| Tour
of West Indies 1977-78
Captain: Bob Simpson | |
| | | | |
| Fortieth
Australian Test tour Fourth Test-playing tour
of West Indies by Australia ((February to May 1978) | The
first overseas venture by an Australian side without its Packer stars. They
were outclassed in the first two Test matches by a full-strength West Indian
side. This was a very different prospect from playing India a month before, until a strike by the West Indies' WSC players put the two sides on a more
equal footing for the third Test which was won by a more confident Australian
team. The batsmen could not maintain the form they had found in Georgetown, however,
and collapsed for 94 to lose the fourth Test and concede the series. The
final Test was controversially abandoned as a draw after crowd disturbances
denied Australia
a face-saving victory There
was an age barrier between the captain and his young, inexperienced side and
he was not well-liked. They switched off from the 'tirades of the fogeyish
Simpson' ('The Cricket War' Gideon Haigh).
After the tour Simpson declared his candidacy to continue as
Australian skipper but was not required. | Other
Australian Tours Previous
tour England 1977 Next
tour India
1979-80 Next
tour of West Indies 1983-84 | |
| Members
of the Test tour party (15 + 1) Opening batsmen: Graeme Wood, Rick Darling Middle-order batsmen: Gary Cosier, Kim Hughes, Craig Sarjeant,
Bob Simpson, Peter Toohey, Graham Yallop (reinforced
by David Ogilvie) . Wicket-keeper: Steve Rixon Spin bowlers: Jim
Higgs, Bruce Yardley Fast bowlers: Ian Callen, Trevor Laughlin, Wayne Clark, Jeff Thomson | I W Callen | Vic | 22 | RFM | | | W M Clark | WA | 24 | RF | | | G J
Cosier | Qld | 24 | RHB | | | W M
Darling | SA | 20 | RHB opener | | | J D
Higgs | Vic | 27 | LBG | | | K J
Hughes | WA | 24 | RHB | | | T J
Laughlin | Vic | 27 | LHB RM | | | S J
Rixon | NSW | 24 | WK | | | C S
Serjeant | WA | 26 | RHB | | | R B
Simpson | NSW | 42 | RHB captain | | | J R
Thomson | Qld | 27 | RF vice-captain | | | P M
Toohey | NSW | 23 | RHB | | | G M
Wood | WA | 21 | LHB opener | | | G N Yallop | Vic | 25 | LHB | | | B
Yardley | WA | 30 | OB | | | | | |
|
State representation Sheffield Shield teams NSW - New
South Wales (3) Qld - Queensland
(2) SA - South
Australia (1) Tas - Tasmania
(0) Vic - Victoria (4) WA - Western
Australia (5) Average
age of team at time of first Test
match (3 March 1978) : 26 yrs 2
months | |
| Test
Appearances made before the tour | Simpson 57, Thomson 27,
Cosier 13, Serjeant 7, Clark 5, Rixon 5, Toohey 5, Yallop 4, Hughes 3, Callen
1, Darling 1, Wood 1, Yardley 1, Higgs 0, Laughlin 0. [Ogilvie 3]. | | |
| Tour
Officials | F W C 'Fred' Bennett | Tour Manager | | Physiotherapist |
| | |
| Selectors | Neil Harvey (New South Wales), Sam Loxton (Victoria) and Phil Ridings (South Australia)
chose the team. | | |
| Selection | The manager was appointed
on 22 December 1977. Bob Simpson notified the
Board on 12 January that he was available and willing to lead and rebuild the
Australian side. Had Simpson not been prepared to take the team to the West Indies, Craig Serjeant would have been captain. Unavailable: A condition of selection
had been that players were available for Australian Cricket Board-controlled
matches in 1978-79, which effectively ruled out the World Series Cricket (WSC)
players. On 9 January fourteen WSC
players had sent a letter to the Australian Cricket Board expressing their
wish to take part in the tour of West Indies. Tour Party Announced : 20 January
1978. Not selected : No World Series Cricket players
were in the team. Kerry Packer said on 20 February
that he would release Australian WSC players for the Caribbean
tour but this was ignored. Having been excused his
WSC contract because he was already contracted to a radio station to continue
playing Test cricket, Jeff Thomson was named vice-captain on 25 January.
