Boxing Day Test

For other uses, see Boxing Day Test (disambiguation).

The Boxing Day Test match is a cricket Test match held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, involving the Australia national cricket team and an opposing national team that is touring Australia during the southern summer. It begins annually on Boxing Day (26 December) and is played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).

Boxing Day Test
The Melbourne Cricket Ground during the first day of the 2015 Boxing Day Test match
Status	Active
Genre	Sporting event
Begins	26 December
Ends	On or before 30 December
Frequency	Annual
Venue	Melbourne Cricket Ground
Location(s)	Melbourne, Victoria
Country	Australia
Inaugurated	1968 (1968)

History

Cricket crowd at the Boxing Day Test in 2007

By long tradition, a Sheffield Shield match between Victoria and New South Wales had been played at the MCG over the Christmas period dating back as far as 1865. ^[1] It included Boxing Day as one of the scheduled days of play, much to the chagrin of the NSW players who missed spending Christmas with their families as a result. The Melbourne Test was usually held over the New Year period, often starting on 1 January.

During the 1950–51 Ashes series, the Melbourne Test was played from 22 to 27 December, with the fourth day's play being on Boxing Day, but no Test matches were played on Boxing Day in Melbourne between 1953 and 1967. Because there were six Tests in the 1974–75 Ashes series, in order to fit them all in to the overall schedule, the Third Test at Melbourne was scheduled to start on Boxing Day.

That was the origin of the modern tradition, although it was not until 1980 that it was formalised by the Australian Cricket Board, alongside the recent acquisition of its television rights by the Nine Network, and Melbourne emphasising its hosting of major sporting events (such as the AFL Grand Final and Australian Open) to offset the decline of its manufacturing industry.^[2]

The Boxing Day Test has cultural significance and often draws large crowds,^[3] although increased competition from Twenty20 fixtures in the Big Bash League has led to variances in attendance; the MCG hosted its largest Boxing Day crowd in 2013, the fourth Test of the 2013–14 Ashes series against England.^[3]

Individual awards

Since 1975, there has been an official Player of the Match named in each Boxing Day Test. Since 2020, the man of the match has received the Mullagh Medal, named in honour of Indigenous Australian cricketer Johnny Mullagh.^[4][5]

A panorama of the MCG for day one of the 2024 Boxing Day Test.

