History of March 21

21 MARCH

Born on this day were: 

Grahame Thomas (1938-), Australian batsman who played in eight Tests in the 1960s;

Alvin Kallicharran (1949-), West Indian batsman and captain who scored 12 centuries in his 66 matches and whose Test career ended when he went on the West Indian rebel tour of South Africa in 1981-82;

Hendy Bryan (1970-), West Indian ODI all-rounder.;

Matthew Maynard (1966-) English batsman and

Grant Elliott (1979-), South Africa born New Zealand player.


In 1971, in only his second Test, Sunil Gavaskar made 116 (the first of his 34 Test hundreds), against West Indies in Guyana. For good measure he added another (117) in the next Test, and two more (124 and 220) in the one after that. Nobody has got close to his 774 runs (at an average of 154) in their first series.


1984 a performance of breathtaking heroism from Allan Border earned Australia a draw in the second Test against West Indies in Port of Spain, Trinidad. Having made 98 not out in the first innings he added an unbeaten 100 in the second, and survived the last 105 minutes of the match with last man Terry Alderman. In all Border faced 535 balls and batted 634 minutes in one of Test cricket’s great rearguard actions. It was also Dean Jones’ debut Test.


In 1998 India handed Australia its heaviest post-war defeat when they routed the Aussies at Calcutta by an innings and 219 runs. Laxman, Sidhu, Dravid, Tendulkar, Ganguly all reached 50, but the best came from Azharuddin who hit an unbeaten 163.