Test Cricket Tours - West Indies to England 1963

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Tour of England 1963 Captain: Frank Worrell

Twelfth West Indian Test tour

Sixth Test-playing tour of England by West Indies

(March - September 1963)

This marvellous tour was instrumental in changing the nature of English cricket seasons. By public demand the West Indians (who had visited England only five times in the previous 35 years) would now come twice as frequently as before. To permit the West Indies to return in 1966, twin tours involving two countries’ visits being squeezed into each English summer, would be arranged from 1965 onwards.

West Indies’ 1963 team was strong in all departments of the game. Frank Worrell continued his work of blending the brilliant talents from the different islands into one cohesive unit. The only shortcoming in the balance of the side was perhaps an opening batting partner for Conrad Hunte. Worrell had unofficially sounded out Roy Marshall before the tour but he declined because it would jeopardise his career with Hampshire. Since then the rules on eligibility to play county championship cricket have been eased but Marshall never played another Test match after 1952.

Fast bowling from Charlie Griffith and Wes Hall, often short-pitched, added excitement for the spectators, though one such delivery broke Colin Cowdrey’s arm. England took on the fast bowlers at Lord’s when the brilliance of Dexter and defiance of Close, who both scored 70 and took England to within six runs of victory with their last pair at the wicket (one of them Cowdrey, incapacitated with his arm in plaster), saw a wonderful match eventually left drawn. A Times editorial said ‘Thanks to the West Indians fresh air and light have moved over the face of cricket in England.’

An extra one-day match, first suggested in the press, against Gillette Cup ‘knock-out champions’ Sussex, was added to the end of the tour: Sussex won by four wickets in front of 13,000 people at Hove.

Other West Indies tours

Previous tour

To Australia 1960-61

Next tour

To India 1965-66 cancelled

To England 1966

Next tour of England

1966

Members of the Test tour party (17)

Opening batsmen Joey Carew, Conrad Hunte, Easton McMorris

Middle-order batsmen Basil Butcher, Rohan Kanhai, Seymour Nurse, Gary Sobers, Frank Worrell, Joe Solomon.

Wicket-keepers David Allan, Deryck Murray.

Spin bowlers Lance Gibbs, Willie Rodriguez, Tony White (reinforcement), Alf Valentine.

Fast bowlers Charlie Griffith, Wesley Hall, Lester King.

D W Allan		B	25	second WK
B F Butcher		BG	29	RHB
M C Carew		T	25	LHB opener
L R Gibbs		BG	28	OB
C C Griffith		B	24	RF
W W Hall		B	25	RF
C C Hunte		B	31	RHB opener vice-captain
R B Kanhai		BG	27	RHB
L A King		Ja	24	RF
E D A McMorris		Ja	28	RHB opener
D L Murray		T	20	WK
S M Nurse		B	29	RHB
W V Rodriguez		T	28	RHB LBG
G S Sobers		B	26	LHB LFM/SLA
J S Solomon		BG	32	RHB
A L Valentine		Ja	33	SLA
F M M Worrell	Ja		38	RHB LM captain

Regional representation :

B - Barbados (6)

BG - British Guiana (4)

Ja - Jamaica (4)

T – Trinidad & Tobago (3)

Trinidad and Tobago achieved independence in August 1962.

Average age of team at time of first Test match

(6 June 1963):

28 yrs 3 months.

Test Appearances made before the tour

Worrell 46, Sobers 42, Valentine 36, Kanhai 33, Hunte 26, Hall 23, Solomon 18, Gibbs 16, Butcher 10, McMorris 9, Nurse 5, Allan 2, Rodriguez 2, Griffith 1, King 1, Carew 0, Murray 0, White 0.

Tour Officials

Berkeley Gaskin	Manager
Harold Burnett	Assistant manager
D Pye	Physiotherapist
George Duckworth	Baggage / scorer
Duckworth joined the tour at the specific request of Worrell.

Harold Burnett of Guyana later became Hon Secretary of the West Indies Cricket Board of Control and represented West Indies with Allan Rae at the ICC meeting about World Series Cricket in 1979.

