1870
Birth of one of Australia's finest captains. Joe Darling led them to victory in England in 1899 and 1902, and also at home in 1901-02. He was an inspiring leader - Australia lost only four of his 21 Tests as captain - and an outstanding left-hand bat. He was also the first left-hander to score a hundred in a Test (against England at Sydney in 1897-98) and two matches later, at Adelaide, was the first person to hit a six in a Test. At the time a six had to be hit out of the ground - hits over the boundary counted as five. Darling made all three of his Test hundreds against England in 1897-98, when he cracked 537 runs at 67 in a series that Australia won 4-1. He thus became the first person to score three hundreds in a Test series, as well as the first to make 500 runs in one. But his side surrendered the Ashes in 1905, after Darling lost all five tosses ...

... to England captain The Honourable Stanley Jackson, who was born on this same day. "Jacker" gave the ultimate display of leadership when England regained the Ashes in that 1905 series. Not only did he win those five tosses, but he topped both the batting and bowling averages for either side with 492 runs at 70.28 and 13 wickets at 15.46. He hammered an unbeaten 144 in the third Test at Headingley, and then made a crucial 113 in the series-clinching victory at Old Trafford. But Jackson was a true amateur - he never toured Australia because of business commitments - and he did not play Test cricket again. He was later Governor of Bengal. He was run over by a taxi in 1946, and died in London a year later.

1968
When he's hot he sizzles, but too often Andy Caddick, who was born in Christchurch of English parents on this day, is consumed by an exasperating listlessness. Caddick has everything a fast bowler could want in his locker: height, bounce, plentiful seam movement, late swing, and the devil needed to induce spectacular collapses - 5 for 7 as West Indies were routed for 54 at Lord's in 2000, four in an over two Tests later at Headingley, 3 for 4 in 13 balls and then 3 for 0 in five as he took 7 for 46 at Durban in 1999-2000, which made South Africa follow on for the first time in 74 matches. But the feeling persists that Caddick is a bully who gives but can't take. Against Pakistan at Old Trafford last in 2001 he was sledged into submission and then sulked after a calculated new-ball assault from Abdur Razzaq. His batting suffers from the same malaise - his delirious 40-ball 49 against Australia at Edgbaston the same year was preceded by 57 runs (and no double-figure scores) in 17 innings. Caddick is still seen in some quarters as an outsider, despite being half of England's best new-ball partnership for 20 years, and few people with 200 Test wickets have invited quite so much scepticism.

1958
The Test career of Tim Robinson, who was born today, was a strangely up-and-down affair. At his best Robinson looked the part: stately, serene and with a penchant for big hundreds (he made four in Tests, including a match-winning nine-hour 160 in only his second match, at Delhi in 1984-85). Robinson went to the West Indies in 1985-86 with a big reputation and an even bigger average (62.26 from 11 Tests) but his technique couldn't stand up to the fiercest scrutiny from Marshall, Garner, Patterson and friends. He made only 72 runs in nine innings and the England selectors showed their usual patience and loyalty, dropping him after the first Test of the following summer. At the top level Robinson never really recovered, though he played on for Nottinghamshire until he was in his forties. He has joined the first-class umpires' list in 2001.

1950
Birth of Bruce Laird, the doughty opener who made 21 appearances for Australia between 1979 and 1982. It is testament to "Stumpy's" consistency that he averaged 35 without making a century. The closest he came was in his first Test innings, when he made an impressive 92 against West Indies at Brisbane. In Australia, where he made nine of his 11 Test fifties and averaged 43, Laird was a formidable opponent, gritty and immovable. But overseas he often struggled, averaging only 24, and he was dropped for the last time after a disappointing tour of Pakistan in 1982-83, when Australia were thrashed 3-0.

1949
Birth of Basil "Shotgun" Williams, the Jamaican opener who was brought in to replace West Indies' World Series Cricket defectors and promptly blasted a century on debut. He followed up that even 100 against Australia in Guyana in 1977-78 with 87 in the next match in Trindad, and he also creamed 111 against India at Calcutta the following winter. Williams averaged a perfectly respectable 39 from seven Tests, but when the World Series gang returned, the presence of Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes meant that he did not get a sniff of another chance.

Other birthdays
1865 Albert Ward (England)
1883 Sivert Samuelson (South Africa)
1916 Esmond Kentish (West Indies)
1934 Peter Philpott (Australia)
1940 Javed Akhtar (Pakistan)
1976 Salim Elahi (Pakistan)

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