It was the 1506th Test match in cricket history.It was the 771st Test for England and 362nd for West Indies.It was the 124th Test match between these two sides (67th on English
soil).Umpires Doug Cowie and Peter Willey were officiating in their 17th
and 20th Test respectively.Marcus Trescothick made his Test debut for England.He became the
603rd player to represent England in Test cricket.Mike Atherton and Alec Stewart both played their 100th Test. They
became 22nd and 23rd player respectively to make 100 or Test match
appearances. However it is the first time that two players made their
100th appearance in same Test match. Atherton and Stewart joined the
ranks of five other Englishmen, six Australians, five West Indians,
three Indians and two Pakistanis. The accompanying table lists all
players with 100 or more Test appearances in chronological order :Table I : 100 Test club members
Player (Country) First Test 100th Test Time Span
Colin Cowdrey (Eng) Nov 26, 1954 Jul 11, 1968 13 yrs 228 days
v Aus, Brisbane v Aus, Birmingham
Geoff Boycott (Eng) Jun 4, 1964 Jul 2, 1981 17 yrs 28 days
v Aus, Nottingham v Aus, Lord's
Clive Lloyd (WI) Dec 13, 1966 Apr 28, 1984 17 yrs 1370 days
v Ind, Mumbai v Aus, Kingston
Sunil Gavaskar(Ind) Mar 6, 1971 Oct 17, 1984 13 yrs 225 days
v WI, Portof Spain v Pak, Karachi
David Gower (Eng) Jun 1, 1978 Jul 21, 1988 10 yrs 50 days
v Pak, Birmingham v WI, Leeds
Viv Richards (WI) Nov 22, 1974 Nov 18, 1988 13 yrs 362 days
v Ind, Bangalore v Aus, Brisbane
Dilip Vengsarkar(Ind) Jan 24, 1976 Nov 24, 1988 12 yrs 305 days
v NZ, Auckland v NZ, Mumbai
Allan Border (Aus) Dec 29, 1978 Dec 24, 1988 9 yrs 361 days
v Eng, Melbourne v WI, Melbourne
Kapil Dev (Ind) Oct 16, 1978 Nov 15, 1989 11 yrs 30 days
v Pak, Faisalabad v Pak, Karachi
Javed Miandad (Pak) Oct 9, 1976 Dec 1, 1989 13 yrs 53 days
v NZ, Lahore v Ind, Lahore
Gordon Greenidge(WI) Nov 22, 1974 Apr 13, 1990 15 yrs 162 days
v Ind, Bangalore v Eng, St.John's
Desmond Haynes (WI) Mar 3, 1978 Jul 4, 1991 13 yrs 123 days
v Aus, Portof Spain v Eng, Nottingham
Ian Botham (Eng) Jul 28, 1977 Feb 2, 1992 14 yrs 189 days
v Aus, Nottingham v NZ, Wellington
Graham Gooch (Eng) Jul 10, 1975 Jan 29, 1993 16 yrs 203 days
v Aus, Birmingham v India, Calcutta
David Boon (Aus) Nov 23, 1984 Apr 21, 1995 10 yrs 139 days
v WI, Brisbane v WI, Portof Spain
Steve Waugh (Aus) Dec 26, 1985 Jan 2, 1998 12 yrs 7 days
v Ind, Melbourne v SA, Sydney
Ian Healy (Aus) Sep 15, 1988 Jan 30, 1998 9 yrs 137 days
v Pak, Karachi v SA, Adelaide
Courtney Walsh (WI) Nov 9, 1984 Feb 27, 1998 13 yrs 110 days
v Aus, Perth v Eng, Georgetown
Mark Taylor (Aus) Jan 26, 1989 Nov 20, 1998 9 yrs 298 days
v WI, Sydney v Eng, Brisbane
Saleem Malik (Pak) Mar 5, 1982 Dec 10, 1998 16 yrs 280 days
v SL, Karachi v Zim, Lahore
Mark Waugh (Aus) Jan 25, 1991 Jan 2, 2000 8 yrs 342 days
v Eng, Adelaide v Ind, Sydney
Mike Atherton (Eng) Aug 10, 1989 Aug 3, 2000 10 yrs 359 days
v Aus, Nottingham v WI, Manchester
Alec Stewart (Eng) Feb 24, 1990 Aug 3, 2000 10 yrs 161 days
v WI, Kingston v WI, Manchester
Table II :Country wise break-up of 100 Test appearances