Selectors

Berkeley Gaskin (British Guiana - chairman), John Goddard (Barbados), Gerry Gomez (Trinidad & Tobago), Allan Rae (Jamaica) and Frank Worrell (captain).

Selection

The captaincy was awarded to Frank Worrell on 12 May 1962. Extraordinarily, C L R James, after campaigning so vigorously in the ‘fifties for Worrell to become captain, now urged him not to go as captain fearing he may no do himself justice because of the strain on his health. (Caribbean Beat, Sep/Oct 1987)

Unavailable: Sonny Ramadhin (running a pub in Yorkshire); Jackie Hendriks (had taken a job in the United States).

Tour Party Announced : 11 September 1962.

Not selected : Cammie Smith, Chester Watson.

Time between selection and departure from West Indies

229 days

(11 September - 28 March)

Travel

Bridgetown T Avonmouth

‘Golfito’

Hunte, Nurse, Griffith and Allan and Manager Gaskin boarded the 'Golfito' at Bridgetown. When the ship docked at Port of Spain, no accommodation had been arranged for Rodriguez so he flew from Piarco Airport on 6 April (Pascal Roberts flew with him. He was engaged as a league professional with Lowerhouse, substituting for Butcher, and would be available to reinforce the team).

The ship docked next in Jamaica on the afternoon of Monday 25 March. The tourists played a practice match. Then the two managers and twelve cricketers sailed from Port Antonio at noon on Thursday 28 March.

Worrell's request to fly was granted and he left Palisados Airport on 29 March.

King arrived from a coaching engagement in India on 4 April. Hall arrived in Bridgetown on 5 April on his way to London after playing a season for Queensland, Australia. Sobers who had been playing for South Australia left Sydney on 8 April.

The 'Golfito' berthed at Avonmouth docks at dawn on 8 April. Worrell met the team at Paddington Station and they went down to their tour headquarters, a hotel in Eastbourne, to prepare for the tour.

Time spent in England

165 days

(8 April - 20 September)

On-tour selection panel

Frank Worrell (captain), Conrad Hunte (vice-captain), Gary Sobers, Berkeley Gaskin (manager).

Reinforcements

A W White

B

24

OB

Tony White was called up when Willie Rodriguez injured his knee (an old soccer injury) batting against Surrey on 25 May. He needed an immediate operation on his right cartilage. The other spin bowlers, Lance Gibbs (broken hand) and Alf Valentine (hamstring pull) were also unfit at different times but Sonny Ramadhin could not obtain release from his contract with Lancashire League club Radcliffe because compensation could not be agreed, so the tourists summoned Tony White from Barbados.

Sir Learie Constantine accepted an offer to turn out for the tourists in a minor match but was eventually unable to do so until the final match of the season, played for an Anglo-West Indies charity.

Worrell played for the opposition in the first match of the tour and Valentine in the last match.

Fixtures/Results

“ Kingston, Jamaica	Jamaican Cricket Board (pre-tour)	Drawn
“ Eastbourne	Col L C Stevens XI	Lost 5 w
“ Arundel	Duke of Norfolk's XI	Won 3 w
Worcester	Worcestershire	Drawn
Bristol	Gloucestershire	Won 65 r
Cambridge	Cambridge University	Won inns 203 r
Old Trafford	Lancashire	Drawn
Middlesborough	Yorkshire	Lost 111 r
Lord's	M C C	Won 93 r
Oxford	Oxford University	Won 6 w
Kennington Oval	Surrey	Drawn
Bath	Somerset	Won inns 43 r
Cardiff	Glamorgan	Won inns 118 r
OLD TRAFFORD	ENGLAND First Test	WON 10 w
“ Belfast	Ireland	Drawn
“ Dublin	Ireland	Drawn
Hove	Sussex	Won 6 w
LORD'S	ENGLAND Second Test	DRAWN
Southampton	Hampshire	Drawn
Southend	Essex	Drawn
EDGBASTON	ENGLAND Third Test	LOST 217 r
“ Sunderland	Minor Counties (2-day)	Drawn
Leicester	Leicestershire	Drawn
Chesterfield	Derbyshire	Won 135 r
Lord's	Middlesex	Won 9 w
HEADINGLEY	ENGLAND Fourth Test	WON 221 r
Kennington Oval	Surrey	Drawn
Swansea	Glamorgan	Drawn
Edgbaston	Warwickshire	Won 7 w
Sheffield	Yorkshire	Won inns 2 r
Northampton	Northamptonshire	Drawn
Trent Bridge	Nottinghamshire	Drawn
KENNINGTON OVAL	ENGLAND Fifth Test	WON 8 w
Canterbury	Kent	Drawn
Hastings	A E R Gilligan's XI	Drawn
“ Gravesend	Club Cricket Conference	Drawn
Scarborough	T N Pearce's XI	Won 32 r
“ Hove	Sussex (55 overs)	Lost 4 w
“ Kennington Oval	Learie Constantine's XII	Won 62 r

