Tour of England 1997                 Captain: Mark Taylor

64th Test tour

33rd Test tour of England by Australia     

(May  - August 1997)

Mark Taylor came to England having led Australia to fifteen wins in 27 Tests but as an opening batsman having failed to score a half-century in his last 20 Test innings. Taylor promised he would drop himself from the Test side against England unless he rediscovered his batting form soon. The selectors had already appointed Steve Waugh vice-captain in preference to Ian Healy, who had been involved in several disciplinary issues, in case he needed to take over but Taylor saved his career with a century in the first Test at Edgbaston.

Although Australia lost that match, they showed how strong a bowling side they had in the next Test at Lord’s (dismissing England for 77 before rain caused the match to be drawn). The tourists then went on to win the next three Test matches by large margins.

England won the final Test, which was a small compensation for having failed to regain the Ashes, but gave hope for the future. England had earlier won the Texaco Trophy with three straight six-wicket wins in a row.

Other Australian Tours

Previous tour

South Africa 1996-97

Next tour

India 1997-98

Next tour of England

2001

Members of the Test tour party  (17  +  4)

Opening batsmen  Michael Slater, Matthew Elliott, Mark Taylor.

Middle-order batsmen:  Greg Blewett, Justin Langer, Ricky Ponting, Michael Bevan, Mark Waugh, Stephen Waugh.

Wicket-keepers  Ian Healy, Adam Gilchrist (replaced by Darren Berry)

Spin bowlers  Shane Warne.

Fast bowlers : Andy Bichel, Jason Gillespie (replaced by Paul Reiffel), Glenn McGrath, Mike Kasprowicz, Brendon Julian.

State representation

  Sheffield Shield teams

N   New South Wales (6)

Q  Queensland (3)

S   South Australia (2)

T   Tasmania (1)

V   Victoria (2)

W  Western Australia (3)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(5 June 1997) :

  27 yrs  8 months.

ODI  -  Played in the Texaco Trophy one-day matches.

Test Appearances made before the tour

SR Waugh 89,  Healy 88,  Taylor 81,  M E Waugh 63,  Warne 52,  Slater 34,  McGrath 28,  Reiffel 25,  Blewett 16,  Bevan 14,  Langer 8,  Julian 7,  Ponting 6,  Elliott 5,  Gillespie 5,  Bichel 2,  Kasprowicz 2,  Gilchrist 0  

 [Berry 0,  Lee 0,  Young 0]

Tour Officials

Selectors

Trevor Hohns (chairman),   Andrew Hilditch,  Steve Bernard,  Geoff Marsh (coach).

Selection

Unavailable:

Steve Waugh took over from Ian Healy as vice-captain.

Tour Party Announced :  18 April 1997.

Not selected :  Paul Reiffel,  Matthew Hayden,  Adam Dale,  Michael DiVenuto.

Time between selection and departure from Australia         

    22 days

(18 April  - 10 May)

Travel

Sydney   Q  Hong Kong   Q London Heathrow

On Saturday 10 May 1997 the team flew from Sydney by way of a short stopover in Hong Kong to play a match.

They flew from Hong Kong's Kai Tek airport to London, touching down at Heathrow Airport on 12 May.

Time spent in England

   108 days

(12 May - 28 August)

On-tour selection

Mark Taylor (captain),  Geoff Marsh (coach),  Steve Waugh (vice-captain).

Reinforcements

Paul Reiffel arrived to replace Andy Bichel, forced out of the tour by a back injury, as well as to cover for Jason Gillespie who sustained a hamstring injury in the first Test.

Darren Berry, who was already in England (playing in the Cheshire League for Macclesfield), was called in to replace Adam Gilchrist when he was injured playing football during training (torn medial ligaments on his left knee). 

Shaun Young, playing county cricket for Gloucestershire, and Shane Lee, who was playing in the Lancashire League with Enfield, joined the tour party from the match against Kent onwards when three players returned home early:  Paul Reiffel (to be present for the birth of his child) Jason Gillespie (who now had a back injury) and Brendon Julian (broken hand).

Fixtures/Results

ϯ not first-class

§  one-day internationals (Texaco Trophy)

Time spent in England before First Test: 

  24 days

(12 May - 5 June)

Test appearances on tour

6 -   Blewett,  Elliott,  Healy,  McGrath,  Taylor,  Warne,  M Waugh,  S Waugh.

4 -   Gillespie,  Reiffel.

3 -   Bevan,  Kasprowicz,  Ponting.

1 -   Young.

0 -   Bichel,  Gilchrist,  Julian,  Langer,  Lee,  Slater.

Highlights

•   N

•   

•   

Tour Summary

Return to Australia

London   Q  Sydney

Shane Warne flew back to Melbourne after the third Test for ten days to see his newly-born baby daughter Brooke and wife Simone.  Adam Gilchrist returned home injured in the middle of July.

Some of the team were involved in a six-a-side corporate tournament on 27 August.

The next day the team departed from London’s Heathrow Airport

Time away from Australia  x days  

(10 May  to   x August)

Finances

…..

Written accounts of the tour

“An Ashes Summer”    by Nasser Hussain and Steve Waugh [and Paul Newman]  (Collins Willow, 1997)

“Poms and Cobbers - The Ashes 1997”  by Rob Steen, with Robert Croft and Matthew Elliott  (Andre Deutsch, 1997)

“Ashes 97: Two Views from the Boundary”  by Norman Geras  and Ian Holliday (Baseline Books, 1997)

“Steve Waugh's 1997 Ashes Diary”   by Steve Waugh  (Harper Sports, 1997)

 “We’re Right Behind you, Captain”  by David Hopps  (Robson Books, 1997)

chapter in “Keeping It Real: The Darren "Chuck" Berry Story”    by Darren Berry  (Bas Publishing, 2004)

Postscript

At the end of August the Australian Cricket Board advised the national selectors that Test and one-day matches were now to be seen as entirely separate types of game, and that the panel should pick the best team to win each match.  This spelt the end of Mark Taylor’s captaincy in one-day matches.