1923
Bert Sutcliffe, who was born today, would be a banker for any alltime New Zealand XI. Along with the great Australian Neil Harvey, Sutcliffe was the finest left-hander of his generation, and played 42 Tests between 1946 and 1965 without ever being on the winning side. He had an outstanding tour of England in 1949, hitting four fifties and a maiden Test ton in seven innings, and was named one of Wisden's Cricketers of the Year in 1950. With his textbook style and cheery demeanour, Sutcliffe was a hugely popular figure. He also excelled in India, where he made three of his five Test hundreds (all three were unbeaten) and averaged 68. He died of cancer in 2001.

1928
Birth of a typical hard-as-nails Aussie. When Colin McDonald was plying his trade in the 1950s there was little protection for an opening batsman, but he gave no quarter to the likes of Fred Trueman and Wes Hall. He was adept against spin too, top-scoring in both innings of the famous match when Jim Laker took 19 wickets at Old Trafford in 1956 - McDonald made nearly half Australia's runs in that game. But generally he was more comfortable on home soil, where he averaged 47, as against 33 overseas. McDonald cracked consecutive centuries against England in 1958-59, and two years later hit a crucial 91 in his last Test on home soil as the Aussies squeezed past West Indies in a thrilling fifth Test at Melbourne.

1988
A match to forget for New Zealand, who were hammered by 172 runs in the first Test against India at Bangalore. With almost half their team struck down by a virus - at one point they had to field a record five substitutes, including a TV commentator (former captain Jeremy Coney) and a journalist - New Zealand were struggling from the moment Navjot Sidhu lashed 116 in his first Test innings for five years. On a wearing pitch the Indian spinners Arshad Ayub (who took the new ball) and Narendra Hirwani (who took his wicket-tally to 24 in his first two Tests) shared 16 wickets. There was some consolation for Richard Hadlee, though, who had Arun Lal caught in the slips with the first ball of his third over - it was his 374th wicket, moving him above Ian Botham, whose record he had equalled 318 days before, as the greatest wicket-taker in Test history at the time.

1905
Birth of the first man to make 99 on his Test debut. On the second day of the first Test against England at Trent Bridge in 1934, Australian Arthur Chipperfield lunched on 99 not out, and whatever he ate obviously went down the wrong way, because he was out to the third ball after the interval, caught behind off Ken Farnes. Only one other batsman has ever made 99 on Test debut, Robert Christiani of West Indies. Both of them did manage one three-figure innings later on - Chipperfield's came against South Africa at Durban in 1935-36. He died in Sydney in 1987

2000
A frustrating day for Craig White, who was out just seven runs short of a maiden century in the first Test between England and Pakistan at Lahore. White, showing an un-English willingness to hit the spinners over the top, had added a crucial 166 in a real chalk-and-cheese partnership with Graham Thorpe. Thorpe took self-denial to new extremes as he reached a century that included only one boundary, the fewest in Test history. England drew a game that Steve Waugh has since described as "the most boring Test I've ever seen", but after being tipped by most observers to be spinwashed 3-0, England weren't too bothered what he thought.

1986
Javed Miandad celebrated his 100th one-day international by making his 3000th run, but Pakistan were thumped by West Indies in the fourth one-dayer at Multan. In a match reduced to 44 overs West Indies made 202 for 5, and then their quick men blew Pakistan away for 113. The underrated Tony Gray (who in Tests and one-dayers took 66 international wickets at an average of 18.36) took 4 for 36, and Courtney Walsh accounted for Ramiz Raja and Ijaz Ahmed in a spell of 5-4-7-2. Pakistan were able to give West Indies a run for their money like no other side in the late '80s (they drew three consecutive series 1-1), but in one-day cricket there was only one winner: this defeat came in the middle of a Pakistan run of only four wins in 20 attempts against the Windies.

Other birthdays
1883 Harold Baumgartner (South Africa)
1956 Stanley de Silva (Sri Lanka)
1960 Mandy Yachad (South Africa)

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