Brian Lara became the seventh West Indian and only the 28th player in Test history to play hundred Tests. He achieved this feat when he took the field in the second Test against South Africa at Cape Town. Lara joined the ranks of six other West Indians, seven Englishmen, seven Australians, four Indians and three Pakistanis.
England's Michael Colin Cowdrey was the first player to complete his century of Test match appearances when he played at Birmingham against Australia in 1968.He also made his appearance memorable by scoring a century and reaching 7000 runs in Tests.
Cowdrey, Geoffrey Boycott, Dilip Vengsarkar, Kapil Dev, Alec Stewart and Carl Hooper all played their first as well as 100th Test against the same opponent. Allan Border, Javed Miandad and Carl Hooper made their first and 100th Test appearance on the same ground.
Mark Waugh took the shortest time to complete his 100 Tests -- 8 years and 342 days. At the other end of the scale,West Indies' Clive Lloyd took the longest time to do so- 17 years and 137 days.
Sachin Tendulkar was the youngest to appear in his 100th Test at 29 years 134 days while Geoff Boycott was the oldest to appear in his 100th Test at 40 years 254 days.
The accompanying table lists Test players completing 100 Tests in chronological order:
| No. | Player (Country) | First Test | 100th Test | Time Span |
| 1 | Colin Cowdrey (Eng) | Nov 26,1954 | Jul 11,1968 | 13 yrs 228 days |
| v Australia,Brisbane | v Australia,Birmingham | |||
| 2 | Geoff Boycott (Eng) | Jun 4,1964 | Jul 2,1981 | 17 yrs 28 days |
| v Australia,Nottingham | v Australia,Lord's | |||
| 3 | Clive Lloyd (WI) | Dec 13,1966 | Apr 28,1984 | 17 yrs 137 days |
| v India,Bombay | v Australia,Kingston | |||
| 4 | Sunil Gavaskar (Ind) | Mar 6,1971 | Oct 17,1984 | 13 yrs 225 days |
| v W.Indies,Port-of-Spain | v Pakistan,Karachi | |||
| 5 | David Gower (Eng) | Jun 1,1978 | Jul 21,1988 | 10 yrs 50 days |
| v Pakistan,Birmingham | v West Indies,Leeds | |||
| 6 | Viv Richards (WI) | Nov 22,1974 | Nov 18,1988 | 13 yrs 362 days |
| v India,Bangalore | v Australia,Brisbane | |||
| 7 | Dilip Vengsarkar (Ind) | Jan 24,1976 | Nov 24,1988 | 12 yrs 305 days |
| v New Zealand,Auckland | v New Zealand,Bombay | |||
| 8 | Allan Border (Aus) | Dec 29,1978 | Dec 24,1988 | 9 yrs 361 days |
| v England,Melbourne | v West Indies,Melbourne | |||
| 9 | Kapil Dev (Ind) | Oct 16,1978 | Nov 15,1989 | 11 yrs 30 days |
| v Pakistan,Faisalabad | v Pakistan,Karachi | |||
| 10 | Javed Miandad (Pak) | Oct 9,1976 | Dec 1,1989 | 13 yrs 53 days |
| v New Zealand,Lahore | India,Lahore | |||
| 11 | Gordon Greenidge (WI) | Nov 22,1974 | Apr 13,1990 | 15 yrs 162 days |
| v India,Bangalore | v England,St.John's | |||
| 12 | Desmond Haynes (WI) | Mar 3,1978 | Jul 4,1991 | 13 yrs 123 days |
| v Australia,Port-of-Spain | v England,Nottingham | |||
| 13 | Ian Botham (Eng) | Jul 28,1977 | Feb 2,1992 | 14 yrs 189 days |
| v Australia,Nottingham | v New Zealand,Wellington | |||
| 14 | Graham Gooch (Eng) | Jul 10,1975 | Jan 29,1993 | 16 yrs 203 days |
| v Australia,Birmingham | v India,Calcutta | |||
| 15 | David Boon (Aus) | Nov 23,1984 | Apr 21,1995 | 10 yrs 139 days |
| v West Indies,Brisbane | v W.Indies,Port-of-Spain | |||
| 16 | Steve Waugh (Aus) | Dec 26,1985 | Jan 2,1998 | 12 yrs 7 days |
| v India,Melbourne | v South Africa,Sydney | |||
| 17 | Ian Healy (Aus) | Sep 15,1988 | Jan 30,1998 | 9 yrs 137 days |
| v Pakistan,Karachi | v South Africa,Adelaide | |||
| 18 | Courtney Walsh | Nov 9,1984 | Feb 27,1998 | 13 yrs 110 days |
| v Australia,Perth | v England,Georgetown | |||
| 19 | Mark Taylor (Aus) | Jan 26,1989 | Nov 20,1998 | 9 yrs 298 days |
| v West Indies,Sydney | v England,Brisbane | |||
| 20 | Salim Malik (Pak) | Mar 5,1982 | Dec 10,1998 | 16 yrs 280 days |
| v Sri Lanka,Karachi | v Zimbabwe,Lahore | |||
| 21 | Mark Waugh (Aus) | Jan 25,1991 | Jan 2,2000 | 8 yrs 342 days |
| v England,Adelaide | v India,Sydney | |||
| 22 | Mike Atherton (Eng) | Aug 10,1989 | Aug 3,2000 | 10 yrs 359 days |
| v Australia,Nottingham | v West Indies,Manchester | |||
| 23 | Alec Stewart (Eng) | Feb 24,1990 | Aug 3,2000 | 10 yrs 161 days |
| v West Indies,Kingston | v West Indies,Manchester | |||
| 24 | Wasim Akram (Pak) | Jan 25,1985 | Nov 29,2000 | 15 yrs 309 days |
| v New Zealand,Auckland | v England,Faisalabad | |||
| 25 | Shane Warne (Aus) | Jan 2,1992 | Mar 8,2002 | 10 yrs 65 days |
| v India, Sydney | v South Africa,Cape Town | |||
| 26 | Sachin Tendulkar (Ind) | Nov 15,1989 | Sep 5,2002 | 12 yrs 294 days |
| v Pakistan,Karachi | v England, The Oval | |||
| 27 | Carl Hooper (WI) | Dec 11,1987 | Oct 9,2002 | 15 yrs 302 days |
| v India,Bombay | v India,Bombay | |||
| 28 | Brian Lara (WI) | Dec 6,1990 | Dec 26,2003 | 13 yrs 20 days |
| v Pakistan, Lahore | v South Africa,Cape Town |
