Jonty Rhodes

Jonty Rhodes, the famous South African cricket and a brilliant fielder of the game, originally represented South Africa at Hockey and was chosen as part of the 1992 Olympic Games squad to go to Barcelona. However, the squad did not qualify to go to the tournament. He was also called up for trials to play in the 1996 Olympics but was ruled out by a hamstring injury. He also suffered from epilepsy and was the first professional cricketer to claim paternity leave.

Ian and Greg Chappell of Austrailia became the first players on the same side in a Test to both score hundreds in each innings. Ian scored 145 and 121, his younger brother 247 not out and 133 against New Zealand in 1974.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – DECEMBER 27: (FILE PHOTO) Kerry Packer arrives at a gala 70th Anniversary dinner event for the Australian magazine icon.

Kerry Packer (17th December 1937 – 26th December 2005), also known as the Godfather of Cricket’s modern era, was an Australian media tycoon who transformed the staid world of cricket with his rebel World Cricket Series in the late 1970’s. Packer introduced night play, a white ball and coloured uniforms, and gave limited-overs cricket a wide exposure to a television audience that was tiring of Test match coverage- which could last days without producing a winner. Modern cricket broadcasting wouldn’t have been the way it is if it hadn’t been for Kerry Packer.

Originally rejected by cricket administrators, and derided for what some called “pajama cricket” when he launched his World Series in 1977, Packer became one of the game’s biggest power brokers. Very few people in the history of the game, either players or administrators, can be said to have changed the game, but Kerry Packer can rightly be considered someone who really did it without playing even the first-class cricket.

Every cricketer playing the game today, at all levels, and those who desire to do better in future must know about this man, who first thought of making the game an integral part of our daily life.

A cricket tournament was played as a part of the 1900 Summer Olympics on 19th and 20th August in Paris.

Teams representing Belgium, France, Great Britain and the Netherlands were scheduled to compete in the tournament, but Belgium and the Netherlands pulled out of the competition, leaving Great Britain and France to play each other. Neither team was nationally selected. The British Team consisted of Devon and Somerset Wanderers while the French Team of French Athletic Club Union, consisted mainly of British colonials living in Paris.

Great Britain batted first and scored 117, and bowled France out for 78. Great Britain then scored 145 for 5 in their 2nd innings, setting the hosts a target of 185. The French team was bowled out for 26 by the British and won the match by 158 runs. The Great Britain team was awarded silver medals and the French team bronze medals. The match was formally recognised as an Olympic contest in 1912, and the medals were later reassigned as gold and silver.

A number of words have been the source for the term “Cricket”. In the earliest reference to the sport in 1598 it was called creckett, than after the name may have been derived from the Middle Dutch Krick, meaning a stick or the Old English Cricc or Cryce meaning a crutch or staff. In Old French, the word criquet have been seen which mean a kind of stick. In Samuel Jhonson’s Dictionary, he derived cricket from cryce, meaning a stick. Another source is the Middle Dutch word Krickstoel, meaning a long low stool used for kneeling in church and which resembled the long low wicket with two stumps used in early cricket.

In the historical Bangalore test of 1987 which was also the 5th Test played in the series, Pakistani bowlers Tuseef Ahmad and Iqbal Qasim both took 9 wickets creating a world record of two 9 wickets in a Test Match. The match was played from 13th to 17th March, and Pakistan won the match by 16 runs.

Check out the scoreboards:

One of the most respected umpires in the history of cricket was David Shepard. He was famous for standing on one leg every time the number 111, named after Admiral Lord Nelson, was scored by a team. Reportedly, this was because Nelson was “unlucky enough to have had only one eye, one hand and one leg, hence the 111.” The number is considered bad luck.

In Australian cricket, the infamous number 87 is also a cause for worry and concern for individual batsman. It is referred to as the “devil’s number” because it is 13 runs short of the all-important 100 runs every batsman wants to achieve.

Khan Muhammad was the first player to get a Test wicket from Pakistan in the match played from 16-18 October 1952 at Firoz Shah Kotla, New Delhi. He took the wicket of Indian batsman Pankaj Roy to claim his first dismissal. He was also the first Pakistani bowler to bowl in Test cricket.

Marvan Attapattu was the front-line Sri Lankan batsman who scored just 1 run in his first 6 Test innings. He was out on duck (zero) on his career’s first 3 test matches against India. He scored 1 run in his 4th test match against Australia and was again out on zero on 5th and 6th matches.

