Almanac Cricket: The Boxing Day MCG Test turns 50 – A Footy Almanac debutant remembers 

 

As Australian sports fans settle in for another MCG Boxing Day Test Match this week, they may not be aware of the significant anniversary they will unknowingly celebrate.

 

The Australia v India showdown will be the 50th anniversary of the virtual beginning of what is now a national sporting tradition.

 

It wasn’t always that way, though.  Indeed, being ‘only’ 50 years old, it is a relatively modern tradition.

 

Until 1974, only 2 MCG Cricket Tests had included play on Boxing Day.

 

The 2nd Test of the 1950/51 Ashes Series against the Poms was played over the Christmas weekend with Boxing Day being Day 4 of a match going the way of Lindsay Hassett’s Australians by 28 runs.

 

The other Boxing Day Test before 1974 was the 2nd Test of the 1968/69 Frank Worrell Trophy Series against Gary Sobers’ ageing West Indian tourists.

 

This Test was the first MCG Test to actually start on December 26.  Australia won by an innings on the back of a 10 wicket match haul from Graham ‘Garth’ McKenzie, and an avalanche of runs from Bill Lawry (205) and Ian Chappell (165).

 

Before ’74, the ‘traditional’ MCG cricket fixture that included Boxing Day was the annual ‘grudge’ Sheffield Shield match between Australian Cricket’s oldest rivals – Victoria and New South Wales.

 

These pre-1974 matches include the almost iconic World Record for a completed First Class innings – all out 1,107!!!

 

This was set by Victoria in their innings and 656 run win over the hapless NSW in the 1926 Christmas/Boxing Day weekend fixture.

 

As any Victorian Cricket tragic will tell you, that is a record that will probably last forever.

 

Instead, the Melbourne Test was the original New Year’s Test until ’74.  These matches generally started on either New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day itself.

 

It is said that necessity is the mother of all invention.

 

Come 1974, the Australian Cricket Board (ACB – now Cricket Australia) needed – by necessity – to squeeze in 6 Ashes Test Matches in a condensed period.  This would allow Perth their recently won WACA Test, AND play two Tests in either Sydney or Melbourne on alternate summers as was the scheduling at the time.

 

Hence, the Boxing Day MCG Test was revived – and drew 77,167 punters through the gates for Boxing Day to start with, and over 250,000 for the five days of play which ended in a thrilling draw.

 

The up and coming West Indies drew a massive 85,661 the following December 26 in 1975 as another 6 Test series in condensed timeframes forced Boxing Day MCG Tests in successive summers for the first time.

 

As Australia eased to a comfortable 8 wicket victory for a total match attendance of over 222,000, the seeds had been sown for the now modern tradition.

 

The ACB went back to the old New Year’s Test schedule at the ‘G’ for the next 4 years, but their new TV Masters at Kerry Packer’s Channel 9 pushed hard for Boxing Day Test Cricket to go up against the then Australian Open Tennis coverage on the rival 7 Network.

 

(This was when the Australian Open was held over the Christmas/New Year period across town from the MCG at Kooyong).

 

Hence, New Zealand restored the Boxing Day Test match for their Draw with Australia in 1980.  Ratings were high, even though crowds were relatively low (only 28,671 for Boxing Day) – enough to persist with for the next couple of summers.

 

Two epic Test Matches – against the West Indies and England respectively – followed for the next two Boxing Day Tests with bigger December 26 crowds (nearly 40,000 in 1981, and 63,900 in 1982).

 

The ACB then had no choice but to set the modern Boxing Day MCG tradition in stone.

 

There has been a Test Match at the MCG either starting or including play on December 26 every year since – except for 1989 when the main attraction that summer (Pakistan) did not arrive in Australia until Christmas week itself.

 

This forced a One Day international against Sri Lanka on that Boxing Day – the only time an ODI has been (and probably ever will) be played on December 26 in Australia.

 

So – to mark the 50th anniversary of the start of this modern Australian sporting tradition – this Footy Almanac fan makes his debut post/s over the next few days with my 10 Great Boxing Day MCG Tests in 2 Parts.

 

This is NOT THE defining list – just this Footy Almanac Debutant’s list.  In the great tradition of this site, it should jog some memories and get some discussions going.

 

Some of Australian Cricket’s greatest – and controversial – moments have taken place at the “G” either in the Boxing Day Test or on Boxing Day itself.

 

It is fitting that as the MCG Boxing Day Test Tradition turns 50, we mark some of those moments here at the Footy Almanac.

 

 

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Comments

  1. Colin Ritchie says

    Welcome to the Almanac Tony, cracking read and brought back many memories of Boxing Day Tests I’ve attended as well as a couple of Sheffield Shield matches also attended on Boxing Day. Thanks Tony.

  2. A good opening spell to your Almanac career, Tony. Lots of memories revived here. Those Victoria v NSW clashes were played with an intensity equal to all the great rivalries in Australian sport.

    Looking forward to your forthcoming contributions.

  3. Great stuff Tony, I imagine the 1981 Test will feature highly.

  4. Welcome on board Tony. Yep the 1974-75 third test in the Ashes series was one of the first MCG tests starting on Boxing Day.

    After winning the opening two tests easily we were pushed all the way here by England with the result being a draw, a fitting end to a tight match where neither side dominated. One of my memories was during the rain/light disruptions on Day 2 some scallywags in the crowd dressed as umpires and made their way on to the ground. Many people in the outer thought they were the real umpires, with play resuming soon: not to be.

    Then on New Years Day ,England beat us by three wickets in an ODI. This being only the second ODI played at the MCG, with of course the first ODI being four years prior when these two sides played an ODI in lieu of the washed out test.

    Here’s a little something that may interest you.

    https://www.footyalmanac.com.au/almanac-cricket-boxing-day-test-cricket-at-the-g-50-years-ago/

    Glen!

  5. Keiran Croker says

    Thanks Tony,
    Boxing Day 1974 was the first time I attended Test Cricket. Since then, unless I’ve been living overseas or away on holiday I’ve attended at least one day of play for the Test.
    I don’t tend to remember heaps of details so will be interested in your upcoming articles.
    Cheers, Keiran.

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