On This Day In Cricket

'Little Master' Sachin Tendulkar champions the India-Australia rivalry as the best and most fiercely competitive in world cricket (undoubtedly prompting Pakistani fans to think about an effigy or two) and back in 1964, it was another gentle 'giant' going by the name of Graham McKenzie, who returned match figures of 10-91, that led the baggy green army to their third consecutive victory in Madras.

McKenzie's first innings haul of 6-58 off 32 overs kept the Aussies in with a sniff of overturning the 65-run deficit but four wickets late on the fourth day scuppered India's hopes, and even a valiant 94 from Hanumant Singh couldn't prevent Bill Simpson's boys winning by 139 runs.

In 2001, baseball’s steroid (er, home run) king Barry Bonds smashed his 73rd home run of the season, probably with a syringe in his back pocket, setting a mark that still stands as America’s most hallowed single-season sporting record: With a great big, dope-inflated asterisk.

There was big-time drama as well on this day in 1985 when Palestinian nutjobs hijacked the cruiser liner Achille Lauro and her 400 passengers in the Med. Likewise, in 1959, 300 people couldn’t get off the pleasure pier at Southend because it was on fire, and were rescued from the end in a mini Dunkirk evacuation.

So it’s Grattis pŒ fšdelsedagen, as they say in Stockholm, to Pakistani leftie Salman Butt (24); Nobel winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu (77); Aussie essayist and former telly critic Clive James (69); Franco-Chinese cellist Yo-Yo Ma (53); gold-medal ice dancing goddess Jayne Torvill (51); annoyingly talentless and omnipresent TV superstar Simon Cowell (49); and Radiohead warbler Thom Yorke (40).

'Little Master' Sachin Tendulkar champions the India-Australia rivalry as the best and most fiercely competitive in world cricket (undoubtedly prompting Pakistani fans to think about an effigy or two) and back in 1964, it was another gentle 'giant' going by the name of Graham McKenzie, who returned match figures of 10-91, that led the baggy green army to their third consecutive victory in Madras.

McKenzie's first innings haul of 6-58 off 32 overs kept the Aussies in with a sniff of overturning the 65-run deficit but four wickets late on the fourth day scuppered India's hopes, and even a valiant 94 from Hanumant Singh couldn't prevent Bill Simpson's boys winning by 139 runs.

In 2001, baseball’s steroid (er, home run) king Barry Bonds smashed his 73rd home run of the season, probably with a syringe in his back pocket, setting a mark that still stands as America’s most hallowed single-season sporting record: With a great big, dope-inflated asterisk.

There was big-time drama as well on this day in 1985 when Palestinian nutjobs hijacked the cruiser liner Achille Lauro and her 400 passengers in the Med. Likewise, in 1959, 300 people couldn’t get off the pleasure pier at Southend because it was on fire, and were rescued from the end in a mini Dunkirk evacuation.

So it’s Grattis pŒ fšdelsedagen, as they say in Stockholm, to Pakistani leftie Salman Butt (24); Nobel winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu (77); Aussie essayist and former telly critic Clive James (69); Franco-Chinese cellist Yo-Yo Ma (53); gold-medal ice dancing goddess Jayne Torvill (51); annoyingly talentless and omnipresent TV superstar Simon Cowell (49); and Radiohead warbler Thom Yorke (40).

What a ''marvelous'' day, 77 not not, and what a great innings to date. Richie Benaud was a world-class Test cricket all-rounder, blending cunning leg spin bowling with lower order batting aggression. Furthermore, since his retirement from international cricket in 1964, he has become one of the most highly regarded commentators of all time.

Where would cricket commentary be without the phrases ''Got 'im!" and "That's stumps.... Sadly, the 2005 Ashes series was the last that Benaud commentated on in Britain.

His final commentary came near the end of the final day of the Fifth Test at the Oval. Luckily for those down under, Richie has continued to commentate on the Nine Network. Happy birthday Richie and make sure you have an ''absolute cracker''.

