150 years of the first-ever Test match will be celebrated in 2027 with a day-night Test between Australia and England at the iconic MCG
The 150th anniversary celebration Test match in 2027 will have a distinctly modern feel, with Cricket Australia today confirming it will be the Australian men’s first under lights at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
The match, commemorating the first ever Test, played between Australia and England in Melbourne in 1877, will be the first men’s day-night Test at the venue, and follows the successful women’s Ashes day-night Test at the MCG this summer.
The announcement comes to mark two years out from the match, which has been confirmed to be played March 11-15, 2027.
That will make it the latest in the home summer a men’s Test has been staged in Australia since the 1978-79 series against Pakistan (which ended on March 29).
CA holds contractual rights to use the MCG until the end of March each summer, despite the venue often being used for Australian Rules football in that month. CA recently extended its venue hire agreement with the MCG until the 2030-31 summer.
While the MCG’s annual Boxing Day Test is hugely popular, the move to a day-night Test for the 150th Anniversary match, which will start on a Wednesday, is designed to encourage attendance outside of the school holiday period.
A day-night Test should also prove attractive for the UK television audience. Regular Ashes Tests hosted on Australia’s east coast typically begin just before midnight in England, but a later start means early-rising UK fans will be able to watch the final two sessions.
The match, which will come after Australia’s five-Test Border-Gavaskar Trophy series in India that year, is likely to mean the late arrival of Australia and England players to the 2027 IPL, with IPL franchises told to expect that year’s tournament to run between March 14 and May 30.
The 1977 Centenary Test – held from March 12-17 – was a lavish occasion to which every living men’s cricketer who had represented either Australia or England in an Ashes match was invited.
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II met the competing teams on-field during the tea break on day five, shortly before Greg Chappell’s Australia completed a 45-run win over Tony Greig’s men, remarkably mirroring the result of the inaugural match a century earlier.
In that first match, played March 15-19, including a rest day on the Sunday, Charles Bannerman hit 165 before retiring hurt, setting a record that still stands with 69.6 per cent of Australia’s first-innings total of 245.
Among the legends present for the 1977 Centenary Test event was the game’s greatest, Sir Donald Bradman, who insisted England rivals Harold Larwood and Bill Voce take a bow in the centre of the MCG to atone for the crowd hostility they had faced during 1932-33 Bodyline campaign.
The MCG scoreboard nameplates of all former Australia and England captains were also affixed to seating bays around the ground throughout the game, and a crowd of more than 50,000 turned out on each of the first three days.
That match is best remembered for outstanding individual performances by England’s Derek Randall (174) as well as Australians Dennis Lillee (11 wickets), Rod Marsh (110), David Hookes (five consecutive boundaries off Greig in his maiden Test) and Rick McCosker, who batted after suffering a broken jaw.
The Centenary Test is not classed as an Ashes Test given the urn was not up for grabs in that one-off encounter, and it is yet to be confirmed whether the same status would apply to the 2027 match.
CA’s newly installed chief executive Todd Greenberg said: “The 150th Anniversary Test at the MCG will be one of the great cricket events and playing under lights will be a fantastic way to celebrate both our game’s rich heritage and Test cricket’s modern evolution.
“It will also help ensure more people are able to attend and watch what will be a fantastic occasion.
“The Centenary Test created many iconic performances … and I’m sure the 150th Test will create its own lifelong memories.
“This season’s Ashes Series will whet the appetite for this clash in exactly two years, and we look forward to celebrating this historic occasion further as it draws nearer.”
150th Anniversary Test Match
March 11-15, 2027: Australia v England, MCG (day-night)