Tests Player vs Eng Aus SA WI NZ Ind Pak SL Zim
156 Allan Border 47 x 6 31 23 20 22 7 0
131 Kapil Dev 27 20 4 25 10 x 29 14 2
128 Steve Waugh 37 x 10 24 20 11 17 8 1
125 Sunil Gavaskar 38 20 0 27 9 x 24 7 0
124 Javed Miandad 22 25 0 16 18 28 x 12 3
121 Viv Richards 36 34 0 x 7 28 16 0 0
120 Courtney Walsh 34 33 5 x 10 15 18 3 2
119 Ian Healy 33 x 12 28 11 9 14 11 1
118 Graham Gooch x 42 3 26 15 19 10 3 0
117 David Gower x 42 0 19 13 24 17 2 0
116 Dilip Vengsarkar 26 24 0 25 11 x 22 8 0
116 Desmond Haynes 36 33 1 x 10 19 16 1 0
114 Colin Cowdrey x 43 14 21 18 8 10 0 0
110 Clive Lloyd 34 29 0 x 8 28 11 0 0
108 Geoff Boycott x 38 7 29 15 13 6 0 0
108 Gordon Greenidge 32 29 0 x 10 23 14 0 0
107 David Boon 31 x 6 22 17 11 11 9 0
104 Mark Taylor 33 x 11 20 11 9 12 8 0
103 Mark Waugh 24 x 12 23 11 11 12 9 1
103 Saleem Malik 19 15 1 7 18 22 x 15 6
102 Ian Botham x 36 0 20 15 14 14 3 0
100 Mike Atherton x 28 18 25 11 7 6 1 4
100 Alec Stewart x 24 18 22 16 5 8 3 4
Stewart became the fourth player to score a century in his 100th
Test after Colin Cowdrey (104 v Australia at Birmingham in 1968), Javed
Miandad (145 v India at Lahore in 1989-90) and Gordon Greenidge (149 v
England at St.John's in 1989-90) The hundred was the fifth for Stewart as wicketkeeper.He now equals
the tally of England's Alan Knott and West Indies' Jeff Dujon. Now
only England's Les Ames with 8 hundreds and Zimbabwe's Andy Flower
with 7 hundreds are ahead of Stewart. Trescothick became the 84th Englishman to score a fifty on Test
debut. He also became the 19th Englishman to do so at batting position
two. The second wicket partnership of 179 runs between Trescothick and
Stewart is England's highest for any wicket against West Indies at Old
Trafford. This obliterates the previous record stand of 161 runs
between Trevor Bailey and Godfrey Evans in 1950.Incidentally England's
previous highest for the fourth wicket was 120 run-stand between Wally
Hammond and Douglas Jardine in 1928. Brian Lara scored his 14th hundred in his 68th Test-his sixth
against England in 20th Test. Now only Gary Sobers (10 hundreds in 36
Tests), George Headley (8 in 16), Viv Richards (8 in 36) and Gordon
Greenidge (7 in 32) have scored more hundreds for West Indies against
England. Lara is at level with Frank Worrell (6 in 25). Jimmy Adams completed his fifty in 282 minutes (and off 214 balls)
which is the second joint slowest fifty for West Indies against
England. The record is on the name of Steve Camacho who took 300
minutes for his fifty during his innings of 57 at Bridgetown in
1967-68. While Easton McMorris also took as many as 282 minutes for his
fifty during his innings of 73 at Kingston in 1959-60. The last time when West Indies made a total of 400 plus against any
opponent in an 'away' Test was way back in 1995 when it had made 692
for 8d also against England at The Oval. West Indies had played 17
Tests in between without crossing 400 mark even once. It was also the
highest total for West Indies in last one and half years 'home or
away'-since declaring its innings at 500 for seven also against
England at St.John's in March 1998.