West Indian cricket team in England in 1973
Encyclopedia
The West Indian cricket team in England in 1973 played 17 first-class matches
First-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...

 including three Tests
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...

. The team won the series against England
English cricket team
The England and Wales cricket team is a cricket team which represents England and Wales. Until 1992 it also represented Scotland. Since 1 January 1997 it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board , having been previously governed by Marylebone Cricket Club from 1903 until the end...

 by two matches to nil, with one drawn game. It also won the Prudential Trophy for the one-day series.

The West Indies team

The West Indies team
West Indian cricket team
The West Indian cricket team, also known colloquially as the West Indies or the Windies, is a multi-national cricket team representing a sporting confederation of 15 mainly English-speaking Caribbean countries, British dependencies and non-British dependencies.From the mid 1970s to the early 1990s,...

 was captained by Rohan Kanhai
Rohan Kanhai
Rohan Bholalall Kanhai is a former West Indian Cricket player of Indo-Guyanese descent. He is widely considered as one of the best batsmen of the 1960s. Kanhai featured in several great West Indian teams, playing with, among others, Sir Garfield Sobers, Roy Fredericks, Lance Gibbs, and Alvin...

, who had succeeded Gary Sobers as captain for the Australian series in the West Indies the previous winter.

The West Indies side had dropped back in form from its peak in the mid 1960s, with the retirement of its great fast bowlers Charlie Griffith
Charlie Griffith
Charles Christopher Griffith is a former West Indian cricketer who played in 28 Tests from 1960 to 1969. He formed a lethal fast bowling partnership with Wes Hall during the 1960s...

 and Wes Hall
Wes Hall
Wesley Winfield Hall is a Barbadian former cricketer and politician. A tall, strong and powerfully built man, Hall was a genuine fast bowler and despite his very long run up, he was renowned for his ability to bowl long spells. Hall played 48 Test matches for the West Indies from 1958 to 1969...

 and some of its leading batsmen, such as Conrad Hunte
Conrad Hunte
Sir Conrad Cleophas Hunte, KA was a Barbadian cricketer. Hunte played 44 Test matches as an opening batsman for the West Indies.-Early life and career:...

 and Basil Butcher
Basil Butcher
Basil Fitzherbert Butcher is a former West Indian cricketer who played in 44 Tests from 1958 to 1969. He was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1970....

. The period under Sobers' captaincy after the series victory in England in 1966 was not particularly successful, and Test series against England were lost in 1967-68 and in 1969. India
Indian cricket team
The Indian cricket team is the national cricket team of India. Governed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India , it is a full member of the International Cricket Council with Test and One Day International status....

 won in the West Indies in 1970-71, and the first-ever New Zealand
New Zealand cricket team
The New Zealand cricket team, nicknamed the Black Caps, are the national cricket team representing New Zealand. They played their first in 1930 against England in Christchurch, New Zealand, becoming the fifth country to play Test cricket. It took the team until 1955–56 to win a Test, against the...

 tour to the West Indies in 1971-72 produced a series in which all five Tests were drawn.

Sobers' handing over of the captaincy to Kanhai did not bring a change of fortune. Australia
Australian cricket team
The Australian cricket team is the national cricket team of Australia. It is the joint oldest team in Test cricket, having played in the first Test match in 1877...

 won the 1972-73 Test series by two matches to nil with three draws to retain the Frank Worrell Trophy that Bill Lawry
Bill Lawry
William Morris "Bill" Lawry, AM is a former cricketer who played for Victoria and Australia. He captained Australia in 25 Tests, winning nine, losing eight and drawing eight, and led Australia in the inaugural One Day International match, played in 1971...

 had won by beating Sobers' side in 1968-69. As England had beaten Australia in Australia in 1970-71 and had retained The Ashes in a drawn series in 1972, the West Indians were regarded in 1973 as the underdogs for the series against England.