In the real world, it wasn’t such a great day in 1981 for Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, who was gunned down with a host of other diplomats and dignitaries by machine gun-toting assassins, sparking US pres Ronnie Reagan to claim that mankind had “lost a champion of peace.” Nor was it such a hot day for hippies, for on this day in 1966 the US government made LSD an illegal drug. The trippy thing is a lot of people still ignore this law.

So it’s Joyeux Anniversaire!, as they say in Gay Paree, to dishy Swedish Bond girl Britt Ekland (65); West Indies-baiting South Africa-born former England cricket skipper Tony Greig (62); Middlesbrough’s Aussie ‘keeper Mark Schwarzer (36); hunky period-role Welsh actor Ioan Gruffudd (35); It also would have been the 30th birthday of dashing Frenchy fighter pilot Roland Garros, had he not been shot down in flames over Vouziers, Ardennes the day before.

On this day in 2007, South Africa recorded only their second ever win in Pakistan, and more importantly it came in Karachi, where Pakistan had lost just once in 39 Tests held previously.

This test match also saw Mark Boucher became the most successful wicketkeeper in Test cricket, breaking Ian ''bowling Shane'' Healy's record of 395 dismissals on the third day. It was exactly one day short of nine years after Healy pouched the record from compatriot Rodney Marsh on October 4, 1998.

Furthermore, slow-leftie Paul Harris took his first five-for in Tests during Pakistan's first innings, and averages 20.46 for his 13 wickets in four Tests he's played against them.

Paceman Dale Steyn's 5 for 56 was the final nail in Pakistan's coffin. He seems to relish subcontinent conditions - one of his two other five-fors came in Sri Lanka. One bright spot in an otherwise horrid test for the hosts was Younis Khan's 126.

Also, on this day, in 1947, Harry Truman made the very first TV address by a US President – urging Americans, amongst other things, to avoid eating meat on Tuesdays and poultry products on Thursdays. Sitting by his grainy set in Chicago, we presume, was Ray A. Kroc, future founder of the McDonald’s fast food empire, who was trying to peacefully celebrate his 45th birthday at the time by “having a decent freaking meal, dammit! And why isn’t it on my table by 6pm! … Or sooner!”

Hopefully Kroc (rest his saturated-fat sodden soul) was in a better mood on his b-day in ‘62, when the Beatles released the vinyl of “Love Me Do,” still played to this day on muzak in a Mickey D’s near you, or in ’69, when Monty Python first hit the Beeb’s TV screens.

So it’s Quchjaj qoSlIj!, as they say in they say under the Golden Crotches in the Klingon Empire, to Bangladeshi paceman Mashrafe Mortaza (25), great Scott Ian Stanger (37) gorgeous Berkshire babe Kate Winslet (33); musical salutes to rocker Steve “I’m A Joker” Miller (65); annoying Irish activiste Bob “I’m Not Bono” Geldof (54); and Brian “I’m Not Bon Scott” Johnson, lead screecher of AC/DC.

England claimed their first ODI victory on Sri Lankan soil since 1982 with a 65-run success in Dambulla on this day in 2007.  The win also ended a run of seven straight defeats to Mahela Jayawardene's Sri Lanka side that spans back to the summer of 2006. England's total proved too much for the hosts on the day, who never managed to recover after slipping to 38-4. Middlesex batsman Owais Shah was star of the show with 82 off 92 balls.

Also the day 1957 when the USSR launched the sputnik, the first man-made object into space. A year later to the day, with humbler goals in mind, British Overseas Airways began the first trans-Atlantic passenger jet service, flying between the Big Smoke and the Big Apple. Rock heroine Janis Joplin was also out of her head on this day in 1970 when she fatally OD’d on smack at the age of 27.

And it’s Vill Gleck fir daei Geburtsdaag!, as they say in Luxembourgeois, to Oscar-winning yummy mummy Susan Sarandon (62); gun-loving actor Charlton Heston (84); Pet Shop Boys synthpop guy Chris Lowe (49); and Clueless actress Alicia Silverstone (32). It also would have been a birthday for 19th US president Rutherford B. Hayes, who pre-dated George W. Bush in the corruption and ineptitude stakes by 123 years.