1957
Pakistan's greatest batsman is born. From the moment Javed Miandad caressed 163 in his first Test innings, against New Zealand at Lahore in 1976-77, his career was touched by genius. He is one of only two men (England's Herbert Sutcliffe is the other) to have a Test average that never dropped below 50. Miandad made 206 in his fourth Test innings, and five double-hundreds in all. The only blot on his copybook is a modest record against West Indies - an average of 29 from 16 Tests - but it was against them that he played perhaps his greatest innings, a matchwinning 116 in Guyana in 1987-78. There was always the suggestion that you had to knock over all three stumps to get Miandad out at home: he was lbw 15 times in overseas Tests before it happened even once in Pakistan, but he was comfortably one of the finest batsmen of his generation. Miandad, who also played in a record six World Cups, loved a scrap: most famously, he waved his bat threateningly at Dennis Lillee at Perth in 1983-84, and mimicked Indian wicketkeeper Kiran More's hyena-like appeal by jumping and shrieking during the World Cup match at Sydney in 1991-92.

1956
Graham Gooch's nemesis is born. Terry Alderman will always be remembered as the man who played Glenn McGrath to Gooch's Mike Atherton. He reduced Gooch's technique to rubble, particularly in 1989, when Gooch's form was so poor that he asked to be left out. In all he nailed Gooch seven times. Significantly, five were lbw - Gooch's weakness was to flail around his front pad early in his innings - and all seven were for scores of 20 or fewer, three of them ducks. Alderman, the definitive wicket-to-wicket bowler, was the perfect man to exploit such weakness. In two series in England, in 1981 and 1989 (he missed 1985 because of a rebel tour) he was devastating, though he never had it quite so good anywhere else. He took almost as many wickets in 12 Tests in England (83) than he did in 29 Tests elsewhere (87). Not surprisingly, therefore, Alderman was a success for Kent and Gloucestershire. His sister Denise also played cricket for Australia.

1939
Birth of the only man to be no-balled for throwing in a Lord's Test. South African paceman Geoff Griffin never recovered from being called no fewer than 11 times in the 1960 Test - he did not bowl again on tour, and never played another Test. It was a real rollercoaster ride: earlier in the match, only his second Test, he'd taken a hat-trick. It's still the only Test hat-trick by a South African, and still the only one at Lord's.

1973
A tense win for England in an extraordinary Test at Trent Bridge. Having been skittled for 97 in their first innings, New Zealand looked to have absolutely no chance of chasing 479 to win. But Bevan Congdon (176) and Vic Pollard (116) made a great fist of things, and at 402 for 5 a sensational result looked on. In the end England triumphed by just 38 runs. It sounds very like the events of Christchurch 2001-02, with one big difference. There, thanks to Nathan Astle's fireworks, the Kiwis' 451 was blazed in just 93 overs. Here, their 440 was a monumental 188-over affair.

1930
Birth of Jim Burke, the stalwart Australian opener of the 1950s. He played 24 Tests, but never really hit the heights of his debut, when he made 101 not out against England at Adelaide in 1950-51. Burke was a dashing No. 6 then, but was dropped and went down the Shastri route, returning as a scrapper of an opener. He was ensconced at No. 2 when he made a Test-best 189 against South Africa at Cape Town in 1957-58. Burke didn't bowl his offspinners often, which was probably a good thing - his action, described by Ian Peebles as "like a policeman applying his truncheon to a particularly short offender's head" - was extremely suspect. He was also the only man to escape the clutches of Jim Laker when Laker took 19 wickets in the Old Trafford Test of 1956 - Burke fell to Tony Lock in the first innings. He committed suicide in his native Sydney in 1979.

1935
Australia's youngest cricketer is born. Ian Craig made his first-class debut for New South Wales aged only 16 - and within a year he was fast-tracked into the Test side. He looked the part, making 53 and 47 on debut against South Africa at Melbourne in 1952-53. Five years later he was Australia's youngest captain too, but the Bradman comparisons wore him down. He played his last Test at 22, and his last first-class match at 26.

1983
A day Winston Davis of West Indies is unlikely to forget – he hurried Australia to defeat with 7 for 51 in a World Cup match at Headingley. They were, at the time, the best figures in one-day internationals. Better still, this was only his second ODI. It was a bit of a false dawn, though: it took Davis another 12 matches to take his next seven wickets.

1964
Birth of the Essex offspinner Peter Such, who had a storming Test debut but was soon rendered impotent like all other modern-day English finger-spinners. Such took 6 for 67 in his first Test innings, against Australia at Old Trafford in 1993, and added another five-for against them at Sydney almost six years later. He might have played more inbetween times, but only made 11 Test appearance in total, all against Australia and New Zealand. Such was also a magnificently inept batsman, who on his Test debut played Merv Hughes from close to square leg. His last Test innings, against New Zealand at Old Trafford in 1999, was a 72-minute duck. It brought him a standing ovation.

1959
Birth of the man who took the first one-day international hat-trick. Pakistani seamer Jalal-ud-Din only played eight one-dayers (despite a record of 14 wickets at an average of 15) and six Tests. He was playing only his second ODI when he wrote his name in the record books, when he got rid of Rod Marsh, Bruce Yardley and Geoff Lawson with successive deliveries at Hyderabad in 1982-83.

1990
Mike Atherton announced himself on the world stage with a maiden century in his third Test - a classical 151 against New Zealand in a rain-affected draw at Trent Bridge. At the age of 22, he was England's youngest century maker since David Gower, 12 years earlier.

Other birthdays

1948 Norbert Phillip (West Indies)
1961 Rod Latham (New Zealand)

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