The original side for the 1973 tour was:
  • Rohan Kanhai
    Rohan Kanhai
    Rohan Bholalall Kanhai is a former West Indian Cricket player of Indo-Guyanese descent. He is widely considered as one of the best batsmen of the 1960s. Kanhai featured in several great West Indian teams, playing with, among others, Sir Garfield Sobers, Roy Fredericks, Lance Gibbs, and Alvin...

    , captain
  • Lance Gibbs
    Lance Gibbs
    Lancelot Richard Gibbs is a former West Indies cricketer, one of the most successful spin bowlers in Test cricket history. He took 309 Test wickets, only the second player to pass 300, the first spinner to pass that milestone, and had an exceptional economy rate of under two runs per over...

    , vice-captain
  • Keith Boyce
    Keith Boyce
    Keith David Boyce played 21 Tests and 8 One Day Internationals for the West Indies in the 1970s, he died from the effects of chronic cirrhosis of the liver while sitting in a chair at a pharmacist in Speightstown, Barbados in 1996.Boyce was the first man to take eight wickets in a List A match; he...

  • Steve Camacho
    Steve Camacho
    George Stephen Camacho George Stephen (Steve) Camacho George Stephen (Steve) Camacho (born October 15, 1945, Georgetown, British Guiana (now Georgetown, Guyana) is a former West Indian cricketer who played in eleven Tests from 1968 to 1971 as an opening batsman and occasional leg-spin bowler....

  • Maurice Foster
    Maurice Foster (cricketer)
    Maurice Linton Churchill Foster played 14 Tests and two One Day Internationals for the West Indies and he was a talented table-tennis player....

  • Roy Fredericks
    Roy Fredericks
    Roy Clifton Fredericks was a West Indian cricketer who played from 1968 to 1977....

  • Vanburn Holder
    Vanburn Holder
    Vanburn Alonzo Holder is a former West Indian cricketer who played in forty Tests and twelve ODIs from 1969 to 1979.Holder played in the golden era of West Indian fast bowling...

  • Inshan Ali
    Inshan Ali
    Inshan Ali was a West Indian cricketer who played in 12 Tests from 1971 to 1977.Born in Preysal, Trinidad and Tobago, of Indian descent, Ali was a left-arm unorthodox spin bowler who made his first-class cricket debut for South Trinidad against North Trinidad on 15 April 1966, aged just 16 years...

  • Bernard Julien
    Bernard Julien
    Bernard Denis Julien played 24 Tests and 12 One Day Internationals for the West Indies.He played in England for Kent and joined Packers World Series in 1977. He scored a century at Lords vs England in the 1973 test....

  • Alvin Kallicharran
    Alvin Kallicharran
    Alvin Isaac Kallicharran is a former West Indian batsman of Indo-Guyanese ethnicity who played from 1972 to 1981. His elegant, watchful batting style produced some substantial innings for a West Indian team very much in its formative years in the seventies...

  • Clive Lloyd
    Clive Lloyd
    Clive Hubert Lloyd CBE AO is a former West Indies cricketer. He captained the West Indies between 1974 and 1985 and oversaw their rise to become the dominant Test-playing nation, a position that was only relinquished in the latter half of the 1990s...

  • David Murray
    David Murray (cricketer)
    David Anthony Murray is a former West Indian cricketer who played in nineteen Tests and ten ODIs from 1973 to 1982.Murray, a son of the great West Indian batsman Everton Weekes often courted controversy...

    , wicketkeeper
  • Deryck Murray
    Deryck Murray
    Deryck Lance Murray is a former West Indies cricketer. A wicketkeeper and right-handed batsman, Murray kept wicket to the potent West Indian fast bowling attacks of the 1970s ; his efficient glovework effected 189 Test dismissals and greatly enhanced the potency of the bowling attack.Murray...

    , wicketkeeper
  • Lawrence Rowe
    Lawrence Rowe
    Lawrence George Rowe is a former West Indian cricketer.Lawrence, also known as "Yagga", was an elegant right-handed batsman described by Michael Holding, his team mate, as "the best batsman I ever saw". It was felt that his ability was so extraordinary that Sobers believed he could have been the...

