The Centenary Test — Australia vs England, MCG, March 1977

The first Test match in cricket history had been played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground from 15-19 March 1877, with Australia beating James Lillywhite's England touring side by 45 runs. The 1977 commemoration was conceived in the early 1970s by the Australian Cricket Board's Hans Ebeling, himself a former Australian Test cricketer, who envisaged a single-Test celebration with surviving Test players from both countries as guests.

The roll call of attendees was extraordinary: 244 surviving Test players, including Sir Don Bradman, Sir Leonard Hutton, Sir Garfield Sobers (as guest of honour), Sir Frank Worrell's widow, and the youngest Test cricketers from each country. The pre-match parade and the post-match presentation by the Queen were televised globally.

The two sides themselves were strong. Australia, captained by Greg Chappell, contained Lillee, Marsh, Walker and Doug Walters. England, captained by Tony Greig (already secretly contracted to Kerry Packer's then-unannounced World Series Cricket), contained Boycott (in a personal exile from Test cricket), Knott, Underwood, Willis and Randall.

The Australian Cricket Board's marketing of the Centenary Test was unusually intense by 1970s standards: dedicated commemorative coins, a programme distributed nationally, television coverage in colour for the first Australian audience, and a corporate hospitality programme that introduced practices the modern game would later adopt as standard. Ticket demand exceeded MCG capacity by some margin.

Australia won the toss and chose to bat. Conditions were dry and the pitch produced bounce. The first innings collapse — Australia 138 a.o. — was followed by an even more rapid England implosion at the hands of Lillee and Walker. The match looked likely to finish in three days.

The fixture had been organised by the Australian Cricket Board to mark the centenary of the inaugural Test in March 1877. Surviving Test cricketers from both countries — many in their seventies and eighties — were flown to Melbourne and presented to the crowd. The Queen attended the closing day. The match was deliberately scheduled outside the regular Ashes calendar; a one-off occasion, it carried no series implications.

The cricket itself produced the unlikely symmetry that has fixed it in memory. Australia, batting first, were dismissed for 138. England were then bowled out for 95 — Lillee 6/26, Max Walker 4/54. Australia's second innings of 419/9 declared, with Rod Marsh 110*, set England 463 to win. Derek Randall, batting at four, made 174 across nine and a half hours; his innings, including a celebrated mock-doff of his cap to Lillee after surviving a bouncer, took England to within 46 runs of an improbable victory before he was caught down the leg side off Greg Chappell.

The final margin of 45 runs in Australia's favour exactly replicated the result of the inaugural 1877 Test at the same ground. Wisden's editor noted that the coincidence "would not have been believed in fiction".

“It would not have been believed in fiction.”

“I doffed my cap to Dennis. He had hit me on the head twice already. It seemed the only courteous thing to do.”

The Centenary Test was almost universally received as a triumph of cricketing organisation and historical sentiment. The 45-run-margin coincidence sealed its mythological status. Wisden's report opened with the line "It would not have been believed in fiction"; subsequent retrospectives have invariably identified the match as one of the great sporting occasions of the 1970s.

Within weeks, however, the cricketing landscape was transformed in a different direction. Tony Greig's role at the centre of Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket recruitment — already secretly contracted at the MCG — was disclosed in May 1977, leading to his dismissal as England captain and the broader split of the international game. Many of the players who had taken part in the Centenary Test would, by the following Australian summer, be playing in Packer matches at Waverley Park rather than for their countries. The Centenary Test thus also marks the last moment of the pre-WSC unified game.