Test Cricket Tours - Australia to South Africa 1966-67

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Tour of South Africa 1966-67 Captain: Bob Simpson

31st Australian Test tour

(October 1966 - March 1967)

Sixth Test-playing tour of South Africa by Australia

(previous tour 1957-58)

Walters was due to begin his national service just before the team departed in October and Graeme Watson took his place. Anxieties that Grahame Thomas, being of American Indian descent, would not be accepted by the apartheid regime if he was selected were not realised and the South Africans did not object to him, as they did to D’Oliveira in 1968-69.

In the eleventh, and penultimate meeting between the two countries before South Africa’s exclusion from Test cricket, South Africa finally won a series. Since South Africa had also beaten England in 1965 they probably ranked as the strongest side in the world although there would be no meeting with West Indies to prove it.

Simpson’s team was beaten 3-1 and it would have been 4-1 but for a rain storm on the last day of the fourth Test. Apart from Simpson and Redpath, the batting was frail against fast bowling, while the spin bowlers had difficulty of dealing with Lindsay who reliably made runs in a crisis and ended the series with an aggregate of 606 runs. Richie Benaud described it as "the most disastrous overseas tour ever conducted by an Australian cricket side," although this extreme description was probably more apt for the subsequent tour in 1969-70.

At the end of the tour the players were persuaded to add a 50-over match to their programme, which is sometimes put forward as being the first one-day international played.

Other Australian Tours

Previous tour

West Indies 1965

Next tour

England 1968

Next tour of South Africa

1969-70

Members of the Test tour party (16)

Opening batsmen: Bill Lawry, Ian Redpath, Bob Simpson

Middle-order batsmen: Ian Chappell, Bob Cowper, Grahame Thomas, Keith Stackpole

Wicket-keepers: Brian Taber, Gordon Becker

All-rounder Graeme Watson

Spin bowlers: Johnny Martin, Tom Veivers.

Fast bowlers: Neil Hawke, Graham McKenzie, David Renneberg, Jim Hubble.

G C Becker	WA	30	WK RHB
I M Chappell	SA	23	RHB LB
R M Cowper	Vic	26	LHB OB
N J N Hawke	SA	27	RFM
J M Hubble	WA	24	LFM
W M Lawry	Vic	29	LHB opener
G D McKenzie	WA	25	RFM
J W Martin	NSW	35	SLA
I R Redpath	Vic	25	RHB opener
D A Renneberg	NSW	24	RF
R B Simpson	NSW	30	RHB opener LB
K R Stackpole	Vic	26	RHB (LB)
H B Taber	NSW	26	WK
G Thomas	NSW	28	RHB
After touring South Africa he retired even though he had not turned 29
T R Veivers	Qld	29	OB
K D Walters w/d	NSW		RHB
G D Watson added	Vic	21	RHB RM

State representation

Sheffield Shield teams

NSW New South Wales (5)

Qld Queensland (1)

SA South Australia (2)

Tas Tasmania (0)

Vic Victoria (5)

WA Western Australia (3)

Average age of team at time of first Test match

(23 December 1966):

27 yrs 2 months

Test Appearances made before the tour

Simpson 44, Lawry 35, McKenzie 32, Hawke 22, Veivers 17, Cowper 14, Redpath 10, Thomas 8, Martin 7, Chappell 3, Stackpole 2, Becker 0, Hubble 0, Renneberg 0, Taber 0, Watson 0.

Tour Officials

Bill Jacobs	Manager
	Physiotherapist
Mitch MacLennan	Baggageman-scorer

Selectors

Sir Donald Bradman (South Australia), Dudley Seddon (New South Wales), Jack Ryder (Victoria)

Selection

Unavailable: Barry Jarman; Peter Burge; Doug Walters (required for Army training as his national service).

Tour Party Announced : 2 March 1966.

Neil Hawke was selected subject to a fitness test. He had injured his right shoulder playing Australian Rules football and it had to be pinned.

Not selected : Peter Allan, Brian Booth, Norman O'Neill.

While the senior team was in South Africa, Les Favell took an Australia B team to New Zealand for a series of representative matches, Booth, O’Neill and others who missed the trip to South Africa were in this team.

Withdrawn: On 8 June the selectors decided that Doug Walters would be replaced by Graeme Watson, who was one of seven players on their first tour for Australia.

Time between selection and departure from Australia

227 days

(2 March - 15 October)

Travel

Sydney Q state airports Q Johannesburg

The plane provided a sort of ‘pick-up service’: the New South Wales and Queensland players left Sydney’s Mascot Airport at 3pm on 15 October, picking up the manager Bill Jacobs and Victorians in Melbourne, and other players in Adelaide and Perth.

The squad landed at Jan Smuts Airport, Johannesburg, on Sunday afternoon 16 October 1966.

Cowper and Stackpole had travelled straight from England where they had been playing in the Lancashire League. They arrived on Friday 14 October, and two days later returned to the airport to meet their team-mates.

The team had a fortnight scheduled for practice and acclimatisation before their first match.

Time spent in South Africa

141 days

(16 October - 6 March)

On-tour selection

Bob Simpson (captain), Bill Lawry (vice-captain), Tom Veivers (named as third selector on 4 March)

Reinforcements

None. Jim Hubble injured his back and missed some matches.

