Bat and ball / Andrew Hughes / 26 February 2009 /

Those who witnessed the second Test between the West Indies and England being abandoned two weeks ago may think that was the only time in Test history it's happened; they'd be wrong. Andrew Hughes talks us through the most bizarre Tests ever...

Test cricket has a long history of bizarre matches and freakish occurrences. Last week's sandy farce in Antigua was the latest, though not the first in the history of the Caribbean. Eleven years ago at Sabina Park, it had been the batsmen bearing the brunt of the pitch's fury. This time round it was the bowlers who for some reason took umbrage at being asked to run in on a surface that was part beach, part swamp. Cue much embarrassment, an awful lot of buck passing and the barely suppressed rage of Sir Isaac Vivian Richards, whose name is over the door at the North Sound stadium.

But whilst the Antiguan pitch was depressingly poor, the track at Sabina Park in January 1998 was downright lethal. The surface had been re-laid, apparently by a firm of cowboy carpet fitters and had more corrugations in it than the roof of a Jamaican rum shack. In the first over a full length delivery climbed upwards and over the keeper's head for four byes. The next, landing in the same place went through at ankle height. By the time common sense prevailed, England were three down, Thorpe was sitting in casualty waiting for his X-ray results and physio Wayne Morton was down to his last dressing.

Both these games were effectively abandoned, but both have entered the cricket archives under the ambiguous heading of 'match abandoned as a draw'. In fact, only seven Tests have ever been abandoned outright. Most of these were due to torrential rain, but the Third Test at Faisalabad in December 1998 holds an unusual distinction. Thick smog prevented any play on the first three days and so the game was abandoned, handing Zimbabwe their first ever overseas series victory.

Faisalabad was also the scene of the famous finger-wagging Test in 1987, the only occasion when sulking stopped play as both England captain Mike Gatting and umpire Shakoor Rana refused to carry on the grounds that the other one started it. Nineteen years later, it was Pakistani captain Inzamam Ul-Haq who refused to play at the Oval after being accused of ball-tampering by umpire Daryl Hair in a Test match that was first awarded to England, then deemed to be draw, then given back to England again.

Strangest of all was the Fifth Test at Centurion in January 2000. With three days lost to rain, the draw seemed a foregone conclusion. But England were surprised when South African captain Hanse Cronje who offered to set them a target if both sides forfeited an innings, common practice in county cricket but unheard of in the Test arena. Cronje's spirit of generosity even extended to bringing on part-time bowler Pieter Strydom when it looked like England might be getting bogged down. A hungover Darren Gough hit the winning runs, England won the match and Cronje earned himself 50,000 Rand and a leather jacket from a grateful bookmaker who had been anxious not to pay out on the draw.

People who don't understand Test cricket complain that it goes on too long and too often ends in a draw. Five days is a lot of time to invest in a sporting event, though not as long as would once have been the case. In March 1939, South Africa and England took turns to bore the pants off each other in a match that ran to ten days, where the scoring rate barely touched two an over and the game only ended because England had to catch the boat home.

Those who don't understand the subtleties of the hard-fought draw might find it easier to appreciate the drama of the tied Test. At Brisbane in 1962, Australia were chasing 233 to win against the West Indies and had recovered from 92-6 to need just six runs off the final eight-ball over. In a frenetic passage of play they lost their last three wickets, two to superb run-outs and the match was tied. Five days of excitement, drama and tension coming down to the last balls of the last over of the final session. No Twenty20 game can compete with that and it is one of many examples proving beyond a doubt that Test cricket is the greatest game on earth.

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