  • Grayson Shillingford
    Grayson Shillingford
    Grayson Cleophas Shillingford was a West Indian cricketer who played in seven Tests from 1969 to 1972. He was born in Macoucherie, Dominica and was the cousin of Irvine Shillingford, who also played Test cricket for the West Indies....

  • Elquemedo Willett
    Elquemedo Willett
    Elquemedo Tonito Willett is a former West Indian cricketer who played in five Tests from 1973 to 1974.During New Zealand's tour of the West Indies in 1972, Willet was considered the best of the many left-arm finger-spinners the New Zealanders faced.Willett's nephew Stuart Williams has played many...



Camacho was injured in the second first-class match of the tour and took no further part. Lawrence Rowe had strained ligaments in the previous winter's series against Australia
Australian cricket team
The Australian cricket team is the national cricket team of Australia. It is the joint oldest team in Test cricket, having played in the first Test match in 1877...

 and withdrew from the tour when it was apparent that the injury was not getting better. Camacho was replaced by Ron Headley
Ron Headley
Ronald George Alphonso Headley is a former West Indian cricketer who played in two Tests and one ODI in 1973. An opening batsman, in first-class cricket he scored 21,695 runs at an average of 31.12, with 32 hundreds and a highest score of 187.Headley spent most of his career in England, playing...

, highly experienced in English conditions from a long career at Worcestershire
Worcestershire County Cricket Club
Worcestershire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Worcestershire...

. And Gary Sobers, who opted out of the tour after knee surgery and played the 1973 English cricket season
1973 English cricket season
The 1973 English cricket season saw Hampshire win their second-ever title while a very strong Kent side continued to dominate the limited overs game.-Honours:*County Championship - Hampshire*Gillette Cup - Gloucestershire...

 instead with Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club
Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Nottinghamshire, and the current county champions. Its limited overs team is called the Nottinghamshire Outlaws...

, was drafted in for the three Test matches.

Of the starting tour party, only David Murray, Inshan Ali and Willett had not toured or played county cricket in England before, and only Julien and David Murray had not played Test cricket. Ron Headley was also new to Test matches in this series.

The touring side was managed by the former West Indies cricketer, Esmond Kentish
Esmond Kentish
Esmond Seymour Maurice Kentish was a West Indian cricketer who played in two Tests from 1948 to 1954. He was born in Cornwall Mountain, Westmoreland, Jamaica...

.

First Test, The Oval
The Oval
The Kia Oval, still commonly referred to by its original name of The Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, in the London Borough of Lambeth. In the past it was also sometimes called the Kennington Oval...

, July 26-31

West Indies (415 and 255) beat England (257 and 255) by 158 runs.
West Indies' first innings was built around a fourth wicket partnership of 208 between Clive Lloyd, who made 132, and Kallicharran (80) and enlivened by a late 72 from Boyce. Boyce was then the pick of the bowlers with five wickets for 70 as England collapsed 257 all out after being 247 for five. Only Geoffrey Boycott
Geoffrey Boycott
Geoffrey Boycott OBE is a former Yorkshire and England cricketer. In a prolific and sometimes controversial playing career from 1962 to 1986, Boycott established himself as one of England's most successful opening batsmen...

, with 97, passed 40. West Indies' second innings featured Ron Headley's highest Test score (42, in his first match), plus the second 80 of the match from Kallicharran and 51 from Sobers. Boyce improved his figures in the England second innings, taking six for 77, with three for 61 from Gibbs. The main resistance came from Frank Hayes
Frank Hayes (cricketer)
Frank Charles Hayes is a former English cricketer, who played in nine Tests and six ODIs from 1973 to 1976...

