graham Barlow (3 Tests from 1976 to 1977) was born.

1958:
England's left-handed batsman Phil Mead (17 Tests from 1911 to 1928; 1185 runs) died aged 71.

1958:
West Indian opener Conrad Hunte was the first West Indies batsman to be out first ball of a Test match - by Pakistani Fazal Mahmood - at Port of Spain.

1959:
At 15 years 124 days, Pakistani Mushtaq Mohammad became the youngest player (until 1996) to appear in a Test match - against West Indies at Lahore.

1969:
Indian batsman Vikram Rathour (6 Tests from 1996 to 1997) was born.

1998:
Shane Warne (310 wickets) became the most prolific spin bowler in Test cricket (bettering West Indian off-spinner Lance Gibbs' tally of 309) - against India at Bangalore

27th March...
1859:
Australian all-rounder George Giffen (31 Tests from 1881 to 1896; 1238 runs and 103 wickets) was born.

1888:
South African batman George Hearne (3 Tests from 1922 to 1924) was born in England.

1891:
England all-rounder and off-spinner VWC Jupp (8 Tests from 1921 to 1928) was born. 1910:
England pace bowler Frank Smailes (1 Test in 1946) was born.

1933:
England batsman Lionel Palairet (2 Tests in 1902) died aged 62.

1947:
South African batsman Charlie Smith (3 Tests in 1902) died aged 74.

1951:
Kiwi leg-spinner Alex Moir became the second bowler in Test history to bowl two consecutive overs - the last before tea and the first afterwards - against England on the fourth day of the Wellington Test match.

1973:
England opener Dennis Amiss became the third batman to miss a hundred by one run in same Test match against Pakistan at Karachi after Majid Khan and Mushtaq Mohammad too missed theirs two days earlier.

1982:
Fast bowler Imran Khan takes 14-116 against Sri Lanka at Lahore - the best ever match figures by a Pakistani bowler in Tests.

2000:
Australia beat New Zealand by six wickets at Wellington - to set an Australian record of nine consecutive Test wins.

28th March...
1862:
Australian all-rounder Alfred Marr (1 Test in 1885) was born.

1891:
England keeper Dick Pilling (8 Tests from 1881 to 1888) died aged 35.

1915:
New Zealand all-rounder Raymond Emery (2 Tests in 1952) was born.

1926:
Indian captain and all-rounder Polly Umrigar (59 Tests from 1948 to 1962; 3631 runs and 35 wickets) was born.

1949:
Pakistani batsman Shafiq Ahmed (6 Tests from 1974 to 1980) was born.

1955:
New Zealand was dismissed for 26 runs in 106 minutes by England at Auckland for the lowest total in all Test cricket.

1956:
Sri Lankan Test umpire and leg-spinner Asoka De Silva (10 Tests from 1985 to 1991) was born.

1956:
Indian pace bowler T.A.Sekhar (2 Tests in 1983) was born.

1959:
West Indian leg-break bowler James Neblett (1 Test in 1935) died aged 57.

1962:
West Indian off-spinner Lance Gibbs takes eight Indian wickets for six runs in the final session of play on the last day at Bridgetown, as the home won by an innings and 30 runs. His final figures of 8-38, makes him the first bowler to take eight or more wickets in the Caribbean.

1968:
England captain and batsman Nasser Hussain since 1990 was born in Madras.

1973:
Zimbabwe off-spinner Andrew Whittall (10 Tests from 1996 to 1999) was born.

1975:
Banned for life Pakistani pace bowler Ata-ur-Rehman (13 Tests from 1992 to 1996) was born.

1998:
Australia gained a consolation win by eight wickets, its first in India since 1970 - at Bangalore.

2000:
West Indian fast bowler Courtney Walsh claimed his 435th wicket against Zimbabwe at Kingston to become Test cricket's highest wicket-taker surpassing Indian Kapil Dev's 434 wickets.

29th March...
1871:
England batsman Tom Hayward (35 Tests from 1896 to 1909; 1999 runs) was born.

1905:
West Indian pace bowler Leslie Hylton (6 Tests from 1935 to 1939) was born.

1921:
Australian all-rounder Sam Loxton (12 Tests from 1948 to 1951; 554 runs and 8 wickets) was born.

1930:
Indian pace bowler GR Sunderam (2 Tests in 1955) was born.

1939:
Indian batsman Hanumant Singh (14 Tests from 1964 to 1969; 686 runs) was born.