List of Boxing Day Test matches

Year	Opposition team	Result	Boxing Day Crowd	Total Attendance	Player of the Match: Mullagh Medal
1968	West Indies	Australia won by an innings and 30 runs	18,766	113,376
1974	England	Draw	77,167	250,750[6]
1975	West Indies	Australia won by 8 wickets	85,661	222,755[6]	Jeff Thomson
1980	New Zealand	Draw	28,671	82,745	Richard Hadlee
1981	West Indies	Australia won by 58 runs	39,982	134,081[6]	Kim Hughes
1982	England	England won by 3 runs	63,900	214,882[6]	Norman Cowans
1983	Pakistan	Draw	40,277	111,611[6]	Graham Yallop
1985	India	Draw	18,146	77,715[6]	Allan Border
1986	England	England won by an innings and 14 runs	58,203	107,817[6]	Gladstone Small
1987	New Zealand	Draw	51,807	127,184[6]	Richard Hadlee
1990	England	Australia won by 9 wickets	49,763	129,530[6]	Bruce Reid
1991	India	Australia won by 8 wickets	42,494	89,369[6]	Bruce Reid
1992	West Indies	Australia won by 139 runs	28,397	83,320[6]	Shane Warne
1993	South Africa	Draw	15,604[a]	48,565[6]	Mark Taylor
1995	Sri Lanka	Australia won by 10 wickets	55,239	105,388[6]	Glenn McGrath
1996	West Indies	West Indies won by 6 wickets	72,891	131,671[6]	Curtly Ambrose
1997	South Africa	Draw	73,812	160,182[6]	Jacques Kallis
1998	England	England won by 12 runs	61,580	159,031[6]	Dean Headley
1999	India	Australia won by 180 runs	49,082[a]	134,554[6]	Sachin Tendulkar
2000	West Indies	Australia won by 352 runs	73,233	133,299[6]	Steve Waugh
2001	South Africa	Australia won by 9 wickets	61,796	153,025[6]	Matthew Hayden
2002	England	Australia won by 5 wickets	64,189[b]	177,658[6]	Justin Langer
2003	India	Australia won by 9 wickets	62,613[b]	179,662[6]	Ricky Ponting
2004	Pakistan	Australia won by 9 wickets	61,552[b]	129,079[6]	Damien Martyn
2005	South Africa	Australia won by 184 runs	71,910[b]	192,338[6]	Michael Hussey
2006	England	Australia won by an innings and 99 runs	89,155[7]	244,351[6]	Shane Warne
2007	India	Australia won by 337 runs	68,465[8]	166,663[8]	Matthew Hayden
2008	South Africa	South Africa won by 9 wickets	63,263[8]	174,246[8]	Dale Steyn
2009	Pakistan	Australia won by 170 runs	59,206[8]	156,267[8]	Shane Watson
2010	England	England won by an innings and 157 runs	84,345[8]	240,156[8]	Jonathan Trott
2011	India	Australia won by 122 runs[9]	70,068[8]	189,347[9]	James Pattinson
2012	Sri Lanka	Australia won by an innings and 201 runs	67,138[8]	137,455[8]	Mitchell Johnson
2013	England	Australia won by 8 wickets	91,112[8]	271,865[8]	Mitchell Johnson
2014	India	Draw	69,993	194,481	Ryan Harris
2015	West Indies	Australia won by 177 runs	53,389	127,069[10][11][12][13]	Nathan Lyon
2016	Pakistan	Australia won by an innings and 18 runs	63,478[a]	142,188[14][15][16][17][18]	Steve Smith
2017	England	Draw	88,173	261,335	Alastair Cook
2018	India	India won by 137 runs[19]	73,516	176,539	Jasprit Bumrah
2019	New Zealand	Australia won by 247 runs	80,473[20]	203,472[21]	Travis Head
2020	India	India won by 8 wickets	27,615[c]	89,472[23]	Ajinkya Rahane
2021	England	Australia won by an innings and 14 runs	57,100	140,671	Scott Boland
2022	South Africa	Australia won by an innings and 182 runs	64,876	155,714	David Warner
2023	Pakistan	Australia won by 79 runs	62,167	164,835	Pat Cummins
2024	India	Australia won by 184 runs	87,242	373,691	Pat Cummins
2025	England
2026	New Zealand

• In 1989, instead of a Test match, a One Day International was held on 26 December at the Melbourne Cricket Ground between Australia and Sri Lanka. Australia won by 30 runs in front of a crowd of 45,012.^[24]

Overall Record — Australia vs Visitors

Beer cup snake during the 2021 Boxing Day Test

Opposition Team	GP	W	D	L	Win %	Recent Test
England	11	4	2	5	036.36	Boxing Day 2021
India	10	2	2	6	020.00	Boxing Day 2024
New Zealand	3	0	2	1	000.00	Boxing Day 2019
Pakistan	5	0	1	4	000.00	Boxing Day 2023
South Africa	6	1	2	3	016.67	Boxing Day 2022
Sri Lanka	2	0	0	2	000.00	Boxing Day 2012
West Indies	7	1	0	6	014.29	Boxing Day 2015
Total	44	8	9	27	018.18	Boxing Day 2024

See also

• Boxing Day Test (South Africa)
• Boxing Day Test (New Zealand)

Notes

1. It rained on Boxing Day.
2. Capacity of ground reduced due to redevelopment for the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games.
3. A maximum of 30,000 people were allowed to attend each day due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[22]