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Reggie Schwarz: rugby for England, cricket for South Africa © The Cricketer International
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1875
A dual international, and one with divided loyalties, is born. As well as playing rugby for England, Reggie Schwarz played 20 Tests for South Africa in their formative years. He was an offspinner with a difference - he was a wrist spinner who only bowled the googly, often to a 6-4 leg-side field. He took 55 wickets at an average of 25, with a strike rate of a wicket every 48 balls, sensational for a spinner. He died in Etaples, France, in 1918.
1960
Birth of England's Martyn "Frog" Moxon, the unluckiest of the eight men to make 99 in a Test but never a century. Against New Zealand at Auckland in 1987-88 Moxon swept three runs flush off the middle early in his innings, only for the umpire to give them as leg-byes. It was an error that proved costly when he fell to Ewen Chatfield on 99. In the next Test at Wellington he was set to right the wrong, but rain washed out the last two days with Moxon stuck on 81 not out. That was as close as Moxon got in ten appearances.
1981
Jacques Rudolph, who was born today, was in the news even before he played his first Test. He appeared to suffer as a result of the South African quota system and couldn't break through into the national side despite a fantastic domestic record. In April 2003, though, he got his chance and made it count with a superb unbeaten 222 on debut against Bangladesh at Chittagong.
1990
A second one-day hat-trick in six months for Wasim Akram, as Pakistan beat Australia by 36 runs in the Sharjah final. Wasim finished things off by bowling Merv Hughes, Carl Rackemann and Terry Alderman with consecutive deliveries. Wasim is the only man to have taken two hat-tricks in Tests and one-day internationals.
1957
An Australian legspinner is born. Peter Sleep, one of the many relatively anodyne slow bowlers given a chance before Shane Warne arrived, was rather innocuous at Test level, as a strike rate of a wicket every 96 balls suggests. He did win an Ashes Test, though, at Sydney in 1986-87, taking his only five-for in the second innings of a match better remembered for Peter Taylor's debut exploits. Sleep, who was wittily nicknamed "Sounda", also made three Test fifties, and was a Lancashire League regular for many years, before becoming captain and then coach of Lancashire's 2nd XI.
1970
Paul Wiseman, the New Zealand offspinner who was born today, struggled for opportunities because of the excellence of Daniel Vettori. He played a couple of match-winning hands, though. On his debut in Colombo in 1997-98, he bowled Sri Lanka to defeat with seven wickets, including five in the second innings. And he took eight more when Zimbabwe were beaten at Bulawayo three years later.
Other birthday
1867 Nicolaas Theunissen (South Africa)
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