W.G.Grace played his last Test aged 50, as captain and the oldest to do so.

Former English cricketer Bernard Bosanquet a bowler from Middlesex invented the googly.

The captains of England and Australia in the 1905 series , Francis Jackson and Joe Darling interestingly shared the same date of birth-21st November 1870.

John MacBryan of England in his only Test appearance at Old Trafford neither batted , bowled nor took a catch.

William Oldfield of Australia was the first wicket-keeper to effect 5 dismissals in an innings of which 4 were stumpings.

All the 4 century makers in the Lord`s Test between England and Australia in1926 were aged above 35.

George Gunn of England was recalled at the age of fifty to tour West Indies after an interval of 17 years.

Eiulf Peter Nupen a former South African captain born of Norwegian parents was totally blind in one eye since the age of four.

The 2nd Test of England vs South Africa at Newlands, Capetown in 1931 was the first Test to be played on a turf wicket in South Africa. All the previous 40 Tests were played on matting wickets.

Don Bradman was the youngest to score a triple century in Tests.

Don Bradman`s scores in his first and final Tests were 18,1 & 0 respectively.

Don Bradman in his first three innings as captain made 38, 0, 0 vs England.

Herbert Wade was the captain in all 10 Tests he played for South Africa.

The start of the 5th Test of England vs South Africa at Kingsmead, Durban in 1931 was delayed by 20 minutes due to the unavailability of the correct size of the bails.

Douglas Jardine the captain of England in the (in) famous “Bodyline series” was born in Bombay in a small place called Malabar Hill.

Mohammed Azharruddin is the only player in the history of Test cricket to score a century in each of his first three test matches.

Mike Hendrick of England in a Test vs. India clean-bowled Madan Lal leaving his middle stump upright and uprooting his off and leg stumps.

M.L.Jaisimha of India was the first batsman to bat on all five days of a Test.

Lala Amarnath holds the unique distinction of being the only bowler to dismiss Don Bradman courtesy of a hit-wicket.

India had to wait for a period of 19 years & 230 days before registering its first victory.

Tom Graveney of England and Australia’s Barry Jarman captained their respective sides in just one Test and never led again.

The legendary captain of the West Indies, Clive Lloyd was the first captain to win 25 Test Matches.

Alec Bedser the former England fast bowler is the only bowler to dismiss Bradman for a duck on more than one occasion.

Narendra Hirwani took 16 wickets on his debut versus West Indies.

In his debut series against West Indies in1974, Sunil Gavaskar scored a mammoth 774 runs including 4 centuries in which one being a double century.

M.A.K.Pataudi was captain in 40 of the 46 Tests he played for India.

Bapu Nadkarni sent down 131 deliveries (21.5 overs) without conceding a single run vs. England at Madras in 1964.

Allen Hill was the first player to hold a catch in Tests.

The first Test Match was played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground between England and Australia from 15th –19th March 1877.

India is the only team to be dismissed twice in a single day of test match.

Javed Miandad the former Pakistani captain holds the record for the youngest double centurion.

G.R.Viswanath is the only Indian player to score a duck and a century on debut.

Clem Hill’s scores in his first three Test innings was 99,98 and 97 runs.

5,028 out of 6,996 runs of Don Bradman were scored against England.

Geoff Boycott, Kim Hughes & M.L Jaisimha are the only 3 batsman to bat on all five days of a Test.

Wally Hammond of England became the first batsman to score a triple century.

Anil Dalpat Sonavaria was the first Hindu to play Test Cricket for Pakistan.

The 6 balls over were first introduced in 1900.

The famous Indian spin quartet of yesteryears, Bedi, Prassanna, Venkataraghavan & Chandrashekhar played together in only a single Test.

The first Indian to play Test Cricket was K.S.Ranjitsinjhi who represented England between 1896 and 1902.

The great Indian all-rounder Kapil Dev is the youngest to take 200 wickets.

Jim Laker took 19 of the 20 Australian wickets to fall in a single Test.

When Jim Laker took 19 wickets in a single Test, Tony Lock took the only other wicket to fall to a different bowler.

Graham Corling of Australia and Geoff Boycott the former English opening batsman made their debut in the same Test. Corling dismissed Boycott in his first three Test innings and each time had him caught in the slips by Bobby Simpson.

Sunil Gavaskar has featured in a record 52 century partnerships.

The most 100’s vs West Indies hit by any player is Sunil Gavaskar who struck 13 centuries defying the mighty Caribbean pace attack.

The lowest score in an inning by any team is 26 by New Zealand vs England at Auckland in 1955.

Greg Chappell hit a century on debut and his last match.

Chetan Chauhan scored over 2000 runs without ever reaching the three-figure mark even once. His highest score being 97.

