1978
After defeats in the first two Tests against England, Australia gave a first Test cap to Allan Robert Border - and never regretted it. He made a second-innings duck here at Melbourne, but Australia, shorn of their Packer players, won the match, their only success in a difficult series. If Border's early Tests as captain were tough, so was he: he eventually made them into a force, laying the foundations for the successes of Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh. He also set Test records for most runs, catches and appearances. His run of 153 consecutive Tests looks way beyond anyone else for the foreseeable future.

1983
Australia's maligned captain in that 1978-79 series, Graeme Yallop, did better today, making his highest Test score, a formidable 268 against Pakistan at Melbourne.

1976
Birth of one of the few offspinners to make it go both ways. By the end of 2001, Saqlain Mushtaq had taken 151 Test wickets for Pakistan, two one-day hat-tricks against Zimbabwe (one in the 1999 World Cup) and helped Surrey to win the County Championship in 1999 and 2000. All this before he'd turned 25.

1960
An Australian cult figure was born. For details of David Boon's Test runs and hundreds, see 27 December. More importantly, he broke Rod Marsh's record by downing 53 cans of lager on the flight to England in 1989. Allegedly.

1994
At Melbourne, Australia grabbed a speedy 2-0 lead in the series as Shane Warne took the first hat-trick in an Ashes Test since 1903-04 - but the third victim was Devon Malcolm, so it doesn't really count.

1997
In the final of the Women's World Cup at Calcutta, tight bowling and a half-century by captain Belinda Clark helped Australia beat New Zealand by five wickets.

1983
Against a West Indies pace attack of Malcolm Marshall, Andy Roberts, Michael Holding and Winston Davis, Sunil Gavaskar scored an unbeaten 236 at Madras, which was rather surprisingly the highest Test score for India until VVS Laxman's 281 against Australia at Calcutta in 2000-01.

1972
The Test debut of another Australian legend, a contemporary of Border's - though not an occasion he wanted to remember. When he took 0 for 110 against Pakistan at Melbourne, no-one (apparently not even the man himself) knew that Jeff Thomson was carrying a broken toe. He wasn't picked again until an unsuspecting England arrived two years later, when his partnership with Dennis Lillee became the stuff of batsmen's nightmares. Max Walker, who made his debut in the same Pakistan match, gave them wholehearted support.

1949
One of India's best wicketkeepers was born. Sometimes bald, often smiling, Syed Kirmani had a subtle touch with the gloves: 38 of his 198 Test dismissals were stumpings. Good enough with the bat to score Test centuries against Australia and England, he was also the first keeper to make five dismissals in a World Cup match, against Zimbabwe at Leicester in 1983, before helping India to their surprise win over West Indies in the final.

1944
In contrast with AB and Thommo above, Rodney Redmond, who was born today, had a distinctly memorable first Test. Unfortunately it was also his last. After making 107 and 56 for New Zealand against Pakistan at Auckland in 1972-73, he couldn't get on with new contact lenses in England the following summer and faded out of contention.

Other birthdays

1960 Dave Gilbert (Australia)
1869 Bill Howell (Australia)

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