“ not first-class

Time spent in England before First Test: 59 days

(8 April - 6 June)

Time from end of final Test until departure from England 25 days

(26 August - 20 September)

Test appearances on tour

5 - Butcher, Gibbs, Griffith, Hall, Hunte, Kanhai, Murray, Sobers, Solomon, Worrell

2 - Carew, McMorris

1 - Rodriguez

0 - Allan, King, Nurse, Valentine.

Highlights

- Conrad Hunte made West Indies’ highest score to date against England with 182 at Old Trafford.

- Lance Gibbs took 11-157 at Old Trafford : 5-59 and 6-98, the best return of his Test career so far.

- Charlie Griffith three times took five wickets in an innings and ended the series with 32 wickets.

- Basil Butcher (113) saved West Indies at Lord’s, and Gary Sobers (102) did so at Headingley

- Deryck Murray created a West Indian record with 24 wicket-keeping dismissals in the series

Tour Summary

	P	W	L	D	Aban
Test Matches	5	3	1	1	-
Other first-class matches	25	12	1	12	-
ϯ Minor matches	8	4	2	2	-
All Matches	38	19	4	4	-

In addition there was a pre-tour match and two Machado Festival matches in Jamaica, which were not part of the tour and not included in the summary above.

Return to West Indies

London Q New York Q Kingston

Just before the team's departure Kanhai surprised his team-mates by marrying Brenda Hague of Blackpool. After a farewell reception at the Mansion House  the team flew from Heathrow Airport on 20 September 1963, virtually unnoticed compared with West Indies ticker-tape farewell from Australia in 1960-61. C L R James wrote ‘Departure of the West Indians’ about the scene, printed in ‘C L R James: Cricket’ (Allison & Busby, 1989, pages 125-127)

Wes Hall and journalist L R Roberts lost their documents and had to be revaccinated at New York’s Idlewild Airport in order to enter the Bahamas. The team arrived from Nassau at Palisados Airport, Jamaica, in the afternoon and went on to a huge reception party in Kingston’s George VI Park in the evening. Several of the team failed to get through the traffic jams to the park and one of their cabs was in a collision.

On return to Jamaica all members of the team, apart from David Allan, played two matches in the Machado Festival (B & J B Machado Tobacco Co Trust).

Time away from West Indies

177 days

(28 March - 21 September)

Finances

The leading professionals - Hall, Sobers, Kanhai - earned £600 for the tour but the other players were on a daily allowance of only one pound a day.

After paying the players substantial bonuses, the West Indies Board of Control made a profit of £29,800.

Written accounts of the tour

"The West Indies at Lord's" by Alan Ross (Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1963; Constable 1986 reprint)

"Cricket with a Swing" by John Clarke; (Stanley Paul, 1963)

"Cricket, Lovely Cricket" by Ian Wooldridge (Hale, 1963)

"Summer Spectacular" by J S Barker (Collins 1963)

Postscript

As he had in Australia, Worrell instilled the spirit of brighter cricket in his players, and they had the talent to deliver. His valedictory 1963 tour of England ended with the words ‘I have had a great run and, as I have satisfied my greatest ambition in the last two years ‘.I have no complaints. My aim was to see the West Indies moulded from a rabble of brilliant island individuals into a real team and I have done it.’

Worrell retired from cricket, was awarded a knighthood in the 1964 New Year honours, and became West Indies team manager.