The Guwahati Test match between India and South Africa will reportedly have the tea interval before the lunch break.
Tea before lunch in a Test match?
South Africa will play two Test matches in India in 2025 – from November 10 at Kolkata, and from November 22 at Guwahati. The latter is set to become the newest Test match venue.
Guwahati is located very close to the easternmost point of India – a country that has only one time zone. As a result, the Test match will begin half an hour earlier than usual, at 9am local time, and run until 4pm.
According to an Indian Express report, the Test will also feature something unusual: the 20-minute tea interval will precede the 40-minute lunch interval. The sessions of play will be from 9am to 11am, then from 11:20am to 1:20pm; and finally, from 2pm to 4pm. The half-an-hour grace period, if needed, will run until 4:30pm.
Do the Playing Conditions allow tea before lunch?
Section 11.2.1 of the ICC Test Match Playing Conditions (updated June 2025) states: “An interval for lunch or tea shall be of the duration detailed below, taken from the call of Time before the interval until the call of Play on resumption after the interval.
“11.2.1.1 Lunch Interval: The interval shall be of 40 minutes duration.
“11.2.1.2 Tea Interval: The interval shall be of 20 minutes duration.
“11.2.1.3 Home Boards, with the consent of the visiting Board, may seek the approval of the ICC to amend the duration of these two intervals, provided the combined scheduled duration of the two intervals shall be equal to 60 minutes.”
Thus, while the Playing Conditions mention the respective duration of the two intervals (which are flexible with as long as the ICC permits and they add to an hour), there is no restriction on their sequence.
Has tea ever preceded lunch in cricket?
There used to be only one interval in the early days of Test cricket, when playing days used to be shorter. Glasgow and District’s game against Northumberland on May 19 and 20, 1892 at Titwood, Glasgow is believed to have the first mention of an additional break between lunch and stumps, when the cricketers were served cups of tea.
The idea caught on, and the tea break has often been a post-lunch break. In day-night matches, the intervals are sometimes called tea and dinner.
However, earlier hours of cricket (like the one in Guwahati) have resulted in the first interval being shorter. Tea was taken at about a quarter past ten in the morning during this season’s Ranji Trophy game between Sikkim and Manipur in Rangpo (not far away from Guwahati).
