This Day in History: 8th June

Derek Underwood is considered as one of the best spin bowlers in the history of Cricket

Cricket

1945: Birth of Derek Underwood, an English former international cricketer, and a former President of the MCC. Underwood was one of the foremost spin bowlers in the world for over a decade, starting from the late 1960s.

1932: Birth of Raymond Illingworth, a former English cricketer, cricket commentator and cricket administrator. He was one of only nine players to have taken 2,000 wickets and made 20,000 runs in first class cricket.

1950: The Test debut of West Indies’ spin twins, Sonny Ramadhin and Alf Valentine.

1972: Test Cricket debut of Tony Greig, v Australia at Old Trafford.

Football

1984: Birth of Javier Mascherano, an Argentine footballer who plays as a central defender for FC Barcelona and a defensive midfielder for Argentina national team.

1990: Cameroon stunned Argentina in their opening match of the World Cup, beating the defending champions 1-0.

2007: Tottenham Hotspur sign Adel Taarabt. Tottenham Hotspur agreed to sign 17-year-old Adel Taarabt from Ligue 1 side Lens on a permanent transfer.

Tennis

Kim Clijsters was born on this day in 1983

1983: Birth of Kim Clijsters, a retired Belgian professional tennis player. Clijsters is a former World No. 1 in both singles and doubles. Clijsters has won 41 WTA singles titles and 11 WTA doubles titles.

1976: Birth of Lindsay Davenport, a former World No. 1 American professional tennis player. She has won three Grand Slam singles tournaments and an Olympic gold medal in singles. She was ranked World No. 1 on eight different occasions.

1967: Birth of Stephane Simian, a former professional tennis player from France. He achieved a career-high singles ranking of World No. 41 in 1993 and a career-high doubles ranking of World No. 56 in 1994.

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