On This Day In Cricket - February 5

5 February has seen many important moments in cricket history. On this day, the ICC banned Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Asif, and Salman Butt for match-fixing. It is also the birthday of players like Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mitchell Santner. On the same day, Jasprit Bumrah bowled a match-winning spell. Below are some key cricket events from 5 February.

On This Day - February 5, 2011 - Amir, Asif and Salman Butt Banned for Match-Fixing

On 5 February 2011, the ICC banned the Pakistan players Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir for spot-fixing. Salman Butt, who was the captain, was banned for 10 years. Mohammad Asif received a 7-year ban, while Mohammad Amir was banned for 5 years. The ban was imposed after an ICC tribunal found them guilty of spot fixing during the 2010 Lord’s Test match.

Later, all three players appealed against the decision, but in November 2011 a court found them guilty of spot fixing and sentenced Salman Butt to two years and six months in jail, Mohammad Asif to one year, and Mohammad Amir to six months. Their agent Mazhar Majeed was also sentenced to two years and eight months after audio recordings of the no-ball fixing plan were revealed during the investigation. In 2012, Amir was released after serving three months at the Portland Young Offenders Institution. In 2015, the ICC allowed him to play Grade Two cricket eight months before his ban ended and one year later he returned to international cricket, while Asif and Butt also made their return to domestic cricket.

On This Day - February 5, 1970 - Australia’s Darren Lehmann Was Born

Darren Lehmann was born in 1970 and was a former Australian cricketer known for his strong batting. He always had to fight for a place in the Australian team because the side was full of top players at that time. In 2003, he scored three centuries in five Test matches, but after that he stayed away from cricket for a long time due to injury. He was even better in ODI cricket and performed consistently. In 1999, he scored the winning runs for Australia against Pakistan at Lord’s. He was also part of the Australian team in the 2003 World Cup. Lehmann played his last ODI in 2005 and later retired from domestic cricket in the 2007–08 season.

Darren Lehmann later worked as a coach in the IPL and then became Australia’s head coach just before the 2013 Ashes series. As a coach, Australia went through many ups and downs under him. During this period, Australia lost the Ashes 3–0 to England away, but six months later they won the Ashes 5-0 at home. In 2015, Australia again lost the Ashes 3–2. Under Lehmann’s coaching, Australia’s performance in Asia was very poor. In 2018, a few months after the ball-tampering controversy in the Cape Town Test, he stepped down from his role as coach.

On This Day - February 5, 1981 - Marlon Samuels Was Born

On this day in 1981, West Indies cricketer Marlon Samuels was born. Even before he played first-class cricket regularly, he was compared to Sir Vivian Richards because of his talent. He scored his maiden Test century against India in Kolkata in 2002 and announced himself on the world stage. However, he often faced discipline issues off the field. In 2007, he was also involved in a fixing controversy, when he was accused of sharing match-related information with a suspected bookie.

He received a two-year ban in 2008 due to an illegal bowling action and fixing-related issues. After returning in 2011, he scored 386 runs in five innings in England in 2012. Later that year, he scored 78 runs in the T20 World Cup final and helped West Indies win the title for the first time. In November 2012, he made 260 runs against Bangladesh, which was the highest score of his Test career. After that, his Test form declined and he scored only two centuries in his next 20 Tests. In 2015, he was banned again for one year because of an illegal bowling action. He returned in 2016 and again played a key role in West Indies winning the T20 World Cup.

On This Day - February 5, 1990 - Birth of Indian Fast Bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar

Bhuvneshwar Kumar was born on 5 February 1990 in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. He came into the spotlight at the age of 19 when he dismissed Sachin Tendulkar for a duck in his first first-class match. He became known for his ability to swing the ball both ways. He made an impact in international cricket, though his numbers outside T20 cricket do not fully reflect his skill. He made his ODI debut for India against Pakistan before his 23rd birthday and took a wicket with his very first ball.

However, he performed very well on the 2014 tour of England, where he took 19 wickets and also scored three half-centuries. In November 2017, he hit four fours in a drawn Test match against Sri Lanka. One important fact is that in the first 13 IPL seasons, his economy rate never went above 8. In the IPL 2025 auction, Royal Challengers Bengaluru bought him for more than ₹10 crore and he played a key role in helping them win their first title.

On This Day - February 5, 2022 - India Won the Under-19 World Cup 5th Time

On 5 February 2022, India won the Under-19 World Cup for a record fifth time. In the final played at North Sound, India defeated England Under-19 by 4 wickets with 14 balls remaining. England won the toss and chose to bat first but were bowled out for 189 in 44.5 overs. James Rew scored 95 runs off 116 balls and James Sales made 34 not out off 65 balls, but the rest of the batters failed to make big scores. For India, Raj Bawa took 5 wickets for 31 runs in 9.5 overs, while Ravi Kumar picked up 4 wickets for 34 runs in 9 overs.

While chasing a target of 190 runs, India got steady contributions from Sheikh Rasheed and Nishant Sindhu, who scored 50 runs each, while Raj Bawa added 35 runs. Raj Bawa was named Player of the Match for his all-round performance of 5 for 31 with the ball and 35 runs with the bat. South Africa’s Dewald Brevis was named Player of the Series for scoring 506 runs and taking 7 wickets in the tournament. Brevis also hit 16 sixes, which was a joint record for a single Under-19 World Cup edition.

On This Day - February 5, 1992 - New Zealand’s Mitchell Santner Was Born

The current captain of New Zealand Mitchell Santner was born on 5 February 1992 in Hamilton. He is a left-arm spinner and a left-handed batter. He is known for his accurate spin bowling and for scoring useful runs in the lower order, sometimes at a quick pace when needed. Santner made his ODI and T20I debut against England in June 2015 and later made his Test debut against Australia in November of the same year.

Mitchell Santner, who considers Daniel Vettori his role model, has played 32 Tests, 124 ODIs, and 127 T20 Internationals in his career so far. He has taken 78 wickets and scored 1,085 runs in Test cricket, taken 133 wickets and scored over 100,000 runs in ODIs, and taken 135 wickets with 953 runs in T20 Internationals. He has also scored one Test century. His best bowling figures are 7/71 in Tests, 5/50 in ODIs, and 4/11 in T20 Internationals.

On This Day - February 5, 2024 - Bumrah’s 9 Wicket Match Win

On 5 February 2024, Jasprit Bumrah played a key role in India’s 106-run win against England in the Visakhapatnam Test by taking 9 wickets. On a pitch that helped spin bowlers, Bumrah used reverse swing brilliantly and took 6 wickets for 45 runs in the first innings and 3 wickets for 46 runs in the second innings. Because of his spell, England suffered their third defeat in eleven fourth-innings chases in the Bazball era.

England were bowled out for 292 while chasing a target of 399 in the fourth innings, which was higher than the biggest successful fourth-innings chase ever in India (276/5 by West Indies in 1987). India had scored 396 in the first innings, helped by Yashasvi Jaiswal’s 209, while England managed only 253 in reply. In the second innings, India were all out for 255, with Shubman Gill scoring 104, setting England a big target of 399. England started the chase reasonably well, but apart from opener Zak Crawley’s 73, no other batter reached a half-century, and they lost the match by 106 runs.