1993
A maiden Test century for Brian Lara turned into a crucial and commanding 277 at Sydney, the first of his six centuries against Australia, one of which - the matchwinning 153 in Barbados in 1998-99 - is No. 2 in the Wisden 100.

1941
Birth of Mansur Ali Khan, aka the Nawab of Pataudi junior. The Nawab of Pataudi senior had scored a Test century for England, but his son "Tiger" played exclusively for India, 40 times as captain, scoring 2793 runs and six centuries. Not bad for someone whose Test career didn't begin until a car crash had cost him the sight in one eye.

1971
In the first ever one-day international, at Melbourne, John Edrich was made Man of the Match for his top score of 82, but England's bowlers were too expensive to stop Australia winning by five wickets. The match was only played because the third Test had been washed out. To the astonishment of the ACB, 46,000 turned up - it was then they realised that this one-day malarkey might be a good, money-spinning idea.

1904
England won by 185 runs at Melbourne thanks to the slow left-arm of Wilfred Rhodes, which took 7 for 56 and 8 for 68. Those 15 wickets might have been a really serious total if he hadn't had eight catches dropped off his bowling!

1928
One of Pakistan's early stalwarts was born. Wicketkeeper, batsman and captain, Imtiaz Ahmed played in 41 Tests from 1952-53 to 1962, making 93 dismissals, including seven catches, all off Fazal Mahmood, in Pakistan's first Test win against England, at The Oval in 1954. The highest of his three Test centuries was 209 against New Zealand at Lahore in 1955-56.

1937
You can't keep Don Bradman off these pages. Here at Melbourne he shared another huge stand against England, adding 346 with Jack Fingleton, still any country's record for the sixth wicket. The Don's innings of 270 is right at the top of the Wisden 100.

1962
Birth of Brendon Kuruppu, who set two Test records that still stand while making his debut for Sri Lanka, against New Zealand at the Colombo Cricket Club. His 201 is the highest not-out score by a batsman playing in his first Test, let alone his first Test innings - and it's still the slowest Test double ton of all time: 777, which must be some kind of devil's number, is three minutes short of 13 hours. He kept wicket too, so he had his pads on for the entire match.

1984
In his final Test innings, against Pakistan at Sydney, Greg Chappell signed off a great career with an innings of 182. Against West Indies eight years earlier, he'd made the same score on the same ground on the same day.

1941
Birth of the man described by John Warr as "neither one thing nor the other". Bob Cunis, an honest seamer and lower-order scrapper, played 20 Tests for New Zealand between 1964 and 1972 with limited success. He made only one fifty and took only one five-for, the latter against England at Auckland in 1970-71, when he bowled Alan Knott four runs short of a second hundred in the match. Cunis went on to coach New Zealand for a time, and in his playing days was also a very handy rugby three-quarter.

1992
Ravi Shastri hit 206 for India at Sydney before becoming Shane Warne's first Test victim.

1996
After being called for throwing in a Test match (see 26 December), Muttiah Muralitharan had to suffer the same humiliation in a one-day international, against West Indies at Brisbane.

Other birthdays
1920 Mohammad Aslam (Pakistan)
1958 Ezra Moseley (West Indies)
1981 Marlon Samuels (West Indies)
1948 Parthasarthi Sharma (India)

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