Previously, the selectors had named Yallop and Serjeant before him. | Time between selection and departure from Australia 23 days (20 January - 12 February | |
| Travel Sydney Q Antigua | The team flew from Sydney on 12 February and made a stopover in San Francisco before flying on to New York. There was a strike by British West
Indies Airline (BWIA) pilots so they flew to St John's,
Antigua, on a chartered Primair Heron,
landing on 14 February. | Time spent in West Indies 80 days (14 February - 5 May) | |
| On-tour
selection | Bob Simpson (captain), Fred Bennett (manager), Jeff Thomson (vice-captain). | | |
| Reinforcements | David Ogilvie joined the tour party because Kim Hughes needed an appendix
operation and Peter Toohey broke his thumb. He arrived on 11 March after a
35-hour flight. Graham Yallop's jaw was
broken by a ball from Croft in the Guyana match forcing him to miss the third
Test. Gary Cosier's thumb was broken while playing Windward Islands. | | |
| Fixtures
/ Results | a | Basseterre | Leeward Islands | Won
183 r | b | § St John’s | West Indies (1st ODI) | Lost
scoring rate | c | Port of Spain | Trinidad
& Tobago | Won 6
w | d | PORT OF SPAIN | WEST INDIES First Test | LOST inns 106 r | e | Bridgetown | Barbados | Drawn | f | BRIDGETOWN | WEST INDIES Second Test | LOST 9 w | g | Georgetown | Guyana | Drawn | h | GEORGETOWN | WEST INDIES Third Test | WON 3 w | i | St George’s, Grenada | Windward Islands | Won
52 r | j | § Castries, St Lucia | West Indies (2nd ODI) | Won 2
w | k | PORT OF SPAIN | WEST INDIES Fourth Test | LOST 198 r | l | Kingston | Jamaica | Won 2
w | m | KINGSTON | WEST INDIES Fifth Test | DRAWN | | | | | n | ϯ Hamilton | Bermuda
Board President’s XI | Won
190 r | o | ϯ Somerset
CC | Bermuda under-25s | Won 5
w | p | ϯ Southampton
Oval | Somers
Isle Cricket League | Won
181 r | q | ϯ Hamilton | Bermuda | No
result | r | ϯ St George’s | Combined
Counties XI | Won
145 r |
| † not first-class § one-day
international Time spent in West Indies before First Test: 17 days (14 February - 3 March) | |
| Test
appearances on tour | 5 - Rixon, Serjeant, Simpson, Thomson, Wood, Yardley. 4 - Clark, Higgs, Yallop. 3 - Cosier, Darling, Toohey 2 - Laughlin, Ogilvie. 1 - 0 - Callen, Hughes. | | |
| Highlights | • Australia
were set 362 to win the third Test at Bourda and recovered from 22 for 3
thanks to centuries from Wood (126) and Serjeant (124). •
Peter Toohey who had missed some of the tour matches through injury
scored 122 and 97 in the fifth Test at Kingston. Australia were unable to press
for victory when the last day's play was disrupted by the crowds. • • | | |
| Tour
Summary | | P | W | L | D | Aban | Test Matches | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | - | Other first-class matches | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | - | ϯ Minor matches | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | - | § One-day internationals | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | - | All Matches | 18 | 10 | 4 | 4 | - |
| | |
| Return
to Australia Kingston Q Hamilton Hamilton Q Sydney | Gary Cosier and David Ogilvie flew direct back to Australia. The team arrived in Hamilton,
Bermuda, late on Friday night 5 May from Kingston.
Though they had not been looking forward much to the short tour, the
Australains said they were pleased to find how much they enjoyed this
extension to the trip. On 13 May the
team left for New York (Ian Callen went to England) and they arrived back in Sydney at 6:30 am on 15
May. 'Cricket Archive shows that
Ogilvie was playing in the 5th match in Bermuda | Time away from Australia 92 days
(12 February to 15 May) | |
| Finances | ….. | | |
| Accounts
of the tour | …….. | | |
| Postscript | Bob Simpson was willing to continue as Australian skipper but the
Australian Board, unappreciative as well as unwise, decided not to make use
of his services any longer. Graham
Yallop took over as captain for the Ashes series of 1978-79; he was so
overawed by the task against shrewd opposing skipper Mike Brearley that he
lost 5-1. | | |