1911
The birth of the first great Indian batsman. Vijay Merchant was wristy, light on his feet and technically impeccable. At 5ft 7ins, he set the standard for those little modern-day masters Gavaskar and Tendulkar. He played only ten Tests, all against England, between 1933 and 1951 before a shoulder injury forced him to retire, and despite never playing on a winning side he averaged 47.72. His masterful displays in 1936 incited CB Fry to exclaim: "Let us paint him white and take him with us to Australia as an opener." In first-class cricket Merchant was irresistible: his average of 71.64 is second only to Bradman, and in the Ranji Trophy he averaged 98.75. He went on to become an administrator and writer before dying in his native Bombay in 1987.

2002
Blink-and-you-miss-it stuff in the Arabian desert. Pakistan, deprived of an entire batting line-up through injury and absenteeism, and playing in Sharjah because of security fears, crashed to a humiliating two-day defeat against Australia. No-one had given this team of rookies much of a chance against the likes of Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne, but the reality was plain embarrassing. In their first innings they mustered a pitiful 59 all out, with Warne taking 4 for 11 in 11 overs, but that was the high point. Second-time around, and trailing by 251 runs, they folded for 53, their lowest Test total. Warne was again the destroyer, with 4 for 13. Only three Pakistanis reached double figures in the entire match, and their match total of 112 was the fourth-lowest in Test history. Just to put their effort into context, the Man-of-the-Match award went to a batsmen, Matthew Hayden, whose seven-hour 119 was scored in temperatures approaching 51 degrees Celsius.

1861
Left-armer Frederick "Nutty" Martin, who was born today, played only two Tests but will have taken some consolation from finishing with a bowling average of 10.07. He grabbed 12 for 102 on debut against Australia at The Oval in 1890 -- the best figures by a debutant until Bob Massie destroyed England with 16 for 137 in 1972 -- but for some reason he did not play in another Ashes Test. He continued to excel for Kent, taking 1317 first-class wickets at the startling average of 17.38. And he took ten wickets in a match on 23 occasions. He died in Dartford, where he was born, in 1921.

1946
Birth of an unfulfilled talent. Ashok Mankad, the eldest son of Vinoo, averaged almost 51 in first-class cricket, but in 22 Tests couldn't manage even half that. He was a chubby, cheery character with a wide array of strokes whose high point came against Australia in 1969-70 -- he made four fifties in five innings but his 97 at Delhi was the closest he got to a Test hundred. His highest score against England was 43 at Headingley in 1974, when his cap fell on the wicket as he took evasive action against Chris Old. His last appearance came in Australia in 1977-78, when in Hick-esque fashion he topped the tour averages but struggled to impose in the Tests.

1994
Bob Woolmer's reign as coach began as it ended, with his side bottling a run-chase against Australia. In the Wills Triangular Tournament match at Lahore, chasing 208, they were 126 for 3 and the lower middle-order got the jitters -- as they would so fatefully at Edgbaston five years later -- and they fell seven runs short. South Africa lost all six games they played in the tournament but they went on to become a fearsome one-day outfit who won over 70% of their one-dayers under Woolmer. Sadly one of the ones they didn't -- that tie in the World Cup semi-final against Australia -- is all anyone will ever remember.

1962
One of only three Indian seamers to take 100 Test wickets was born. Karsan Ghavri may not be as celebrated as Kapil Dev or Javagal Srinath, but with Dev he formed perhaps India's best-ever new-ball pairing in the late 1970s. He was an indefatigable left-arm swing bowler whose best series was against West Indies in 1978-79, when he took 27 wickets in five Tests. Ghavri was a dogged lower-order batsman too, with a first-class hundred and a top Test score of 86 against Australia at Bombay in 1979-80. Despite constant murmurings that he chucked his bouncer, Ghavri was never no-balled for throwing. He occasionally turned to slow left-arm, most successfully when he took 5 for 33 against England at Bombay in 1976-77.

1995
Aamir Sohail was Pakistan's matchwinner in the Singer Trophy match against Sri Lanka -- with the ball. He took 4 for 22, his best one-day figures, snaring Messrs Gurusinha, Ranatunga, Tillekeratne and Kaluwitharana as Sri Lanka fell 83 runs short of the 265 they were chasing for victory.

Other birthdays
1925 Gilbert Parkhouse (England)
1962 Dammika Ranatunga (Sri Lanka)

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