This Day in History: 20th August

Australian Umpire Darrell Hair awards five penalty runs to England, for ball tampering by Pakistan

Cricket

2006: The first ever forfeited Test match result. Controversial Australian umpire Darrell Hair had docked Pakistan five runs and changed the ball for alleged ball tampering in a Test match played at the Oval. Captain Inzamam-ul-Haq did not come back to the field of play as they were contemplating their response. Time was called on the match and England were declared victors.

1930: The death of Charles Bannerman, the first batsmen to score a Test century. Bannerman is also the first batsmen to play a ball in Test cricket and the first to score a fifty, when he represented Australia against England  in 1876-77, in the first ever Test match to be played in history. 

1900: The last day of the only cricket match to be played at the Olympics. Great Britain played France in a two day game that was won by Great Britain by a margin of 158 runs.

1952: Birthday of John Emburey, one of England’s best off spinners. He picked 147 Test wickets and was also picked to captain England in a series against West Indies in 1988.

Football:

1985: Birthday of Alvaro Negredo, the Spanish striker who now represents Manchester City in the EPL. Nicknamed “The beast of Vallecas”, he is one of the best in the business.

2004: Diego Forlan moves from Manchester United to Villarreal on a five year deal. Diego signed the £2 million deal in a bid to get more first team action.

2012: Robin van Persie, brought from Arsenal for £24 million, made his Manchester United debut against Everton as a substitute.

Athletics

1922:  The year in which the first World Championship athletics for women is held. Eighteen women participated in front of an audience of 20,000 people.

1993:  Great Britain and Wales athlete Colin Jackson runs a world record time of  12.91 seconds in the 110m Hurdles. This  record stood for over ten years.

Baseball

1938: Lou Gehrig hit his record 23rd & last grand slam. He played for 17 seasons for the New York Yankees, and was the first player to have his number retired. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1939.

1945: Playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers as a utility player, Tommy Brown, at 17 years, becomes the youngest player to hit a home run.

Do check out the rest of the ‘This day in history’ series.