Tour of Australia & New Zealand 1979-80         Captain: Clive Lloyd

22nd West Indies Test tour

Sixth Test-playing tour by West Indies to Australia    

Fourth Test tour of New Zealand         

 (November 1979 -  March 1980)

The tour was originally to be made to Pakistan & New Zealand but was altered as part of the settlement with Kerry Packer.  This marked the beginning of not only "Lloyd drawing together a team of high professional standards but also he notion among West Indian cricketers that they were disenfranchised professionals deserving of better market rates” (Beckles)

West Indies had a mighty strong team, led by Richards hitting the ball around with tremendous power and the awesome attack of four fast bowlers. Kept fit by a rigorous new training regime, they relentlessly pressured the Australian batsmen with pace and steep bounce. West Indies recorded two huge wins (by ten wickets at Melbourne and by 408 runs at Adelaide) to take a Test series in Australia for the first time, as well as winning the Benson & Hedges one-day triangular tournament. The Australian public had a surfeit of one-day cricket but match attendances continued to be high, such was the appeal of Lloyd's formidable team.

In New Zealand the march forward was abruptly halted. The visitors narrowly lost one of the most acrimonious Test series. The New Zealanders also won a one-day international to prove their victory was no fluke. The West Indians blamed poor umpiring and demonstrated their disappointment on the field - Holding kicking down the stumps in frustration and Croft barging into umpire Goodall - as well as refusing to take the field after tea unless Goodall was stood down. The Manager complained there was no way they could win.  Although the West Indians discussed abandoning the tour and returning home, they were firmly instructed by the West Indian Board to see it through so the tour ran its course. However, it highlighted how, in this era of so much international cricket, the visit to New Zealand tacked onto the end of an Australian tour is a strain.  In fact the tour was originally to be made to Pakistan & New Zealand but was altered as part of the settlement with Kerry Packer.  Captain Clive Lloyd apologised for what took place in a letter to Board President Jeffrey Stollmeyer, saying the behaviour was unprofessional but that the team were mentally and physically very tired after

Australia and encountered incompetent umpiring. Lloyd said before the tour that this was probably his last overseas tour but was persuaded to continue for five more years.

Other West Indies tours

Previous tour

India 1978-79

Next tour

England 1980

Next tour to Australia

1981-82

Next tour to New Zealand

1986-87

Members of the Test tour party  (16)

Opening batsmen: Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes

Middle-order batsmen:  Alvin Kallicharran, Larry Gomes, Collis King, Clive Lloyd, Viv Richards,  Lawrence Rowe

Wicket-keepers  David Murray, Deryck Murray

Spin bowler  Derick Parry

Fast bowlers  Colin Croft, Joel Garner, Michael Holding, Andy Roberts, Malcolm Marshall.

Regional representation :

B - Barbados (6)

G - Guyana (3)

Ja - Jamaica (2)

L - Leeward Islands (3)

T - Trinidad & Tobago (2)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(1 December 1979) :

      28 yrs 3 month

Test Appearances made before the tour

Lloyd 65, Kallicharran 51, Deryck Murray 51, Richards 28, Roberts 27, Rowe 24, Greenidge 19, Holding 13, Gomes 11, Parry 11, David Murray 9, Croft 7, Garner 7, King 4, Marshall 3, Haynes 2.

Tour Officials

The manager's name was announced on 16 October 1979

Selectors

C L Walcott, C Wilkins, S G Camacho and C H Lloyd (co-opted) chose the team in Barbados on 23 September 1979

Selection

Unavailable:  None.  World Series Cricket players were again considered, and eleven of them won a tour place.

The selectors commended a 17th player (Bacchus) to the West Indies Board without success.

Tour Party Announced :  26 September 1979

Not selected :   The selectors made a point of paying recognition to the service given by Roy Fredericks but decided to give preference to a younger player.

Only five of Kallicharran's team to India the year before were retained but on the other hand, there was only one change (Bacchus for Gomes) between this squad and that for the 1980 tour of England.

Time between selection and departure from West Indies

 39 days

 (26 September  - 4 November)

Travel

BridgetownQ  LondonQ Sydney

AdelaideQ  Auckland

The team flew out of Grantley Adams Airport, Barbados, for London on 4 November, and on to Sydney where they arrived on 6 November.

The team left Australia for their New Zealand tour on 31 January. They flew from Adelaide (without the injured Lloyd or Richards), reaching Auckland the next day.

Time spent in Australia (and New Zealand)   87 + 35 days

(6 November - 31 January)

(NZ 1 February - 6 March)

On-tour selection panel

Lloyd, Deryck Murray, Kallicharran, Rodriguez and Richards

Reinforcements

None, although Viv Richards could not go to New Zealand because of a persistent back strain.

Fixtures/Results

§  ODI  Benson & Hedges World Series Cup

† not first-class

Time spent in Australia before First Test:

 25 days

(6 November - 1 December)

Time from end of final Test until departure from New Zealand    1 day

(5 March - 6 March )

Test appearances on tour

6  -  Croft,  Garner,  Greenidge,  Haynes,  Holding,  Kallicharran,  Deryck Murray,  Rowe

5  -  Lloyd,  Roberts

4  -   King

3  -  Richards

2 -  

1  -  Parry

0 -   Gomes,  Marshall,  David Murray.

Marshall, given only 20 playing days out of 68 on the tour, was the only player not to appear in any international.

Highlights

•  In the Test series against Australia Viv Richards' scores were 140, 96, 76 and 74.  In all matches he scored 1073 runs with an average of almost 100.

•  Lloyd (121) and Kallicharran (106) found their batting form in the third Test at Adelaide

•  Fast bowlers Garner (14), Holding (14), Croft (16) and Roberts (11) shared all the Australian wickets save one, taken by King.

•  Batting in perfect conditions in the Christchurch Test, Haynes, Rowe and King all scored centuries in the 2nd innings.

•  Joel Garner returned the best individual Test bowling figures of the tour with 6-56 in the Auckland match

Tour Summary

The one-day B & H Cup match against England at Melbourne was abandoned, and is officially no result.

Return to West Indies

AucklandQ  Bridgetown

The team flew out of Auckland (Mangere Airport) on 6 March 1980.

Rodriguez and eight of the players arrived at Grantley Adams Airport, Barbados, on 8 March. They were Croft, Garner, Gomes, Haynes, Marshall, David Murray, Deryck Murray and Parry.

Time away from West Indies

  125 days 

 (4 November to 8 March)

Finances

The team's share of prize money amounted to $A 86 000.  The tour profit was EC $400 000.

Accounts of the tour

"Cricket Contest: the post-Packer Tests"  Christopher Martin-Jenkins [Macdonald & Jane's, London, 1980]

“War or Peace?”    by Frank Tyson [Garry Sparke & Associates Melbourne - 1980]

Postscript

This was the first time in six tours that West Indies had won a Test series in Australia.

Dennis Waight began the strict training regimes to make West Indies’ fast bowlers sprint, stretch, strain and bowl and the players responded willingly until their fitness levels were high enough to achieve Clive Lloyd’s goals. They had more stamina and less injuries.