Lance Gibbs took his 309th Test wicket — Gary Gilmour caught Fredericks — in the sixth Test of the 1975-76 series at the MCG, passing Fred Trueman's previous record of 307 and becoming the first spinner to lead the all-time Test wicket-takers' list. The wicket was his last in international cricket. He retired at the end of the tour, holding the record until Dennis Lillee passed him in December 1981.
Gibbs had toured Australia twice before — in 1960-61 with Worrell's hat-trick side, and in 1968-69 with Sobers. His record against Australia, 18 wickets at 50 in 1968-69, had been one of the few weak entries on his card; the 1975-76 tour was, in some respects, his final attempt to correct it. He took 16 wickets at 40, modest by his standards, but enough at the MCG to push past Trueman.
Trueman, retired since 1965, had held the record since taking his 300th in 1964 against Australia at the Oval. The transition from a Yorkshire fast bowler's figure to a Guyanese off-spinner's underlined how much had changed in the cricket of the intervening decade.
Gibbs had reached 300 Test wickets earlier in the series at the WACA in December 1975, dismissing Gilmour for the milestone. He approached the MCG one wicket short of Trueman's record. In Australia's first innings he bowled the first short delivery of an off-spinner's second-innings spell at Ian Redpath, who edged it to Murray; Trueman's record was equalled. In the second innings, the wicket of Gilmour — caught Fredericks — moved him to 309 and the record outright.
The sixth Test was Gibbs's seventy-ninth and final Test. He had played his first in March 1958 against Pakistan. His Test economy rate of 1.99 — under two an over for an entire career — remained, even by 2024, the lowest by any post-war specialist with more than fifty Tests.
Perth, December 1975: Gibbs takes 300th Test wicket (Gilmour)
MCG, 31 January 1976: equals Trueman's 307 with Redpath
MCG, second innings: takes Gilmour for 309 — record
Series ends 5-1 to Australia
Gibbs retires from international cricket
March 1958
Test debut, Lahore, vs Pakistan
December 1975
300th Test wicket (Gilmour, Perth)
31 January 1976
MCG — equals Trueman's 307 with Redpath
5 February 1976
MCG — takes Gilmour for 309; record outright
28 December 1981
Lillee passes Gibbs's record at the MCG
Gibbs returned to Guyana after the tour and concentrated on his career as a West Indian selector and later coach. The record stood until 28 December 1981, when Dennis Lillee took the wicket of Larry Gomes at the MCG to pass it. Lillee, who had been on the field as a fast bowler when Gibbs reached the record, was the first to acknowledge the symmetry.
Gibbs's record holds particular significance in the West Indian cricketing tradition: he was the last specialist spinner of any nationality to lead the all-time Test wicket-takers list until Muralitharan in the 2000s.
Australia won the Test by 165 runs and the series 5-1. Gibbs retired with 309 Test wickets — a world record that stood until Lillee passed it on 28 December 1981 at Melbourne against the West Indies, in symmetrical circumstances.
The 309 figure is central to the canon of off-spin bowling. Gibbs's flighted, side-spun ball, bowled with a high arm and economical action, was the template for off-spinners through the next two decades — most explicitly for Erapalli Prasanna and, later, Tim May.
That a specialist spinner held the all-time wicket-taking record for the second half of the 1970s — at the height of the Lillee-Thomson and Holding-Roberts era — is itself part of the legacy. It indicated that, even in a decade dominated by pace, classical finger-spin remained capable of harvesting Test wickets at the highest level.
Yorkshire v Essex
1932-06-16
On 15-16 June 1932 Herbert Sutcliffe (313) and Percy Holmes (224*) put on 555 for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton, breaking the world first-class record for any wicket and adding a layer of folklore — including a scoreboard that read 554 for several minutes and a hastily reversed declaration — that has clung to the partnership ever since.
Australia v England
1933-02-14
With the fate of the Bodyline series in the balance and England 216 for 6 chasing 340, Eddie Paynter checked himself out of a Brisbane hospital where he was being treated for acute tonsillitis, taxied to the Gabba in pyjamas and a dressing gown, and batted for nearly four hours to score 83. England drew level on first innings, won the Test by six wickets and the series 4-1.
Australia
1934-09-25
Days after the 1934 Oval Test, Bradman fell seriously ill with appendicitis that progressed to peritonitis. With antibiotics not yet available, he was given little chance of survival; his wife Jessie left Adelaide on a sea voyage to England prepared for the worst. He recovered after weeks of intensive nursing in a London nursing home and returned to first-class cricket the following Australian summer.