Mumbai: Shahid Afridi, on Sunday, became the third Pakistani batsman to get out on duck on his birthday in One Day Internationals (ODI). In Brisbane, he could not open his account in the World Cup match against Zimbabwe on his 35th birthday.
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Basit Ali and Azhar Mahmood are the other cricketers who had a similar situation in the past. Had 2015 been a leap year, two more international cricketers would have celebrated their birthday on Sunday.
According to India's renowned cricket statistician Mohandas Menon, only three international cricketers are born on February 29.
England's Alf Gover, who was born in the leap year of 1908, died in 2001. He played four Test matches. Interestingly, Gover, who was born in Epsom (in a house overlooking the cricket ground) was also England’s oldest cricketer when he died at the age of 93.
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Australian bowler Sean Abbott – also born on February 29, 1992 – did not celebrate this time as he was playing a match for New South Wales. He has played one ODI and three Twenty20 matches for Australia.
Another Australian Gavin Stevens, who was born in Adelaide on February 29, 1932 played four Test matches.
On top of that, the most famous cricket event to have taken place on a leap year day was Kenya’s upset victory over West Indies in 1996 World Cup.