Allan Border’s Australian team was the first team to score over 400 runs in 8 successive first innings of a Test.

Gul Mohammad, Amir Elahi & and Abdul Kardar played Test Cricket for India and Pakistan before and after independence respectively.

Don Bradman was never out in nineties. His highest double figure score was 89.

England’s David Gower and Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi both hit their first ball they faced in Test Cricket for a boundary of the bowling of Liaqat Ali & Glenn McGrath respectively.

Charles Bannerman faced the first ball bowled in Test Cricket history from England’s Alfred Shaw.

Lala Amarnath was sent back home from the tour of England in1936 due to disciplinary reasons.

Vijay Hazare is the only batsman to score two separate centuries on two successive days.

Javed Miandad scored record 504 runs in his first five Test innings including a century on debut vs New Zealand.

The spin quartet of yesteryears, Bedi, Prassanna, Venkataraghavan & Chandrasekhar took a total of 853 Tests wickets between them.

India’s Yajurvindra Singh & Greg Chappell of Australia share the world record of taking the most catches in a Test match i.e. 7 catches.

The honour of scoring the first double hundred at Lord’s by an Asian goes to Pakistan’s former opening batsman Mohsin Khan.

Sunil Gavaskar & Allan Border hold the record for most number of 100`s and 50`s respectively in Test Cricket.

Allan Border appeared consecutively in a record 106 Tests.

Wilfred Rhodes and Vinoo Mankad batted in all positions from 1-11.

India’s Abbas Ali Baig was the first batsman to hit a century on debut against England in England.

Javed Burki, Majid Khan & Imran Khan are all cousins who were captain of Pakistan in Test Cricket.

Ellis Edgar Achong who played Tests for West Indies is the only player of Chinese descent.

Frank Chester a former English cricketer, lost an arm in the First World War and went on to become a very reputed umpire from 1924-55, a career spanning over three decades and 48 Tests.

Lala Amarnath the first Indian centurion was also the first to do it on debut for India.

C.A.Reid and R.B.Terry were the two umpires in the very first Test Match ever.

In the history of Test Cricket only four batsmen have scored centuries in their 100th Test - Colin Cowdrey, Javed Miandad, Gordon Greenidge & Alec Stewart.

Marvan Atapattu scored five ducks in his first six Test innings, which included two pairs.

Sri Lankan wicket-keepers Brendon Kuruppu & Romesh Kaluwitharana both scored hundreds on their Test debut.

Manoj Prabhakar against Australia at Brisbane in 1991 was the first bowler to be given no balled under the new law prohibiting any bowler from bowling more than one bouncer at one batsman in the same over.

West Indies did not lose even one of the twelve Test Series which was leaded by Viv Richards as Captain.

Against Australia in 1990 Martin Snedden remained scoreless for 94 minutes.

Just before the 5th Test vs Australia in 1991 at his hometown Antigua, Viv Richards had announced, that would be his last Test, in the Caribbean and he made 0 & 2 runs respectively.

A veteran of 50 Tests, the former English Captain, Mike Smith at Brisbane in the first Test between Australia and India in 1991-92 became the first match referee ever in Tests.

Sachin Tendulkar at 18 years and 256 days is the youngest to score a Test century in Australia.

Edward Grace, Frederick Grace & William Grace, representing England provided Test Cricket with the first instance of three brothers playing Tests.

James Lillywhite who was the captain of England in the inaugural Test eventually went on to become the first cricketer turned umpire.

William Midwinter started his career playing eight Tests for Australia and subsequently went on to represent England in a further four making him the first player to play Test Cricket for two countries.

Richard Barlow & George Ulyett of England featured in the first ever century stand for opening batsman in Test Cricket.

Edmund Tylecote of England was the first wicket-keeper to score a 50.

Four different pitches were use in a Test between England and Australia at Sydney in 1883.

Frederick Spofforth a tall right hand fast medium bowler from Australia claimed 13/110 at Melbourne in1879 making him the first to take 10 wickets or more in a Test.

William Bates achieved the first hat-trick for England and in the same match became the first ever to score a 50 and take 10 wickets .A unique treble.

William Murdoch of Australia became the first substitute fielder to take a catch in Tests. The interesting thing is that he did so while fielding for the opposition.

Percy McDonnell the former captain of Australia was the first to score two 100`s successively.

Charlie Turner and John Ferris of Australia were the first pair of bowlers to dismiss the opposition on their own.

William Murdoch of Australia became the first to score a double ton in Tests.

Charles Bannerman was the first centurion in Test Cricket.

Australian Frederick Spofforth recorded the first ever hat-trick in Tests. His victims were Royle , MacKinnon & Emmett- the first 2 clean bowled and the latter caught.

Hits out of the ground in early Tests accounted only for 5 runs and only 4 in England instead of 6.

