1952
Birth of the finest cricketer Pakistan has produced. Suave, erudite and monstrously talented, Imran Khan gave cricket on the subcontinent real sex appeal in the 1970s and 1980s. His averages (37 with the bat, 22 with the ball) put him at the top of the quartet of allrounders (Ian Botham, Richard Hadlee and Kapil Dev being the others) who dominated Test cricket in the 1980s. And whereas Botham declined steadily, Imran just got better and better: in his last ten years of international cricket he played 51 Tests, averaging a sensational 50 with the bat and 19 with the ball. He gave no quarter during some memorable battles with West Indies - Pakistan drew three series with them at a time when everybody else was being bounced out of sight - and he led Pakistan to their first series victory in England in 1987, taking 10 for 77 with an imperious display in the decisive victory at Headingley. But Imran's crowning glory came in 1992, when he rallied his cornered tigers from the brink of elimination to a spectacular World Cup victory. After retirement he remained a high-profile figure, with his marriage to the socialite Jemima Goldsmith and a move into the labyrinthine world of Pakistan politics.

1990
Australia reopened old English wounds with a crushing ten-wicket, three-day victory over England in the first Test at Brisbane. England were well in the game for two days, having grabbed a first-innings lead of 42 thanks to a blistering fielding display, but they fell apart on the third. Allan Lamb, captain in place of the injured Graham Gooch, set the tone when he was out in Terry Alderman's first over of the day, and it later emerged that he and David Gower had spent the previous night with Kerry Packer at a casino. Lamb was heavily criticised, particularly when Geoff Marsh and Mark Taylor defied all that had gone before (30 wickets for 460) to knock off 157 for 0 to win in 46 overs.

On the same day, West Indies squared the series with a seven-wicket win over Pakistan in a frisky second Test at Faisalabad that lasted precisely 180 overs. At 127 for 3 in the second innings (a lead of 102) Pakistan were going well, but then Malcom Marshall (4.2-0-24-4) cleaned up the tail and Richie Richardson decided that attacking a potentially tricky target of 130 was the best approach. He flashed an unbeaten 86-ball 70 after West Indies had slipped to 34 for 3. It was a match to forget for the debutant Saeed Anwar, who bagged a pair and didn't get another chance for three years.

1909
Birth of Manny Martindale, the impish West Indian hitman who was only 5ft 8ins tall but who was able to generate genuine pace, and took 37 wickets at an average of 21 in his ten Tests. He and Learie Constantine were the first top-quality West Indian quicks, and in 1933 they caused a minor outrage when they treated England to a taste of their own Bodyline medicine, peppering them with short stuff in the second Test at Old Trafford. Martindale even split Wally Hammond's chin, and though he only bowled in three innings in that series he took 14 wickets. He also played for Burnley for many years in the Lancashire League. He died in Barbados in 1972.

2000
Humiliating stuff for West Indies, who were routinely hammered by Australia in the first Test at Brisbane. They mustered just 82 and 124 - only Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who made 62 not out in the second innings, managed a score of more than 20 - and were well beaten by an innings and 126 runs. Glenn McGrath returned the astonishing match figures of 33-21-27-10 (including his bunny Brian Lara twice), the second-cheapest ten-wicket haul in Test history. After the game he said he hadn't bowled that well. He hadn't needed to.

1986
A cracking Pakistan-West Indies series came to a tense conclusion in the third Test at Karachi, where Pakistan's eighth-wicket pair of Imran Khan and Tauseef Ahmed resisted grimly for 90 minutes before the umpires called off play with nine overs left. Pakistan needed 213 to win another tense scrap, but when bad light intervened they were struggling at 125 for 7. Earlier Desmond Haynes, who batted almost seven hours for his 88, became the third West Indian to carry his bat through a completed Test innings, after Frank Worrell and Conrad Hunte. Unusually, no centuries were scored in the series, only the second such instance in a three-match rubber since 1888.

Other birthdays
1886 Percy Holmes (England)
1915 Ron Hamence (Australia)
1949 Kerry O'Keeffe (Australia)
1976 Javed Omar (Bangladesh)

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