, who scored an undefeated 106 in his first Test match. Boyce's match figures of 11 for 147 were the best for West Indies versus England at the time (subsequently beaten by Michael Holding
Michael Holding
Michael Anthony Holding is a former West Indian cricketer. One of the fastest bowlers ever to play Test cricket, he was nicknamed 'Whispering Death' by umpires due to his quiet approach to the bowling crease...

 with 14 for 149, also at The Oval, in 1976).

Second Test, Edgbaston
Edgbaston Cricket Ground
Edgbaston Cricket Ground, also known as the County Ground or Edgbaston Stadium, is a cricket ground in the Edgbaston area of Birmingham, England...

, August 9-14

West Indies (327 and 302) drew with England (305 and 182 for 2)
Defensive tactics by the West Indies and a dispute involving umpire Arthur Fagg
Arthur Fagg
Arthur Edward Fagg was an English cricketer, who played for Kent and England....

 marked a game which ended as a fairly tame draw. On the first day, West Indies scored just 190 runs, with 98 of them to the normally attacking Roy Fredericks, who went on to reach 150 on day two. England captain Ray Illingworth
Ray Illingworth
Raymond Illingworth, CBE is a former English cricketer, cricket commentator and cricket administrator. He was one of only nine players to have taken 2,000 wickets and made 20,000 runs in First class cricket, and the last one to do so...

 bowled 27 overs for 18 runs in the day. Three England batsmen (Boycott, Dennis Amiss
Dennis Amiss
Dennis Leslie Amiss MBE was an English cricketer and cricket administrator.Amiss suffered a serious back injury whilst playing soccer in his teenage years, which entailed him starting each day of his sporting life undergoing stretching routines to loosen up.He played cricket for both Warwickshire...

 and Keith Fletcher
Keith Fletcher
Keith Fletcher is a former English cricketer, who played for Essex and England. He later became England's team manager. His nickname was "The Gnome of Essex", so christened by his Essex team-mate, Ray East, because Fletcher's winklepickers had begun to curl up at the toes due to wear...

) reached fifties, but none went much further and Boycott was injured in a collision with wicketkeeper Deryck Murray. On the third day, umpire Fagg refused to take the field over the West Indies' querying of a not-out decision in favour of Boycott, but he resumed after one over. England were little more enterprising than the West Indies, whose over rate was also very slow. The match was two-thirds over before the first two innings were concluded: West Indies' second innings, with 94 from Lloyd and 74 from Sobers, was faster, but England never attempted a task of 325 in 230 minutes.

Third Test, Lord's, August 23-27

West Indies (652 for 8 declared) beat England (233 and 193) by an innings and 226 runs.
England's second worst defeat in Test cricket at this stage came as they were totally outplayed. For West Indies, Kanhai (157), Sobers (150 not out) and a maiden Test century from Julien (121) led to a huge total, at the time the highest by a West Indies Test team in England. Only Fletcher, with 68, coped with hostile bowling from Vanburn Holder
Vanburn Holder
Vanburn Alonzo Holder is a former West Indian cricketer who played in forty Tests and twelve ODIs from 1969 to 1979.Holder played in the golden era of West Indian fast bowling...

 and Boyce, and when England followed on Fletcher was again the main resistance, scoring an undefeated 86. A bomb scare on the Saturday led to the ground being evacuated for 85 minutes; it was decided to add extra time to each of the remaining days of the match, but with the West Indies winning with a day and a half to spare it was not needed.

The One-Day Internationals

Two 55-overs-per-side matches were played for the Prudential Trophy. England were captained for the first time by Mike Denness
Mike Denness
Mike Denness is a former Scottish cricketer who played for England, Scotland, Essex and Kent. Scotland did not have a representative international team at the time of Denness' career, so he could only play for England at Test and ODI level. Denness became the first Scotsman to captain England...

, who succeeded Ray Illingworth.

