00:00Did you know there was once a tradition in India called the Pungal Test Match?
00:04Pungal is celebrated as a four-day Tamil harvest festival. It expresses gratitude to the sun,
00:10the mother nature and farm animals. It also marks the end of winter and is celebrated
00:15in Tamil Nadu in the third week of January. During this time, India had its own special tradition.
00:21Pungal Test Match began in 1916. It started with a match between Indians and Europeans
00:27in Madras Presidency. The Madras Presidency match was an annual first-class cricket game.
00:32It was played in Madras which is now Chennai and teams were called the Indians and the Europeans.
00:37Europeans were the people from Europe living in India.
00:40From 1916, the Pungal match became a yearly event. 30 matches were played, Indians won 14,
00:46Europeans won 8 and rest withdrawals. The Pungal Test Match later became a tradition
00:51for Indian cricket team as well. It was then played against other international teams and
00:55great players like C.K. Naidu, M.G. Gopalan played in the same series.
01:00The last Pungal Test Match was in 1988 and Narendra Hirwani took 16 wickets on debut.
01:06India beat Vive Richards led West Indies by 255 runs. There is a call to bring this tradition back.
01:12So this is a festival, a match and a forgotten story of Indian cricket.
01:17Go to the debate.
01:17Thanks for joining.
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