Neil Hawke suffered a shoulder injury

In the Invitation XI match Thomas was keeping wicket (because Taber was rested and Becker had failed a fitness test), but he jarred his hand and Hawke had to take the gloves on the fourth day.

Fixtures/Results

The team agreed to play an extra match added to the end of the tour programme, for which the South African Broadcasting Corporation put up 1000 rands. This 50-over match is sometimes put forward as being the first one-day international, three years before the officially recognised match at Melbourne in 1970-71.

a	ϯ Bulawayo	Matabeleland	Drawn
b	Salisbury	Rhodesia	Won 8 w
c	Johannesburg	Transvaal	Lost 76 r
d	ϯ Stilfontein	Transvaal Country Districts	Drawn
e	Cape Town	Western Province	Won inns 108 r
f	ϯ Wellington	Western Province Country Districts	Won 8 w
g	Port Elizabeth	Eastern Province	Won 6 w
h	ϯ Grahamstown	Eastern Province Country Districts	Drawn
i	East London	South African XI	Lost 190 r
j	Durban	Natal	Won 67 r
k	ϯ Virginia	Orange Free State Country Districts	Won 7 w
l	Pretoria	South African Universities	Drawn
m	JOHANNESBURG	SOUTH AFRICA First Test	LOST 233 r
n	CAPE TOWN	SOUTH AFRICA Second Test	WON 6 w
o	East London	Border	Won 10 w
p	Bloemfontein	Orange Free State	Drawn
q	DURBAN	SOUTH AFRICA Third Test	LOST 8 w
r	Pretoria	North-eastern Transvaal	Drawn
s	ϯ Benoni	South African Country Districts	Drawn
t	JOHANNESBURG	SOUTH AFRICA Fourth Test	DRAWN
u	Kimberley	Griqualand West	Won 376 r
v	Pietermaritzburg	South African Invitation XI	Drawn
w	PORT ELIZABETH	SOUTH AFRICA Fifth Test	LOST 7 w
x	ϯ Johannesburg	South African XI (50 overs)	Lost 3 w

“ not first-class

Time spent in South Africa before First Test:

68 days

(16 October - 23 December)

Test appearances on tour

5 - Chappell, Cowper, Lawry, McKenzie, Redpath, Renneberg, Simpson, Stackpole, Taber

4 - Veivers

3 - Watson

2 - Hawke

1 - Martin

0 - Becker, Hubble, Thomas.

Match appearances

T Test match

x other match

W won L lost D drawn

N no result A abandoned

u unknown result

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Redpath

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Renneberg

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Simpson

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Stackpole

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Thomas

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Veivers

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Watson

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RESULTS

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Australia’s six previous Test tour results:

in West Indies 1965 (5 Tests)

- lost 1-2

in Pakistan 1964 (1 Test)

- drawn 0-0

in India 1964 (3 Tests)

- drawn 1-1

in England 1964 (5 Tests)

- won 1-0

in England 1961 (5 Tests)

- won 2-1

in India 1959-60 (5 Tests)

- won 2-1

Highlights

- Bob Simpson (65) and Bill Lawry (98) started the series with a century partnership and, with Redpath at #3, reliably gave Australia a good start. It was the middle-order batting that failed to rise to requirements.

- Simpson’s 153 and Stackpole’s 134 at Cape Town set up Australia’s only victory of the series.

- Graham McKenzie had five wickets in an innings on three occasions in the Test matches, and finished the series with 24 wickets at 26.0

- Dave Renneberg took 5-97 at Johannesburg.

Tour Summary

	F	W	L	D	Aban
Test Matches	5	1	3	1	-
Other first-class matches	12	6	2	4	-
ϯ Minor matches	7	2	1	4	-
All Matches	24	9	6	9	-

F Fixtures W Won L Lost

D Drawn NR No result

Aban Abandoned with no play

Canc Cancelled

Return to Australia

Johannesburg Q Melbourne

As the tour reached its end, the team was persuaded to play an extra one-day match at the Wanderers.

Martin and Veivers left on the evening of Saturday 4 March while Lawry, McKenzie and Hawke left on Sunday for the Rest of the World match in Barbados.

The majority of the team returned home from Johannesburg on Monday 6 March, arriving at Essendon Aiport on the next evening. Manager Jacobs and Renneberg flew out on 7 March.

Time away from Australia

143 days

(15 October to 7 March)

Finances

The four-month tour set new attendance records and resulted in a profit of $A 66 000.

Written accounts of the tour

"Simpson's Safari" by R S Whitington (Heinemann, 1967)

"Six For Glory - Australian 1966-67 Tour" by Jackie McGlew [Howard Timmins, Cape Town, 1967]

Postscript

On return Bob Simpson was quoted as saying the team had thoroughly enjoyed their tour (‘the happiest side I have ever been away with’). In an article by Alf Batchelder about the one-day match added to the end of the tour, he quotes other players who contradicted this view of a harmonious tour.

Certainly the playing results were not good, too few runs being made by the experienced run-getters and too many dropped catches proving costly.

In South Africa the success of the national cricket team encouraged interest in the game among all sectors of society, which heightened the impact of the d’Oliveira affair a year and a half later.