In the early part of the 21st century, a number of the staples of Test cricket have become increasingly endangered: draws, nightwatchmen, winning the toss and batting first; all have been made almost extinct by the great revolution led by Steve Waugh and Australia. But on Sunday, in the first Test between Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, one of Test cricket's quainter traditions will return - the rest day. A Buddhist full-moon festival in Sri Lanka means that what should have been the fourth day of the first Test against Zimbabwe will be a rest day, the first in a Test since March 28, 1997. This was Good Friday, and meant a break after one day of the third Test between West Indies and India in Barbados.

The rest day, falling on a Sunday, used to be the norm in Tests in England. The first Sunday's play there was at Trent Bridge in 1981, when England lost to Australia, and at Edgbaston, where Ian Botham famously routed the Aussies in his frenzied spell of 5 for 1. But there was no Sunday play at Lord's that year (the wheels turn slowly at the home of cricket) or at Headingley, because of the Wimbledon final. That allowed for Botham's traditional, celebrated Saturday- night barbecue, at which England players drowned the sorrows of what they assumed would be a 2-0 deficit to Australia. The host had other ideas.

England weren't the innovators here. As ever they were following the example of Australia, who did away with this effeminate rest-day nonsense for the series against West Indies in 1979-80 (this ran concurrently with a non-Ashes series against England which did have rest days). The first match of that West Indies series at Brisbane - the first post-Packer Test - was the first match without a rest day since 1956-57.

When Sunday play did come, it didn't go down too well. Lord's gave it a go in 1982 - a day notable for Mudassar Nazar snaring Derek Randall, Allan Lamb and David Gower for no runs in six balls - but soon reverted to type. In 1983 there was Sunday play everywhere except Lord's, and by 1984, with the TCCB letting their pockets rule their heads -staff costs rocketed on Sundays - we were back to Thursday-Tuesday Test matches (even though England were blackwashed by West Indies, none of the victories were inside three days) all round the country.

That's how it stayed in England until 1991, when a raucous Sunday Headingley crowd had the pleasure of witnessing the best part of one of the finest innings of modern times, Graham Gooch's monumental unbeaten 154 (third in the Wisden 100) that set up England's first victory over West Indies for 22 years.

From then on it was Sunday play all the way, apart from Wimbledon-final day, which meant a rest day until 1997, when the ECB finally cottoned on to the fact that it didn't affect revenue. In 2001 it coincided with the first Test against Australia at Edgbaston, and ironically it ended up becoming a rest day - rain delayed the final until Monday, England got thumped by Sunday lunchtime, and the Australian squad were able to go en masse to watch their boy Pat Rafter lose to Goran Ivanisevic.

For a long time Christmas Day was a rest day in Australia as well. The Melbourne Test would start on Christmas Eve and resume on Boxing Day, but for the last six years it has started on Boxing Day. It last started on December 24 in 1994-95, when England were the visitors. They would have enjoyed their turkey too, after winning the toss and keeping Australia to 220 for 7 on the first day. But there can only be so many fairytales at Christmas, and with Steve Waugh and Shane Warne bearing nothing but runs and hat-tricks, England were stuffed on the final day.

There have been a number of obscure, quirky rest days in Test history. The Golden Jubilee Test between India and England in 1979-80 had a rest day after the first day because of the total eclipse; the fifth Test between India and England in 1951-52 did likewise because of the death of King George VI; the Timeless Test between South Africa and England at Durban in 1938-38, which began on March 3 and ended in a draw on March 14, had two Sunday rest days.

There have been other instances: the first unofficial Test between England and Rest of the World in 1970 began on Wednesday, June 17 and resumed on Friday, June 19. The reason? A General Election on the 18th, coincidentally the first in which 18-year-olds were allowed to vote. For the record, Ted Heath and the Conversatives won, and so did Garry Sobers - the Rest of the World captain added a blistering 183 to a match haul of 8 for 64. England went down by a landslide.

In addition to that, there have been a few impromptu days off, caused more by rancour than rest. Shakoor Rana's spat with Mike Gatting, and Gatting's initial refusal to apologise meant there was no play on the scheduled third day of the second Test at Faisalabad in 1987-88 . And there were five days off in Jamaica 10 years later, when England's first Test in West Indies was abandoned after 62 balls because of an unsafe pitch.

And though it wasn't a rest day, there was also a curious piece of planning from the Zimbabwe Cricket Union in 1992-93. In the best County Championship traditions, staged a one-dayer in between the first and second days of the second Test against New Zealand at Harare. It made no odds to Martin Crowe: he creamed 140 on November 7 in whites, and 94 on November 8 in pyjamas.

Rob Smyth is on the staff of Wisden.com

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