First Match, Headingley, September 5

England (182 for 9 in 54.3 overs) beat West Indies (181 all out in 54 overs) by one wicket with three balls to spare.
The captains top-scored for their teams (Kanhai with 55, Denness with 66); Chris Old
Chris Old
Chris Old is an English former cricketer, who played in forty six Tests and thirty two ODIs from 1972 to 1981....

 and Derek Underwood
Derek Underwood
Derek Underwood MBE is an English former international cricketer, and a former President of the MCC....

 each took three wickets as West Indies' middle order failed to build on a good start; Tony Greig
Tony Greig
Anthony "Tony" William Greig is a former English Test cricketer and currently a commentator.Born in Queenstown, South Africa, Greig qualified to play for England by virtue of his Scottish father. He was a tall batting all-rounder who bowled both medium pace and off spin. He became captain of the...

 took England to the brink of victory with 48, but three quick wickets then left last pair Underwood and Bob Willis
Bob Willis
Robert George Dylan Willis MBE , known as Bob Willis, is a former English cricketer who played for Surrey, Warwickshire, Northern Transvaal and England...

 to score six to win. Denness was Man of the Match.

Second Match, The Oval, September 7

West Indies (190 for 2 in 42.2 overs) beat England (189 for 9 in 55 overs) by eight wickets.
A comfortable victory for West Indies won them the Prudential Trophy for a faster scoring rate over the two games. Only Keith Fletcher, with 63, shone in England's innings as Lance Gibbs bowled his 11 overs for just 12 runs and Clive Lloyd, drafted in to bowl because Sobers was unfit, took two for 25. Man of the Match Roy Fredericks made 105 and put on 143 with Alvin Kallicharran (53 not out) to take his side to within four of victory.

Other Matches

The West Indies side played 14 first-class matches outside the Tests. They beat Hampshire
Hampshire County Cricket Club
Hampshire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Hampshire in cricket's County Championship. The club was founded in 1863 as a successor to the Hampshire county cricket teams and has played at the Antelope Ground from then until 1885, before moving to the County Ground where it...

, Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club
Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Nottinghamshire, and the current county champions. Its limited overs team is called the Nottinghamshire Outlaws...

, Glamorgan
Glamorgan County Cricket Club
Glamorgan County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the historic county of Glamorgan aka Glamorganshire . Glamorgan CCC is the only Welsh first-class cricket club. Glamorgan CCC have won the English County...

, and Derbyshire
Derbyshire County Cricket Club
Derbyshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the England and Wales domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Derbyshire...

. Their only defeat was in a match with Derrick Robins' XI which included England batsmen Boycott and Amiss, Clive Rice
Clive Rice
Clive Edward Butler Rice is a former South African international cricketer. An all-rounder, Rice ended his first class cricket career with a batting average of 40.95 and a bowling average of 22.49....

, Bishen Bedi, Mushtaq Mohammad
Mushtaq Mohammad
Mushtaq Mohammad is a former Pakistani cricketer who played in 57 Tests and 10 ODIs from 1959 to 1979. A right-handed batsman and a leg-spinner, he is one of the most successful Pakistani all-rounders and went on to captain his country in nineteen Test matches...

 and Intikhab Alam
Intikhab Alam
Intikhab Alam Khan is a retired Pakistani cricketer who played in 47 Tests and 4 ODIs from 1959 to 1977. He also played in English county cricket for Surrey between 1969 and 1981....

. The other nine matches were drawn.

Four other non first-class matches were played, three of them one-day matches.

Tour statistics

The Test match batting averages were headed by Gary Sobers with 306 runs at an average of 76.50. Clive Lloyd top scored with 318 runs in the three matches. Keith Boyce was the most successful Test bowler with 19 wickets at 15.47 each.

On the tour as a whole, behind Sobers (who only played in Tests), the top batsman was Maurice Foster, whose 828 runs came at an average of 63.69. Clive Lloyd and Roy Fredericks both scored more than 1000 runs. Boyce was the most successful of the regular bowlers in terms of both aggregate (41 wickets) and average (22.46).

External sources

CricketArchive
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