- Start time for the Boxing Day Test is 10:30am local, 11:30pm GMT
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Pass the time while the drizzle hangs around with Simon Burton’s look at Boxing Day Tests of yore.
The Boxing Day Test has become, in the words of Mark Butcher, “a major part of cricketing folklore”, but it was a surprisingly recent addition to the calendar. England and Australia first met on that date in 1950, when the second Test resumed on 26 December after two days off. The following year, West Indies played Test cricket on Christmas Day itself, which one tourist declared “sacrilegious” and was not much more popular with the home side. “I have never played on Christmas Day before in my life and don’t like having to do so now,” an unnamed Australian said.
