Come in number 1917, your time is up

The game at McLean Park is the 1917th test match, going back to 1877 when 2,000 Melbourne residents turned up to watch the touring English side take on a 'combined' side including players from both NSW and Victoria at Richmond Park.

There have been a lot of incredible moments in-between - Bert Sutcliffe and Bob Blair batting in the fog of grief and emotion at Ellis Park (number 378), a test tied by a matter of a meter (498), a game which lasted ten days, and still ended in a draw (271), a game that was decided on just two innings (1483) and such extraordinary sporting moments that even a cipher of a ground and a year can recall memories of shots and wickets - Headingley 81, Kolkata 01, Carisbrook 80, Madras 86, Edgbaston 05, and older matches where no eyes who saw them remain to bear witness to them - The Oval 1882, Sydney 1895.

There have been controversies on the field that have rattled cricket - creating diplomatic incidents - names like Shakoor Rana, Darrell Hair, Douglas Jardine, Hansie Cronje, Muttiah Muralidharan, Geoff Griffin.

There have been heroic moments from Graeme Smith, Colin Cowdrey, Michael Atherton, Michael Whitney, Ewen Chatfield.

There have been performances of absurd athleticism, skill or stamina from Mark Greatbatch, Tom Richardson, Brian Lara, Harbhajan Singh, Waqar Younis, Willie Watson (no not that one...), Richard Hadlee, Jim Laker, Hugh Trumble and Mitchell Johnson.

There have been hideous injuries - to Ewen Chatfield, or Andy Lloyd, or Jason Gillespie. No-one who heard them will ever forget the bellows of Syd Lawrence as he writhed on the Basin pitch with a patella split in two.

Tragedy has breathed its livid breath over players like Archie Jackson, Gordon Greenidge, Ken Wadsworth, Colin Milburn, Johnny Briggs, Glenn McGrath and Jock Cameron. Politics has chilled the careers of Lala Amarnath, Heath Streak, Basil d'Oliveira, Charlie Parker and many South Africans of the 1970s and Pakistanis of recent times. There have been bombings, shootings, sabotage and fire.

There have been pitches infected by insects, or improperly prepared. There have been hoses mysteriously left on, and wickets deliberately glued, and vandalism in support of a prisoner.

Opera singers, priests, policemen, miners, cartoonists, florists, grave-diggers and princes have played test cricket. Nazi sympathizers, murderers, drug addicts and paedophiles have played test cricket. Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims, Christians and Buddhists have played test cricket - and that's just for India.

A Kenyan has played for New Zealand, an Egyptian for Zimbabwe, a Dane for England, and a Dalmatian for Australia. 

There is such an extraordinary freight of history that you might think there is nothing new that could possibly be original when umpires head out to place their stumps on the first morning of the 1917th test.

But no. McLean Park's latest entry into history may develop into one of the great games, or it might flop into deep dullness and boredom. That is for the next few days to witness.

But when the history of test cricket is recorded, McLean Park 09 - the second test to be played in Napier this summer, and only included in the tour schedule because of the terror attacks in Mumbai - may be remembered as the moment where two young blokes of Polynesian extraction played innings of great abandon, and less than 20 other pairs had made such a high partnership for the fourth wicket. Ever. In 1916 games.

It might also mark the game when Jesse Ryder began his ascent to becoming the world's number one batsman. Was his innings that good? Against an attack of Sharma, Patel, Khan and Singh - coming at 27 for 3? Supporting a skittish Taylor to a century of his own? Oh yes, it really was that good.