Boxing Day Tests - History, Records, and Anecdotes

Boxing Day falls a day after Christmas and was once celebrated by donating gifts to those in need. The term "Boxing Day" has been traced back to Charles Dickens, who coined the term in 1833, derived from the act of “boxing” these gifts before giving them away.

It’s now evolved to become a part of Christmas festivities, with people celebrating it by going out shopping or spending time with their loved ones. 

It originated in the United Kingdom and is now celebrated in most Commonwealth nations. 

We’ll have to go over 150 years back in time to look at cricket’s first association with Boxing Day. The first recorded Boxing Day cricket match took place at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) in 1865 when Victoria and New South Wales (NSW) faced each other in a timeless, four-balls/Sheffield Shield game. 

Visiting NSW players, however, were not one bit amused at having to miss Christmas time with their families. As a result, the games were moved to the New Year period, often starting around the 1st of January. 

The first-ever Boxing Day Test in Australia happened much later, when the 1950-51 Ashes saw the second Test being scheduled from 22nd to 28th December (25th and 26th being rest days). MCG was chosen to be the venue for this historic Test. The touring English side received a huge setback when vice-captain Dennis Compton could not recover from his damaged knee in time and had to miss the Test. 

Chasing 178 in the final innings, the fall of the experienced Len Hutton and teenaged Brian Close in quick succession had England reeling. Despite contributions from their No.6 William Parkhouse, who came into the side to replace Denis Compton and tailender Alec Bedser, the Aussies managed to successfully defend the total and win the Test by a slender margin of 28 runs. 

Australia then went on to host Boxing Day Tests against West Indies and South Africa in 1951-52 and 1952-52, respectively. The former was also the first Test match to be played on Christmas (December 25th) and was played in Adelaide, while the Test against Proteas the following year was once again hosted by Melbourne.

Post this, only one more Boxing Day Test was played for the next 22 years when Australia took on West Indies at the MCG in 1968. Seeing the success of the six–Test Ashes in 1970-71, Cricket Australia once again chose to make it a six-Test clash for the 1974-75 series. In order to fit them all into the overall schedule, the third Test at the MCG was scheduled to begin on the 26th of December. 

The very next year, West Indies played their third Boxing Test as Melbourne witnessed a mammoth attendance of 85,661 for the epic encounter. 

These were also the first instances of the Boxing Day Test beginning on the 26th of December, just like the modern tradition. However, it took Australian sports mogul Kerry Packer’s ingenuity for this to become an annual occurrence.

Channel Nine, owned by Kerry Packer, acquired the television rights for Australian cricket in 1979. And understanding the importance of popularising the sport, they made Boxing Day Tests a key and mandatory feature of the Australian cricket summer. 

Since then, Australia have played a Boxing Day Test every year, barring 1989, when they chose to play a Boxing Day ODI against Sri Lanka. 

Given that summers in December happen only in the southern hemisphere, this tradition also exists in cricket-playing nations based in this region.  

South Africa were, in fact, the first country to host Boxing Day Tests, having played England in December 1913. The concept of Boxing Day Tests as such did not really exist back in the day, and the pre-1980 Tests being referred to here were played during Christmas and Boxing Day, nothing more than that. 

The Proteas hosted 13 Boxing Day Tests until 1970, when they were banned from international cricket due to apartheid. Post their reinstation, South Africa have featured in a Boxing Day Test every year since 1992. 

On seven occasions, South Africa travelled to Australia to take part in a Boxing Day Test as visitors. Apart from these years, they have hosted a Test every year. In the 20 such Tests played in South Africa from 1992 to 2017, 14 were played at Kingsmead, Durban and the remaining six were hosted by Port Elizabeth. Since the 2018 Boxing Day Test, Centurion Park has become the designated venue for these Tests. 

New Zealand is the only other country to have a Boxing Day tradition. But, in their case, it’s been more a case of playing cricket on Boxing Day. Having hosted their first-ever Boxing Day Test in 1998, they have hosted eight Tests, eight ODIs, and three T20Is on Boxing Day. 

Outside cricket, the English Premier League also follows a Boxing Day tradition where each of the 20 teams feature on the 26th and 27th of December. 

Further, India are the only visiting team to have won two successive Boxing Day Tests in Australia. And with the scoreline reading 1-1 in the ongoing series Down Under, they will want to pocket yet another Boxing Day Test to take the lead in this winner-takes-all series.