The day after Christmas, originated as a day when people would be gifting boxes to people in need, now is far away from the original tradition. Today it is celebrated for various other reasons, one of which is playing test match. A tradition originated in Australia during the Australian summer of Cricket, it is when a test match is played between Australia and any other test playing nation in front of the 90000 people pack stadium of Melbourne. The test match is celebrated as historic due to the scale of the audience and the hype created around it due to a special occasion. In addition to Australia, even South Africa organizes a test match on the day of Boxing Day.
This year, Australia is hosting Pakistan at the Melbourne for the Boxing Day whereas South Africa would be hosting India at the Centurion Park. While many term Australia versus Pakistan as dead rubber, India versus South Africa is a much anticipated series.
The history of Boxing Day test match goes long back. Boxing Day test match never fails to entertain audience and leave them in awe of the sport. Even the players dream of playing on the boxing day at the Melbourne in front of 90000 people and do well for their countries. Once you succeed at that level, your name gets edged in the history of the sport.
Recently, a new tradition has started that the winner of man of the match award on the Boxing Day would receive the Mullagh Medal, named in honor of Indigenous Australian Cricketer Johnny Mullagh. This tradition only started in 2020 with Ajinkya Rahane being the first one to win this medal.
There are many highlight moments which have taken place on this day, the, most historic one being the 700th wicket of Shane Warne. Other than that there had been innumerous innings which had been an example pure class and skills which makes this day more special. In recent times, the Ajinkya Rahane century which inspired India for not only a win in that match but for a series win after the horrendous and humiliating 36 all out. Other than that, another special innings played on the Boxing Day was Jonathon Trot’s century in 2010 propelling England to a series win after 24 years.
There had been very few occasions where Australia had lost a match on Boxing Day and recently only India had been able to defeat them.
Boxing Day would always be a historic day to play test match and players would always strive to do well in front of the energetic crowd that the Australia posses.
~BY Pushkar Tiwari