Hits out of the ground in early Tests accounted only for 5 runs and only 4 in England instead of 6.

Test #25 saw an unique occurrence of two brothers in a Test where Charles Bannerman was the umpire and his brother Alexander Bannerman as a player.

Charles Smith of England, John Anderson and Henry Taberer of South Africa were all captains of their respective sides in the sole Test they played.

John Briggs of England once took 15 South African wickets unaided. He got 14 batsman bowled and 1 Lbw including 8 all bowled in the 2nd innings.

The first 30 Tests played from 1877-88 were only between England and Australia. The 31stTest in 1889 saw the advent of South Africa being the third nation to play Test Matches.

The first batsman to carry his bat through out a completed innings was The first batsman to carry his bat through out a completed innings was.

Umpire James Philips of Australia was the first to officiate in more than one country.

Andrew Stoddart a former England captain was the first to declare an innings closed.

Stanley Jackson of England was the first to reach a ton without a hit over the boundary which was then worth only 4.

The bowler/wicket keeper combination of Dennis Lillee & Rod Marsh realized a record 88 dismissals.

Graham Yallop was the first to wear a helmet .vs West Indies at Bridgetown on 17th March 1978 and later England’s Dennis Amiss popularized it in Test Cricket.

December 29, 1894 saw the first instance of a batsman falling to the first ball of the match. Archibald Maclaren of England was bowled by debutant Arthur Conningham’s first ball of the Melbourne test.

England’s John Briggs in his 25th Test became the first bowler to reach the landmark of 100 wickets.

The 1896 Port Elizabeth Test between England and South Africa saw SA dismissed for their lowest total ever. They were all out in just 94 balls in the 2nd innings.

The 1896 Port Elizabeth Test between England and South Africa saw a total of 23 batsmen out bowled.

India’s K.S. Ranjitsinjhi was England’s second player to hit a century on debut after W.G. Grace.

At least one of the illustrious set of the 4 Mohammad brothers represented Pakistan in 100 out of their first 101Test Matches in 27 yrs starting from 1952-80.

George Giffen of Australia who was known as the W.G Grace of Australia played 31 Tests and all against England.

K.S. Ranjitsinjhi scored a ton on his first appearance in England and Australia.

Debutant Arthur Conningham was the 1st bowler to get a wicket of his very first ball he delivered in Tests by clean bowling opening batsman Archibald Maclaren of England.

The 1000th Test in Test annals was played at Hyderabad in the Sindh province of Pakistan from 25th–30th November 1984 , in which the hosts got the better of New Zealand by seven wickets.

Chris Cowdrey of England got Kapil Dev with his fourth ball in Tests. His father Colin Cowdrey who was in London listening to the commentary while driving was so surprised he drove into the wrong direction of a one way road.

The oldest debutant for India was Rustomji Jamshedji Dorabji Jamshedji aged 41 years & 27 days.

Kapil Dev`s only break of one Test in his 131 Test career came after 65 Tests.

Only in their 13th Test did Sri Lanka manage to dismiss the opposition twice , dismissing India at Colombo in 1985.

Former Australian wicket-keeper Tim Zoehrer was the first night-watchman in both innings of a Test.

Kapil Dev`s first win as Captain came vs England at Lord`s on 10th June 1986 in his 21st Test as Captain.

Ravi Shastri was the first Indian to hit 6 sixes in an innings.

Dilip Vengsarkar was the first batsman to score three centuries at Lord`s.

David Gower was the first English bowler at home to be called for throwing. He deliberately chucked the last ball of a Test vs New Zealand when the Kiwis needed just one run to secure victory at Trentbridge in 1986.

Imran Khan’s last Test innings was a duck against Sri Lanka in 1991-92. Ironically in his previous Test innings he had declared when he was 7 short of his 7th Test hundred.

Arjuna Ranatunga, former SriLankan captain was dismissed for a pair in the first Test after being relieved of Captaincy.

England was the first team to win successively 3 tests against three different oppositions – namely WI, Sri and NZ in 1991-92.

Andrew Hudson who was South Africa’s 238th player in Tests was the 1st South African batsman to hit a century on debut.

Aamir Sohail & Wasim Akram are the only Left handed batsman to score double hundreds from Pakistan.

Zimbabwe who achieved Test status in 1992 recorded the highest total by any team in its inaugural Test.

John Traicos who initially played Tests for South Africa before their ban had to wait for 22 years & 222 days for his next Test which he did so for Zimbabwe.

Joe Darling of Australia was the first left handed batsman to make a century in Tests , thus ending a sequence of 43 tons by right handers.

The first bowler to be no-balled for throwing was Australia`s Ernest Jones and the umpire to call him was James Philips.

England`s Archibald Maclaren was the first batsman to reach a century with a 6.