The former Indian allrounder MJ Gopalan died in Chennai on Sunday morning. Gopalan's death will now re-open the controversial chapter about his exact date of birth.

His school certificate had his date of birth as June 6,1909. The same is carried in all cricket publications the world over including Wisden Cricket Almanack and BCCI Statistical Annual.

However Gopalan's family members and he himself always maintained that he was born on June 6, 1906 and not on June 6, 1909. In that case, Gopalan's age at the time of death becomes 97 years 198 days and he becomes second oldest Test cricketer at the time of death.

94 or 97, Gopalan was the oldest surviving Test cricketer. This mantle has now been passed to Don Cleverley, who played two Tests for New Zealand.

Oldest Test cricketers at the time of death:

Age		Player	For	M	Debut	Last Played	Date Died
Years	Days
98	324	FA Mackinnon	Eng	1	02 Jan 1879	04 Jan 1879	27 Feb 1947
95	252	W Rhodes	Eng	58	01 Jun 1899	12 Apr 1930	08 Jul 1973
95	151	GL Weir	NZ	11	24 Jan 1930	17 Aug 1937	31 Oct 2003
94	251	SF Barnes	Eng	27	13 Dec 1901	18 Feb 1914	26 Dec 1967
94	198	MJ Gopalan	Ind	1	06 Jun 1909	08 Jan 1934	21 Dec 2003
94	82	J Newman	NZ	3	27 Feb 1932	03 Apr 1933	23 Sep 1996

Oldest Test cricketers still surviving:

Age		Player	For
Years	Days
93	363	DC Cleverley	NZ
93	3	EWT Tindill	NZ
92	358	JL Kerr	NZ
92	137	N Gordon	SA
91	143	WA Brown	Aus