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The golden triangle

It is being widely hyped that the forthcoming Asian Test Championship between India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka is the first triangular Test tournament in history.

This is not quite the case -- the first Test triangular was in fact contested by England, Australia and South Africa, in England in the summer of 1912, just before the outbreak of World War I.

During that championship, each team played each other thrive in a tournament comprising nine Tests, over a span of three months.

Shortly before the final Test came the announcement that whichever side won would be tournament champions, and England pocketed the trophy with the most wins -- four out of six Tests.

Similarly, Dhaka will not be the first venue to host a neutral Test -- that honour belongs to Manchester, Lord's and Nottingham, which during the 1912 triangular -- brainchild, incidentally, of one Sir Abe Bailey -- hosted Tests between Australia and South Africa.

Where the forthcoming ATC scores over the 1912 triangular is that in the span of exactly one month, the tournament will span four different countries -- India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. A staggering achievement, even in these days of busy schedules and hectic itineraries.