1946:
New Zealand play Australia for the first time at Wellington and was dismissed for 42. This match was not granted Test status by the ICC until March 1948.

1949:
West Indian pace bowler Uton Dowe (4 Tests from 1971 to 1973) was born.

1951:
New Zealand captain and batsman Geoffrey Howarth (47 Tests from 1975 to 1985; 2531 runs) was born.

1959:
Fast bowler Wes Hall became the first West Indian bowler to take a Test hat-trick - against Pakistan at Lahore.

1978:
Indian leg-break bowler and all-rounder "Mamasaheb" Ghorpade (8 Tests from 1953 to 1959) died aged 47.

1979:
Australian opener Andrew Hilditch was given out "handled the ball" by default against Pakistan at Perth. The umpires were forced to give this decision when Hilditch (at the non-striker's end) had just retrieved a wayward return to hand over to the bowler, Sarfraz Nawaz who appealed.

1994:
Australian captain and left-handed batsman plays his last Test match after appearing in a record 156 Test matches and aggregating a another record of 11174 runs - against South Africa at Durban.

1995:
England's left-arm spinner Tony Lock (49 Tests from 1952 to 1968; 174 wickets) died in Perth, Australia, aged 65.

1998:
Fast bowler Allan Donald became the first South African to take 200 Test wickets - against Sri Lanka at Centurion.

30th March...
1906:
For the first time a team remained unchanged through-out a five match Test series when South Africa opted for the same team against England in the fifth and final Test at Cape Town.

1910:
Australian left-arm spin bowler "Chuck" Fleetwood-Smith (10 Tests from 1935 to 1938) was born.

1912:
New Zealand pace bowler Jack Cowie (9 Tests from 1937 to 1949; 45 wickets) was born.

1927:
Australian keeper-batsman Wally Grout (51 Tests from 1957 to 1966; 187 dismissals and 890 runs) was born.

1940:
England left-arm spin bowler Norman Gifford (15 Tests from 1964 to 1973; 33 wickets) was born.

1946:
Australia beat New Zealand easily by an innings and 103 runs at Wellington. The match ending at 3:35 on the second afternoon after 8 ½ hours of play. In the second innings New Zealand lost its last eight wickets for five runs.

1949:
Indian wicket-keeper "DD" Hindlekar (4 Tests from 1936 to 1946) died aged 40.

1954:
Test cricket's greatest all-rounder Sir Gary Sobers makes his debut against England at Kingston.

1978:
England's left-arm spinner George Paine (4 Tests in 1935) died aged 69.

1978:
England batsman Harold Gimblett (3 Tests from 1936 to 1939) died aged 63 (suicide).

1981:
New Zealand batsman Noel Harford (8 Tests from 1955 to 1958) died aged 50.

1998:
South African skipper Hansie Cronje (82 in 63 balls) scores a fifty in 31 balls - against Sri Lanka at Centurion. He hit off-spinner Muthiah Muralitharan for 4, 6, 6, 6 of successive balls.

1999:
West Indian captain Brain Lara (153 not out) hits his 20th boundary as the home team beat Australia by one wicket at Bridgetown.

31st March...
1871:
South African pace bowler CL "Boy" Johnson (1 Test in 1896) was born.

1900:
England all-rounder Lieutenant Frank Milligan (2 Tests in 1899) died aged 30 during the Boer War in Bechuanaland (now Botswana).

1906:
South African Bert Vogler (62 not out) became the first number 11 to score a sixty-plus in Tests - against England at Cape Town.

1923:
New Zealand's left-handed batsman Lawrie Miller (13 Tests from 1953 to 1958) was born.

1932:
South African pace bowler "Goofy" Lawrence (5 Tests in 1961-62; 28 wickets) was born.

1946:
Pakistani batsman Aftab Gul (6 Tests from 1969 to 1971) was born.

1955:
New Zealand batsman Robert (Bertie) Vance (4 Tests from 1988 to 1989) was born.

1955:
Australia beat the West Indies by nine wickets at Kingston, its first ever Test win in the Caribbean.

1958:
Pakistan completed its first win against the West Indies before lunch on the penultimate day at Port of Spain by an innings and 1 run.

1997:
Needing to score just 121 runs to win in two full days India was dismissed for 81 by the West Indies at Bridgetown to lose by 38 runs.

Compiled by
MOHANDAS MENON

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