Could the Boxing Day Test be moved to a Christmas Day start?

"If you look at a country like Australia with big stadia and very hot conditions, it's made for day-night Test cricket. Test cricket has changed over 130 years and there are now very good reasons for bringing crowds out.

"Test cricket has endured and I'm sure it will continue to thrive. The biggest events are the Ashes and India against Pakistan. They are the big earners and revenues in Test cricket are bigger.

"England against South Africa and South Africa against Australia are not far behind."

Bradman wrote:Source?

Zat wrote:NSW and Victoria used to regularly play a Shield match that started on Christmas Day.

Has Test cricket ever been played on Christmas Day? asked John Canning from London


The first time it happened was in 1951, when the third Test between Australia and West Indies at Adelaide finished on Christmas Day (the third day of the match). Actually West Indies completed their six-wicket win midway through the day, so the players might have been able to scoff some turkey after all. Sixteen years later, in 1967-68, it happened at Adelaide again - the second day of the first Australia-India Test. Farokh Engineer narrowly failed to score a festive century: he was out for 89. Two years later India met Australia on Christmas Day again, this time at Madras (Chennai). At Delhi in 1972 England completed a six-wicket win over India shortly after lunch on Dec 25. And in 1979, the fourth Test between India and Pakistan started on Christmas Day at Kanpur. Actually it was supposed to happen this year (2004) too - the original itinerary for India's tour of Bangladesh included a Test match from Dec 23-27, but the dates were changed.

WideWally wrote:

Has Test cricket ever been played on Christmas Day? asked John Canning from London


The first time it happened was in 1951, when the third Test between Australia and West Indies at Adelaide finished on Christmas Day (the third day of the match). Actually West Indies completed their six-wicket win midway through the day, so the players might have been able to scoff some turkey after all. Sixteen years later, in 1967-68, it happened at Adelaide again - the second day of the first Australia-India Test. Farokh Engineer narrowly failed to score a festive century: he was out for 89. Two years later India met Australia on Christmas Day again, this time at Madras (Chennai).

Bradman wrote:The only good thing to come out of England Sheety. Though most of the ingredients are from the 'colonies'.

How long has there been a Boxing Day Test at Melbourne? asked Andy Simpson from Australia


As far as I can see the first one to start on Boxing Day at the MCG was in 1968-69, when Australia beat West Indies by an innings in the match referred to above. Bill Lawry, a local man, enjoyed the idea so much he scored 205. The next one was in 1974-75, when England drew a close match, but it wasn't until 1981-82 that the tradition really took off, after a thrilling Test between Australia and West Indies - one in which a rampaging Dennis Lillee reduced the Windies to 10 for 4 by the close on Boxing Day after Australia had been bowled out for 198. Since then, with a few exceptions, there has usually been a Test starting on Boxing Day at Melbourne. In 1995-96 the traditional huge crowd saw Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan no-balled for throwing by the Australian umpire Darrell Hair.