Sri Lanka Cricket has agreed to have a rest day during the forthcoming first Test match against Bangladesh at Mirpur, which begins on December 26.

The unusual decision has been taken to accomodate Bangladesh’s general elections.

"It is not going to be a regular feature but to facilitate the general parliamentary elections on 29th December in Bangaldesh, the fourth day of the Test will be a rest day in the match," a Sri Lanka Cricket official said from Colombo.

Rest days in Test matches have been shelved by the game’s rule-makers since the mid-1990s, although there was no exact time from which the practice was abandoned.

"There is no confirmed season from which the rest day was discontinued," the BCCI statistician Sudhir Vaidya said.

"The first Test between Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka in 1994-95 had a rest day, while the second Test did not, and the third Test again had a rest day on the fourth day.

"West Indies toured India in 1994-95 for a three-Test series, when India dispensed with the rest day and continued the practice since then.

"The five-Test series between England and West Indies in 1995 in England was played without a rest day and the practice to play the series without a rest day came in vogue since then."

The oddest example of a rest day being taken was in the early 1990s when Zimbabwe and New Zealand did so to accommodate a one-day international.

"The second one-day international between Zimbabwe and New Zealand of the 1992-93 season was played on the rest day which was the second day (8th November, 1992) of the second Test at Harare," Vaidya continued.

"The rest day happened to be a Sunday and the Zimbabwe authorities wanted to maximise revenue on that day."