All Today's Yesterday's - May 4

All Today's Yesterdays: May 4 down the years

1960
Birth of England's Martyn "Frog" Moxon, the unluckiest of the eight men to make 99 in a Test but never a century. Against New Zealand at Auckland in 1987-88 Moxon swept three runs flush off the middle early in his innings, only for the umpire to give them as leg-byes. It was an error that proved costly when he fell to Ewen Chatfield on 99. In the next Test at Wellington he was set to right the wrong, but rain washed out the last two days with Moxon stuck on 81 not out. That was as close as Moxon got in ten appearances. He was a sound technician whose flying start to his county career (he scored centuries in his first two home matches) led Yorkshire fans to hail him as the new Geoff Boycott. Upon retirement he became director of coaching at Yorkshire before moving on to coach Durham in 2001.

1990
A second one-day hat-trick in six months for Wasim Akram, as Pakistan beat Australia by 36 runs in the Sharjah final. Wasim finished things off by bowling Merv Hughes, Carl Rackemann and Terry Alderman with consecutive deliveries. Wasim is the only man to have taken two hat-tricks in Tests and one-day internationals. Not entirely surprisingly, given the advent of reverse swing, eight out of the 15 ODI hat-tricks have been taken by Pakistanis.

1957
An Australian legspinner is born. Peter Sleep, one of the many relatively anodyne slow bowlers given a chance before Shane Warne arrived, was rather innocuous at Test level, as a strike rate of a wicket every 96 balls suggests. He did win an Ashes Test, though, at Sydney in 1986-87, taking his only five-for in the second innings of a match better remembered for Peter Taylor's debut exploits. Sleep, who was wittily nicknamed "Sounda", also made three Test fifties, and was a Lancashire League regular for many years, before becoming captain and then coach of Lancashire's 2nd XI.

1875
A dual international is born. As well as playing rugby for England, Reggie Schwarz played 20 Tests for South Africa in their formative years. He was an offspinner with a difference - he was a wristspinner who only bowled the googly, often to a 6/4 leg-side field. He took 55 wickets at an average of 25, with a strike rate of a wicket every 48 balls, sensational for a spinner. He died in Etaples, France, in 1918.

1970
Paul Wiseman, the New Zealand offspinner who was born today, has struggled for opportunities because of the excellence of Daniel Vettori. He has played a couple of matchwinning hands, though. On his debut in Colombo in 1997-98, he bowled Sri Lanka to defeat with seven wickets, including five in the second innings. And he took eight more when Zimbabwe were beaten at Bulawayo three years later. But in his other 12 Tests, Wiseman has managed only 19 wickets.

Other birthday 1867 Nicolaas Theunissen (South Africa)