15th April...

1845:
Australia's first Test captain and batsman Dave Gregory (3 Tests from 1877 to 1879) was born.

1906:
South African pace bowler AJ 'Sandy' Bell (16 Tests from 1929 to 1935; 48 wickets) was born.

1924:
England keeper Jack Board (6 Tests from 1899 to 1906) died at sea, aged 57.

1926:
Australian batsman Frank Iredale (14 Tests from 1894 to 1899; 807 runs) died aged 58.

1936:
West Indian off-spinner Jack Noreiga (4 Tests in 1971; 17 wickets, including 9 in an innings) was born.

1958:
New Zealand all-rounder and off-spinner John Bracewell (41 Tests from 1980 to 1990; 1001 runs and 102 wickets) was born.

1963:
Indian all-rounder and swing bowler Manoj Prabhakar (39 Tests from 1984 to 1995; 1600 runs and 96 wickets) was born.

1963:
Pakistani all-rounder and pace bowler Manzoor Elahi (6 Tests from 1984 to 1995) was born.

1964:
Pakistani keeper Nadeem Abbasi (3 Tests in 1989) was born.

1986:
West Indian captain Viv Richards blast a hundred off just 56 balls and in 81 minutes against England at St John's - the quickest hundred in terms of least balls faced in Test cricket.

1990:
Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes put on a West Indian record partnership of 298 runs for the first wicket against England at St John's.

1993:
Australian fast bowler Harry "Bull" Alexander (1 Test in 1933) died aged 87.

16th April...

1871:
England's left-handed all-rounder John King (1 Test in 1909) was born.

1878:
England captain and batsman Reg Foster (8 Tests from 1903 to 1907; 602 runs) was born.

1890:
England pace bowler Fred Root (3 Tests in 1926) was born.

1916:
Australian captain and all-rounder Tom "Felix" Horan (15 Tests from 1877 to 1885; 471 runs and 11 wickets) died aged 62.

1940:
West Indian all-rounder and leg-spinner David Holford (24 Tests from 1966 to 1977; 768 runs and 51 wickets) was born.

1943:
Australian right arm leg-spinner John Watkins (1 Test in 1973) was born.

1958:
Indian left-arm slow bowler Raghuram Bhat (2 Tests in 1983) was born.

1963:
Pakistani captain and batsman Salim Malik (103 Tests from 1982 to 1999; 5768 runs, avg. 43.70) was born.

1981:
England leg-spinner Eric Hollies (13 Tests from 1935 to 1950; 44 wickets) died aged 68.

1988:
West Indian batsman Clifford Roach (16 Tests from 1928 to 1935; 952 runs) died aged 84.

1994:
Courtney Walsh became the first specialist bowler to captain West Indies in a Test match - against England at St John's. And also for the first time in 305 Test matches the West Indies team was without a player from Barbados.

1997:
Indian batsman G.Kishenchand (5 Tests from 1947 to 1952) died aged 72.

17th April...

1944:
England medium pacer Jack Hearne (12 Tests from 1892 to 1899; 49 wickets) died aged 76.

1946:
England all-rounder Jack Iddon (5 Tests in 1935) died in an automobile accident, aged 44.

1948:
South African captain and keeper-batsman Percy Sherwell (13 Tests from 1906 to 1911; 427 runs and 36 dismissals).

1961:
England fast bowler Norman Cowans (19 Tests from 1982 to 1985; 51 wickets) was born in Jamaica, in the Caribbean.

1968:
New Zealand's left-handed batsman Roger Twose (16 Tests from 1995 to 1999; 628 runs) was born.

1972:
Sri Lankan off-spinner Muthiah Muralitharan since 1992 with over 300 Test wickets was born.

1995:
South African all-rounder Anton Murray (10 Tests from 1952 to 1954) died aged 72.

18th April...

1858:
Australian left-arm pace bowler 'Paddy' McShane (3 Tests from 1885 to 1888) was born.

1867:
South African batsman Thomas Routledge (4 Tests from 1892 to 1896) was born in England.

1901:
England batsman Wilf Barber (2 Tests in 1935) was born.

1914:
Indian all-rounder and leg-spinner CS Nayudu (11 Tests from 1934 to 1952) was born.

1926:
England batsman Doug Insole (9 Tests from 1950 to 1957) was born.

1927:
Australian batsman Jimmy de Courcy (3 Tests in 1953) was born.

1944:
West Indian batsman Irvine Shillingford (4 Tests from 1977 to 1978) was born.

1955:
Australian off-spinner Don Blackie (3 Tests in 1928-29) died aged 73.

1958:
West Indian all-rounder and fast bowler Malcolm Marshall (81 Tests from 1978 to 1991; 1810 runs and 376 wickets) was born.

1962:
West Indies beat India by 123 runs at Kingston to win the series five-nil. India thus became the first team in Test history to lose all five matches in a series.

1963:
West Indian batsman and medium pacer Phil Simmons (26 Tests from 1988 to 1997; 1002 runs) was born.

1971:
Indian opener Sunil Gavaskar scores 220 after scoring 124 in the first innings of the Port of Spain Test match against West Indies. He becomes the second batsman in Test history (after Australian Doug Walters) to score a double and single hundred in each innings of a Test match.

1971:
Gavaskar took his aggregate in the series against West Indies to 774 runs (avg. 154.80) - still the maximum by any batsman in their debut series.

1978:
West Indies beat Australia by 198 runs at Port of Spain as off-spinner Derek Parry claimed five wickets for six runs in 24 balls. The visitor's last nine wickets fell for 52 runs!

