The Timeless Test Match

Left to Right: Preparing the pitch at the start of the tenth and final day; The scoreboard at the end of tenth day

For a while during the late 1930?s, the international cricket community dabbled with timeless tests – tests that don’t have a five-day limit, but that can go on until both sides have batted twice. This formula obviously didn’t work, and was abandoned when a timeless test between England and South Africa on 3rd March 1938 in Durban had to be stopped on the tenth day. The reason for that had nothing to do with cricket; the English players simply had to catch their return boat!