Celebration of Test cricket

Last week Test cricket turned 148 and Cricket Australia CA have given themselves a good two years to prepare for a daynight pink ball Test match March 1115 2027 to mark 150 years of the traditional form of the gameIn 1977 the establishment which was called the Australian Cricket Board ACB then successfully conducted the Centenary Test held around the same time as the very first Test played in 1877 between Australia and England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground MCGThe Centenary Test turned out to be a big hit with Greg Chappellrsquos Australia winning by 45 runs the same margin as Dave Gregoryrsquos team did a hundred years agoThe very idea to conduct the 1977 Centenary Test was a great one But whose brainchild was it Australian journalist Rod Nicholson put it interestingly in his article that appeared in Australian Cricket magazine in March 1977 ldquoHans Christian Andersen is the king of fairy tales and although Melbournersquos Hans Ebeling confesses he was not named after the legendary character that surely must have been an oversightrdquoIn 1973 former Australia Test player Ebeling a vicepresident of the Melbourne Cricket Club was going through some books and discovered that Test cricket was four years away from a century ldquoI decided then that something should be donemdashand done if possible by the Melbourne Cricket Club as the First Test was played here I believed that it would have been an assetmdashif not an essential onemdashto have a Test to commemorate it and past players gathered to witness it So I put the idea to the Melbourne Cricket ClubrdquoThe rest was historic By March 1977 Melbourne was the hub of cricket nostalgia interspersed with some highly competitive cricket at the MCG where Greg Chappellrsquos hosts tackled Tony Greigrsquos Englishmen fresh from their victorious 197677 series win in IndiaFrank Tyson the England pace terrorturnedcommentator and coach did justice to his realisation of the eventrsquos significance In the Prologue to a publication on the Centenary Test the late Tyson wrote ldquoA hundred years is only a drop in the ocean of time but in human terms it is worthy of celebration The centenarian deserves his party he looks forward to the usual royal telegram recognising his feat of longevity Test cricket held its hundredth birthday party at its birthplace on 12th March 1977 It was perhaps the biggest party of all time with hundreds of thousands of guests Personal royal recognition of the notable anniversary came in the shape of the visit of the Queen to the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 17th MarchrdquoThe whorsquos who of AngloAustralian Test cricket came along Every living player who had played for Australia was invited Seventynine England cricketers landed in Melbourne like Len Hutton Denis Compton Godfrey Evans Peter May and Brian Statham who reunited with his Australiabased bowling partner TysonThe oldest of them all Percy Fender 84 arrived at Melbournersquos Tullamarine airport arrival lounge in a wheelchair accompanied by his grandson NicholasSpecial flights from various states brought cricketers from respective regions across Australia Sir Donald Bradman and spin stalwart Clarrie Grimmett arrived from Adelaide while the Queensland flight had the likes of then Australia captain Greg Chappell pace great Ray Lindwall and allrounder Ken lsquoSlasherrsquo MackayThe contingent of former players from New South Wales included 1948 Invincible Neil Harvey then a national selector Day One of the Test was nothing short of dramatic Greig decided to send Australia in and bowled them out for 138 not long after John Lever bowled the first ball to Ian Davis Rick McCosker the other Australia opener was hit on the jaw by Bob Willis while attempting a hook shot and the ball deflected on to his stumps England didnrsquot do better than their traditional rivals as Dennis Lillee 626 and Max Walker 454 dismantled the visitors for 95Australia got their batting act together in the second innings buoyed by halfcenturies from the blades of opener Davis Doug Walters and Test debutant David Hookes Hookes went from 36 to a memorable half century in five balls from Greig via four boundaries If that was dramatic there was an act of courage in store McCosker came out to bat with his broken jaw bandaged as Rod Marsh approached his centurymdashthe first by an Australian wicketkeeper against the old enemy The brave McCosker scored 25 before being dismissed by Chris Old Chappell declared at 4199 setting England a 463run target They were primed to get there thanks to Derek Randallrsquos 174 which earned him the man of the match award Undoubtedly the fidgety Nottinghamshire batsman played the innings of his life against an attack led by a rampaging Lillee who finally broke Englandrsquos back for Australia to win a memorable Test Lillee bowled almost 59 overs in the game for his 11 wickets No wonder he looked knackered as he made his way back to the pavilionThe Test did full justice to its billing Chappell admitted in his book The 100th Summer that he thought the Test would end in three days but it was open till the fifth day ldquoI will always remember this particular Test With all the nostalgia champion cricket the excitement the organization how could I forget it Had someone sat down and devised a dramatic script a more thrilling and dramatic match couldnrsquot have been contrived Both sides were in it right to the death and when play ended within the last hour on the final day we had achieved victory by just fortyfive runsmdashthe exact margin that had applied when the same two teams met on the same ground exactly one century ago It was almost like a fairy talerdquo wrote ChappellTest cricket lovers will be hoping that the 2027 Melbourne Test will evoke similar emotions We canrsquot wait can wemiddayrsquos group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance He tweets ClaytonMurzelloSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper