Younis Khan, the 22-year-old Habib Bank batsman making his Test debut at Rawalpindi, today became only the fourth player to score a Test century on Leap Year Day. His hundred was part of a strong Pakistan rearguard action in the first Test against Sri Lanka.
There haven't been many internationals played on this bonus day, but the last time there was it threw up one of the biggest shocks in cricket history: Kenya clobbered West Indies by 73 runs at Pune in the 1996 World Cup. In a good omen for Pakistan, one of their players scored a century against Sri Lanka in the other match that day - Aamir Sohail, with 111 at Karachi. But he won't be repeating that feat this time, as he's already been dismissed.
The first Test scheduled to include play on Feb 29 didn't actually have any, because it rained. That was the fourth Test of the 1903-04 Ashes series, at Sydney. And the same happened at the SCG in 1912 - no play because of rain in the final Ashes Test. England went on to win both those games, so perhaps they should try Leap Year play more often.
The first Test which actually included play on Feb 29 was in 1932. It was the second day of the inaugural South Africa-New Zealand Test, at Christchurch. Replying to New Zealand's 293, Jim Christy (103) and Bruce Mitchell (113) put on 196 and notched up the first two Leap Year Day centuries. South Africa won by an innings.
It was another 32 years before it happened again, and again it was New Zealand v South Africa, this time at Dunedin. NZ reached 114 for 6 on a curtailed second day (the first day had been rained off), and the match was eventually drawn.
In 1968 two Tests started on Leap Year Day; the drawn third match between West Indies and England at Bridgetown, where Pat Pocock made his debut after Fred Titmus's horrific boating accident, which cost him four toes. At Wellington, New Zealand took on India in the third Test of a four-match series. India won that one by eight wickets.
Fast-forward 20 years to 1988, and the first Test to end on Feb 29, as New Zealand drew with Mike Gatting's England at Auckland. Mark Greatbatch became the fourth Kiwi to score a century on debut - and the third to make a Leap Year Day hundred.
That's the whole story for Test matches, but there have been three one-day internationals apart from that '96 World Cup shock. In 1984 Desmond Haynes thumped 133 not out at Berbice, in Guyana, as West Indies overhauled Australia's 231 with two overs to spare. And two matches in the 1992 World Cup were extra-day specials: New Zealand beat South Africa by seven wickets at Auckland, despite Peter Kirsten's 90, and West Indies hammered Zimbabwe by 75 runs at Brisbane, where Dave Houghton became the first man to score a one-day fifty on Leap Year Day after breaking a toe early in his innings.
One famous player who was born on Feb 29 is Alf Gover, now England's oldest surviving Test player at 92 (or 23 actual birthdays). The only other Test player born on the big day is Gavin Stevens, the South Australia opener who played four matches for Australia in 1959-60.
Steven Lynch is managing editor of Wisden Cricket Monthly. Additional research by Dominic Graham
