1962
Birth of the most prolific and durable bowler of all. Courtney Walsh started off doing the donkey work for more naturally gifted practitioners like Malcolm Marshall and Curtly Ambrose, but through skill, cunning and an unparalleled appetite for hard work he became the top man (his first 63 Tests yielded five five-fors, his last 69 brought a further 17) and the first bowler to take 500 Test wickets. His career has had so many highlights: sealing the famous one-run victory with a snorter to Craig McDermott at Adelaide in 1992-93; that frightening spell to Mike Atherton in Jamaica in 1993-94; almost single-handedly keeping West Indies' unbeaten run alive in India a year later in the absence of Curtly Ambrose; 13 for 55 at Wellington the same winter; his delirious celebration when he hoodwinked Graham Thorpe with a slower ball at Old Trafford in 2000 ... and the historic 500th wicket, Jacques Kallis trapped in front second ball in Trinidad in 2001. Walsh is also a thoroughly decent, hugely popular man who gave outstanding service to Gloucestershire between 1985 and 1998.

1976
A sumptuous display of strokeplay from Majid Khan illuminated the first day of the third Test between Pakistan and New Zealand at Karachi. He hammered a century off only 74 balls (equalling the fourth-fastest in Test history in terms of balls faced) to become only the fourth man to make a hundred before lunch on the first day of a Test, and the first non-Australian, after Victor Trumper, Charles Macartney and Don Bradman.

1994
Some fishy goings-on at Kanpur where West Indies beat India by 46 runs in the Wills World Series match. India's sixth-wicket pair of Manoj Prabhakar and Nayan Mongia came together with 63 needed off 54 balls - hardly on a par with scaling Everest - but they didn't even bother going for the runs. Only 16 came from those nine overs, and though Prabhakar completed an unbeaten century, he and Mongia were dropped for the rest of the tournament. Raman Subba Row, the match referee, docked India two points (it was suspected that they wanted to meet West Indies and not New Zealand in the final) but ICC annulled that decision. India did go on to play West Indies in the final, and duly hammered them by 72 runs.

1955
A marathon innings from Imtiaz Ahmed took the second Test away from New Zealand at Lahore. He took 680 minutes to compile 209, the first Test double-century by a wicketkeeper and also the first for Pakistan. With his side in trouble on 111 for 6, still 237 behind, Imtiaz added a Pakistan-record 308 for the seventh wicket with Waqar Hassan, who made 189. From there Pakistan were always in control, and they eventually squeezed home by four wickets to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series.

1963
Mike Veletta, who was born today, is unlikely to figure in any Australian cricket Hall of Fame, but he did play a pivotal role in their seminal 1987 World Cup win. In the final against England he slammed 45 off only 31 balls, an innings that was ultimately decisive as Australia squeezed home by only seven runs. Such chicanery was slightly out of character for Veletta, the man with eyes like Errol Flynn's. He was ordinarily a dogged opener for Western Australia, and in the 1986-87 Sheffield Shield final he took them to victory with a 762-minute 266, the longest first-class innings ever played in Australia. He also had three opening partnerships of over 300 with Geoff Marsh for WA, but at the top level Veletta never really cracked it. In eight Tests he got a number of starts, but failed to reach 50 and ended with an average of 18.

1987
England sealed their place in the semi-final of the World Cup with a routine victory over Sri Lanka. Roy Dias (80) powered Sri Lanka to 218 for 7, but the opening pair of Graham Gooch and Tim Robinson warded off any jitters with a partnership of 123, and an eight-wicket win was completed by Bill Athey and Mike Gatting with almost nine overs to spare. It was the fourth time in as many World Cups that England had reached the last four, but they failed to go all the way in any of them.

Other birthdays
1903 Len Hopwood (England)
1908 Peter Smith (England)

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