1983:
South African captain and batsman Alan Melville (11 Tests from 1938 to 1949; 894 runs, avg. 52.59) died aged 72.

1992:
South Africa makes a return to the Test fold after 22 years - against the West Indies at Bridgetown. This was South Africa's first ever Test match against a non-white Test team.

1993:
West Indian opener Desmond Haynes (143 not out) - against Pakistan at Port of Spain - became the first batsman in Test history to carry his bat throughout a Test innings on three separate occasions.

1994:
West Indian Brian Lara makes 375 - against England at St John's - the highest ever individual Test score.

19th April...

1865:
England pace bowler Dick Pougher (1 Test in 1892) was born.

1873:
England pace bowler Syd Barnes (27 Tests from 1901 to 1914; 189 wickets, avg. 16.43) was born.

1885:
South African pace bowler Len Tuckett (1 Test in 1914) was born.

1933:
England umpire Harold "Dickie" Bird (66 Tests from 1973 to 1996, the most by an umpire) was born.

1939:
South African left-arm pace bowler Mike Macaulay (1 Test in 1965) was born.

1944:
Pakistani pace bowler Salim Altaf (21 Tests from 1967 to 1978; 46 wickets) was born.

1950:
Australian pace bowler Jeff Hammond (5 Tests in 1973) was born.

1964:
West Indian batsman Cyril Merry (2 Tests in 1933) died aged 53.

1966:
Australian pace bowler Paul Reiffel (35 Tests from 1992 to 1998; 104 wickets and 955 runs) was born.

1975:
Australian fast bowler Jason Gillespie since 1996, was born.

1977:
Wasim Bari - against West Indies at Kingston - became the first Pakistani wicket-keeper to take 100 dismissals.

1983:
For the first time in Test history the first 20 wickets that fell in a match were all 'catches' - at Bridgetown - India against the West Indies.

1987:
Sri Lankan Brendon Kuruppu scores an unbeaten 201* on Test debut against New Zealand at Colombo (CCC) - in 777 minutes - the slowest double hundred in Tests.

1992:
Andrew Hudson became the first South African debutant to score a hundred - against the West Indies at Bridgetown.

1996:
England batsman Norman Oldfield (1 Test in 1939, scored 80) died aged 84.

1996:
West Indies part-time left-arm spinner Jimmy Adams takes 5-17 in 9 overs against New Zealand at Bridgetown - his first five-wicket haul of his first-class career.

20th April...

1907:
Pakistani off-spinner Miran Bux (2 Tests in 1955) was born.

1912:
England batsman David Townsend (3 Tests in 1935) was born.

1918:
South African batsman Reginald Hands (1 Test in 1914) died aged 29 in France (World War I)

1930:
England batsman Alan Oakman (2 Tests in 1956) was born.

1954:
Australian batsan Peter Toohey (15 Tests from 1977 to 1979; 893 runs) was born.

1957:
England let-handed batsman Graeme Fowler (21 Tests from 1982 to 1985; 1307 runs) was born.

1972:
West Indian Gary Sobers became the first Test captain to win all five tosses in a series twice - against New Zealand at Port of Spain. Sobers was making his 85th consecutive Test appearance - then a Test record.

1972:
West Indian Alvin Kallicharran (101) scores his second successive Test hundred since debut - against New Zealand at Port of Spain.

1977:
Australian fast bowler Len Johnson (1 Test in 1948) died aged 58.

1977:
Pakistan (301) for the first time managed to score over 300 runs in fourth innings of a Test match - against West Indies at Kingston - but still lost the Test by 140 runs.

1982:
England batsman Andrew Sandham (14 Tests from 1921 to 1930; 879 runs) died aged 91.

1983:
West Indies needing just one run beat India by 10 wickets at Bridgetown, when India keeper Syed Kirmani's second delivery was called a no-ball.

1989:
West Indies beat India by 217 runs - the latter's first loss at Port of Spain in six Tests since 1962.

1995:
England captain and batsman RES 'Bob' Wyatt (40 Tests from 1927 to 1937; 1839 runs) died aged 93.

21th April...

1919:
West Indian captain and left-handed batsman and off-spinner John Goddard (27 Tests from 1948 to 1957; 859 runs and 33 wickets) was born.

1922:
England's left-handed all-rounder Allan Watkins (15 Tests from 1948 to 1952; 810 runs and 11 wickets) was born.

1934:
England all-rounder and off-spinner Martin Horton (2 Tests in 1959) was born.

1946:
Indian captain and off-spinner and now ICC umpire S Venkataraghavan (57 Tests from 1965 to 1983; 156 wickets).

1946:
South African pace bowler Robert Graham (2 Tests in 1899) died in England, aged 68.

1981:
England batsman Harry Lee (1 Test in 1931) died aged 90.

1987:
Richard Hadlee against Sri Lanka records his highest Test score of an unbeaten 151* at Colombo (CCC), which incidentally was the 100th Test hundred by a New Zealand batsman.

1996:
Indian (3 Tests in 1946) and Pakistani captain and all-rounder (3 Tests from 1952 to 1958; 847runs and 21wickets) Abdul Hafeez Kardar died aged 71.

1997:
Ijaz Ahmed (113) completed his seventh Test hundred in 36 Tests, after being adjudged run-out by the third umpire (KT Francis) when on 98 - against Sri Lanka at the Premadasa Stadium at Colombo. Ijaz was asked to return from the pavilion before the next ball was bowled, after further television replays showed his partner (Salim Malik) out of the crease.

Compiled by
MOHANDAS MENON

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