Always a vulnerable starter, Atapattu showed immense strength of character once he got his eye in. After a wretched start to his test career, he went on to become one of the most consistent performers for Sri Lanka. He went on to score six double-hundreds in his career, a feat bettered only by Don Bradman (12), Wally Hammond and Brian Lara (seven each).

He retired after playing 90 test matches for Sri Lanka and scored 5502 runs with 16 test hundreds to his credit.

1. Scotland vs Pakistan (1999) – Scotland gave away 59 extras (5 B, 6 LB, 33 W, 15 NB);

2. India vs Zimbabwe (1999) – India gave away 51 extras (0 B, 15 LB, 21 W, 16 NB)

As you can clearly see, there wasn’t any great response from the opposition bowling either as both the days were something not to be remembered for bowling accuracy!

Duleep Mendis scored 64 off 57

Sri Lanka in 1979 was the first non-test playing nation to win a world cup match. The match was played between Sri Lanka and India on 18th June 1979 in which Sri Lanka won by 47 runs.

It was the first upset of the World Cup – Sri Lanka was still an associate member. They had lost all 3 matches in the previous edition and had also lost by 9 wickets to New Zealand in the first match of this edition.

Sri Lanka scored 238 in the 1st innings on the back of Sunil Wettimuny’s 67 and Duleep Mendis’ attacking 64. India in reply, were all out for 191 in 54.1 overs. Somachandra de Silva finished with 11-1-29-3.

At the age of 47 and 240 days, Nolan Clarke played his first One Day International for the Netherlands, becoming the oldest debutant in history of cricket, beating the previous record holder Norman Gifford by almost 3 years. He also hold the record for the oldest player beating John Traicos by nearly 2 years. He played 5 ODIs scored 50 runs at an average of 10, his highest score being 32 runs.

Shane Warne in the 1996 World Cup became the first batsman to be stumped in a World Cup final. He scored 2 runs of 5 balls played and was stumped by Romesh Shantha Kaluwitharana while Muttiah Muralitharan bowled.

He played 65 Tests and 147 ODIs for his country. He has also taken over 200 catches behind the stumps, making him the second West Indies keeper to achieve the feat after Jeff Dujon.

He also featured in an outstanding partnership in the record breaking innings of Brian Lara against England in which Jacobs made a hundred and Lara made 400 not out.

1. Abdul Aziz (aged 17), An Pakistani Wicket-keeper and opening batsman died when he was hit over head by a ball bowled by Dildwar Awan, during the Quaid-e-Azam final against Pakistan Combined Services on 17th January 1959.

2. Wilferd Norris Slack (aged 34), An English left-handed opening batsman died of a heart attack while playing cricket in Gambia on 15th January 1989.

3. Ian Folley (aged 30), An English All-Rounder died of heart attack after being hit underneath the eye by a ball during a game played on 30th August 1993.

4. Raman Lamba (aged 38), An Indian batsman died of internal haemorrhage suffered after being hit by a ball while fielding at forward short-leg, without a helmet, for Dhaka’s club, Abahani Krira Chakra, in the final of the Premier Division cricket match versus Mohammendan Sporting Club at Dhaka.

5. Scott Mason (aged 28), A Tasmanian left-handed batsman died of a heart attack while batting in the nets for Tasmania on 9th April 2005.

The 1996 World Cup was played in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka and after winning the final under the captaincy of Arjuna Ranatunga on 17th March against Australia by 7 wicket, Sri Lanka became the first host country to win the World Cup. Australia scored 241 for 7 in 50 overs and in reply to that Sri Lanka scored 245 for 3 in just 46.2 overs. Aravinda de Silva was the Man of the Match after scoring 107 of 124 balls.

David Houghton of Zimbabwe was the first wicket-keeper to score a century in World Cup Cricket. In 1987 Reliance World Cup against New Zealand, he scored 142 runs off 137 deliveries with 13 fours and 6 sixes. Zimbabwe still lost the match by 3 runs.

He started his career as a wicket-keeper but later became a good first-slip fielder, helped by the fact that he was Zimbabwe’s hockey goalkeeper too!

The 6 Test playing nations (England, Australia, India, West Indies, Pakistan and New Zealand), along with Sri Lanka and East Africa, participated in 1975 World Cup. The East African team in this World Cup comprised of players from East Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia.