Test Cricket Tours - West Indies to England 1973

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Tour of England 1973 Captain: Rohan Kanhai

Seventeenth official Test tour

Ninth Test-playing tour of England by West Indies

(May - September 1973)

The West Indies' first overseas Test tour for four years broke a sequence of very poor Test results:

Lost 1-0 to England in 1967-68 and lost 2-0 in 1969

Lost 3-1 to Australia in 1968-69 and lost 2-0 in 1973

Drew 1-1 with New Zealand in 1968-69 and drew 0-0 in 1972

Lost 1-0 to India in 1970-71

At last in 1973 West Indies won a Test series and did so convincingly by two matches to nil. Not disregarding the contributions made by batsmen, the victories at The Oval and Lord's owed most to a renewal of West Indies' traditional strength in fast bowling.

For the first time since 1966 Sobers did not lead the West Indies abroad. He said he preferred to play for Nottinghamshire and it later emerged that, following his knee operations, he could not participate fully in the tour except turning out for the three Test matches, where he topped both batting and bowling averages.

No less than ten of the players in the tour party and two who were called up as reinforcements were playing regularly in the English county championship. West Indies firmly denied them permission to take part in any English county cricket during the tour.

Other West Indies tours

Previous tour

To England 1969

Next tour

To India & Pakistan 1974-75

Next tour of England

1976

Members of the Test tour party (17)

Openers Roy Fredericks, Steve Camacho, Ron Headley (r)

Batsmen Maurice Foster, Alvin Kallicharran, Rohan Kanhai, Clive Lloyd, Lawrence Rowe, Gary Sobers (r)

Wicket-keepers David Murray, Deryck Murray

Spin bowlers Inshan Ali, Lance Gibbs, Elquemedo Willett

Fast bowlers Keith Boyce, Vanburn Holder, Bernard Julien, Grayson Shillingford.

Inshan Ali	T	23	SLA
K D Boyce	B	29	RFM
G S Camacho	G	27	LHB opener
M L C Foster	J	30	RHB
R C Fredericks	G	30	LHB opener
L R Gibbs	G	38	OB vice-captain
V A Holder	B	27	RFM
B D Julien	T	23	RFM
A I Kallicharran	G	24	LHB
R B Kanhai	G	37	RHB captain
C H Lloyd	G	28	LHB
D A David Murray	B	23	second WK
D L Deryck Murray	T	30	WK
L G Rowe	J	24	RHB
G C Shillingford	W	28	RFM
E T Willett	L	20	SLA

Representation of teams:

B - Barbados

G - Guyana

J - Jamaica

L - Leeward Islands

T - Trinidad & Tobago

W - Windward Islands

Average age of team at time of first Test match

(26 July 1973) :

28 yrs 1 month

Test Appearances made before the tour

Sobers 86, Kanhai 71, Gibbs 58, Lloyd 28, Fredericks 24, Deryck Murray 14, Holder 13, Camacho 11, Foster 10, Inshan Ali 7, Kallicharran 7, Rowe 7, Shillingford 7, Boyce 5, Willett 3, Julien 0, David Murray 0, Headley 0.

Team Officials

E S M Kentish	Manager
G L Gibbs	Assistant manager
L Pink	Physiotherapist
Tony Smith	Baggage / driver

Selectors

A F Rae, J S Solomon, J B Stollmeyer, F L Thomas, C L Walcott.

Selection

Unavailable: C A Davis (business reasons); G S Sobers said that following his knee operation he could not undertake the whole tour but offered himself to play in the Test matches.

Tour Party Announced : 26 April 1973.

Not selected : 'Joey' Carew, Uton Dowe, Geoff Greenidge, David Holford.

Travel

Most of the team were already in England playing in the county championship. Kentish and Foster flew to Miami and then BOAC to London. Glendon Gibbs, Camacho, David Murray, Inshan Ali, Rowe, Willett and Shillingford flew out of Seawell Airport, Barbados on 8 June 1973. They landed at Heathrow Airport. The ten professionals in England assembled at the Clarendon Court Hotel in London on Monday 11 June

On-tour selection panel

Rohan Kanhai, Lance Gibbs, Clive Lloyd, Esmond Kentish.

Reinforcements

G S Sobers (B) 36 from Nottinghamshire for the 3 Test matches only. R G A Headley (J) 34 from Worcestershire. They replaced Camacho (depressed cheek fracture against Hampshire in late June) and Rowe (ankle ligaments) who returned home. Camacho returned on 4 August.

"I figured that I was in the selectors' thoughts," wrote Gordon Greenidge. "I was the man in form and there seemed no logical alternative. Imagine then how stunned I was when I heard that Ron Headley had been called up... it was an amazing decision.. Ron had played loyally and comparatively successfully for Worcestershire for fifteen years without ever once so much as putting himself in line for a cap or without ever doing anything to suggest he had been unlucky. Yet here he was, at the advanced age of 34, hoisted from obscurity into a place in the touring team and contention for a Test place." [Man in the Middle, 1980]

Fixtures/Results

† Guildford	Club Cricket Conference	Drawn
† Osterley	Indian Gymkhana XII	Won 124 r
Chelmsford	Essex	Drawn
Southampton	Hampshire	Won 174 r
Eastbourne	DH Robins XI	Lost 10 w
Trent Bridge	Nottinghamshire	Won 9 w
Lord's	Middlesex	Drawn
Swansea	Glamorgan	Won inns 11 r
† Swansea	Glamorgan (one-day)	Won 8 r
† Portsmouth	Combined Services	Won inns 78 r
Hove	Sussex	Drawn
Canterbury	Kent	Drawn
Old Trafford	Young England	Drawn
KENNINGTON OVAL	ENGLAND First Test	WON 158 r
Torquay	Minor Counties	Drawn
Cheltenham	Gloucestershire	Drawn
EDGBASTON	ENGLAND Second Test	DRAWN
† Harrogate	Yorkshire Leagues XI	Lost 6 w
Scarborough	Yorkshire	Drawn
LORD'S	ENGLAND Third Test	WON inns 226 r
Chesterfield	Derbyshire	Won 163 r
Scarborough	TN Pearce's XI	Drawn
† Scarborough	TN Pearce's XI	Won 6 w
§ Headingley	England (1st ODI)	Lost 1 w
§ Kennington Oval	England (2nd ODI)	Won 8 w

§ ODI (The Prudential Trophy)

† not first-class

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Test appearances on tour

3 - Boyce, Fredericks, Gibbs, Julien, Kallicharran, Kanhai, Lloyd, Deryck Murray, Sobers

2 - Headley, Holder

1 - Foster, Inshan Ali

0 - Camacho, David Murray, Rowe, Shillingford, Willett.

Highlights

• Keith Boyce had a match analysis of 11 for 147 at The Oval, equally Ramadhin and Valentine's 1950 feats

• Three batsmen scored 150s: Fredericks 150 at Edgbaston; Kanhai (157) and Sobers (150*) at The Oval

• West Indies scored its largest total (652-8 dec) in England and biggest margin of victory against England in the final Test.

Tour Summary

	P	W	L	D	Aban
Test Matches	3	2	0	1	-
Other first-class matches	15	5	1	9	-
Minor matches	6	4	1	1	-
One-day internationals	2	1	1	0	-
All Matches	25	11	2	12	-

Return to West Indies

Most of the team remained in England at the end of the tour.

Glendon Gibbs and six players (Inshan Ali, Holder, Julien, David Murray, Shillingford and Willett) arrived in Seawell Airport, Barbados, from Heathrow on Monday 11 September, Ali and Julien flying on to Trinidad next day. Manager Esmond Kentish flew on the same Monday to Norman Manley International Airport, Jamaica.

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