In the beginning, there was W.G. Grace. Perhaps not quite, as test cricket was already 4 years old when the English all-rounder strode on to its stage in 1880. But W.G. was the first superstar of the sport and enjoyed a phenomenal 43-year career in the game. On one occasion he was bowled out but refused to leave the pitch, telling the irate bowler that the crowd was there to see him bat and not his opponent bowl.

An even greater icon is Australian batsman Don Bradman. Acclaimed as the best batsman ever, early in his test career the English visited Australia for the 1932-33 Ashes series and were obsessed with stopping him. England captain Douglas Jardine contrived the infamous "bodyline" tactic of having his fast bowlers aim for the Australian batsmen's bodies. It worked and England won the series, but the tide of ill feeling the tactic generated in the world of cricket earned infamy and shortened careers for Jardine and his bowlers.

Bradman continued on to greater glories, but ended his career in ironic style when, against England in 1948, he was out for a duck in his last test inning when a mere four runs would have won him an unprecedented career average of 100 runs per inning.

The old enemies conjured further drama in the 1956 series, but this time England provided a memory of a different ilk to that of 1932-33. Off-spinner Jim Laker took all 10 wickets in one inning, the first time a bowler had ever achieved the feat in international cricket.

But drama in cricket is not all about individual feats. No competition was closer than the Brisbane test of the 1960-61 series between Australia and the West Indies. It ended in test cricket's first tie.

In the 1977-78 season, Australian entrepreneur Kerry Packer funded a breakaway league featuring the cream of international cricketers. It lasted only two years, but shook the game to its foundations.

A key aspect of Packer's "carnival" was one-day internationals, which only date back to the early '70s. The abbreviated form gained status with the inaugural World Cup in 1975. The event's final was notable for the run outs of three Australian batsmen by the West Indian batsman Viv Richards, a master predator in the field.

On the losing side of that 1975 final was Australia's Dennis Lillee, one of the greatest fast bowlers in history. He left a lasting legacy of courage by overcoming a crippling back injury.

But even he could not save Australia's blushes during the disastrous 1981 Ashes tour of England. Most unforgettably, the English defied 500-1 odds to snatch victory at the Headingley ground, thanks to all-rounder Ian Botham and fast bowler Bob Willis. It later transpired that Lillee and fellow Aussie Rodney Marsh had found the odds irresistible and backed England to win. Some of the cash windfall was later used to finance the movie "Crocodile Dundee."

But Australia came to dominate England later in the decade. Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne highlighted the change with the "ball of the century." In the 1993 test at the Old Trafford ground, Warne's first delivery drifted outside the leg stump before turning prodigiously past the bat of a dumbfounded Mike Gatting to hit the off stump. The psychological knockout established Warne's place in the game's pantheon of greats.