| Tour
of India
1979-80 Captain: Kim Hughes | |
| | | | |
| Forty-first Australian Test tour Fifth
Test-playing tour of India
by the Australian team (August - November
1979) | This
tour took place unusually early in the Indian season to allow the team to
return home in time for the first 'twin tour' season in Australia.
This meant that play was frequently interrupted by the monsoon rain. The
tour was needed to get India to defer their own tour to Australia until 1980-81,
which allowed the Australian Board to invite the West Indies back for the
first season since the settlement with Packer (whereby Channel Nine was
granted exclusive rights to televise Test cricket) It compensated for the postponement of
India's tour of Australia but had been arranged well beforehand, in May 1978.
Many of
Australia's
leading players were still absent because the tour party had been chosen
before the final settlement between World Series Cricket and the Australian
Cricket Board. The more experienced tourists, Hughes, Border and Dymock, helped
keep the margin of defeat down to two-nil. This result was neither a surprise
nor an ignominy considering that ten of the touring party had never
represented their country abroad before.
However, none of the first-class matches was won. The
tour went ahead though it was put in doubt at the start when the London High
Commission received intelligence that the team would be targeted if they
played their first match in the disputed territory of Kashmir.
| Other
Australian Tours Previous
tour West Indies 1977-78 Next
tour Pakistan 1979-80 Next
tour of India 1986-87 | |
| Members of the Test tour party (15
+ 1) Opening batsmen: Graeme Wood, Rick Darling, Andrew Hilditch Middle-order batsmen: Allan Border, Kim Hughes, Graham Yallop, Dav
Whatmore Wicket-keeper: Kim Wright Spin bowlers: Jim
Higgs, Bruce Yardley, Peter Sleep Fast bowlers: Geoff Dymock, Alan Hurst (replaced by Geoff
Lawson), Rodney Hogg, Graeme Porter. | A R
Border | NSW | 24 | LHB | | | W M
Darling | SA | 22 | RHB opener | | The
openers were expected to play an important role but Darling, Hilditch and
Wood struggled the whole way | G
Dymock | Qld | 33 | LFM | | | J D
Higgs | Vic | 29 | LBG | | | A M J
Hilditch | NSW | 23 | RHB opener vice-captain | | | R M
Hogg | SA | 28 | RF | | Disappointing.
He took too long to get to grips with the conditions | K J
Hughes | WA | 25 | RHB captain | | Hughes
had the highest run-scoring aggregate on the tour | A G Hurst | Vic | 29 | RF | | | G D
Porter | WA | 24 | RHB RM | | | P R
Sleep | SA | 22 | LBG | | | D F
Whatmore | Vic | 25 | RHB | | | G M
Wood | WA | 22 | LHB opener | | | K J
Wright | WA | 25 | WK | | | G N Yallop | Vic | 26 | LHB | | | B
Yardley | WA | 32 | OB | | |
|
State representation Sheffield Shield teams NSW New
South Wales (2) Qld Queensland
(1) SA South
Australia (3) Tas Tasmania
(0) Vic Victoria (4) WA Western
Australia (5) Average
age of team at time of first Test
match (12
September 1979) : 26 yrs
3 months. | |
| Test Appearances made before the tour | Yallop 15, Wood 13, Hughes 11, Yardley 11, Hurst 10, Darling 9, Higgs 9, Hogg 8, Dymock 8, Border 5, Wright 4, Hilditch 3, Whatmore 2, Sleep 1, Lawson 0,
Porter 0. | | |
| Tour officials | The
manager Bob Merriman, a labour relations manager with Ford, was Secretary of
the Victorian Country Cricket Association. He became Chairman of the
Australian Cricket Board 2001-2005. Robert
Merriman | Manager | Frank
Hennessy | Physiotherapist |
| | |
| Selectors | Sam Loxton (Victoria), Ray Lindwall (Queensland) and Phil
Ridings (South Australia) chose the team. | | |
| Selection | Unavailable: Only players who took part in last season's
Sheffield Shield programme were considered for selection, which ruled out
former WSC players. Tour Party Announced : 18 July
1979. The names were given out shortly after the return of
the World Cup squad from England. The captain and vice-captain were named on 19 July. Only one wicket-keeper (Wright) was chosen. Yallop
would be the reserve keeper, if needed. Not selected : Peter
Toohey, and three of the World Cup team Trevor Laughlin, Jeff Moss and Gary
Cosier. | Time between selection and departure from Australia 34 days (18 July - 21 August | |
| Travel Sydney Q Madras | Departure was on 21 August
1979. The team flew from Sydney, via Perth and Singapore. The
plane had to return to Singapore
when, one hour out, the Air India Boeing-747 lost power in one of its four
engines. The team finally reached Meenam Bakkam airport, Madras, at midnight on 22/23 August. The team flew to Srinagar for
its first match amidst strict security, being met by dozens of armed police
at the airport, whisked away to the hotel and so on, following threats from
the Pakistan-based Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front. | Time spent in India 77 days (23 August - 8 November) | |
| On-tour selection panel | Kim Hughes (captain), Andrew Hilditch (vice-captain), Graham Yallop. | | |
| Reinforcements | On 16 October it was decided that Alan Hurst who had suffered a back
injury would be repatriated for treatment after the Kanpur Test. NSW fast bowler Geoff Lawson was summoned as a
replacement. | | |
| Fixtures/Results | a | Srinagar | North
Zone | Drawn
| b | Hyderabad | South
Zone | Drawn | c | MADRAS | INDIA First Test | DRAWN | d | BANGALORE | INDIA Second Test | DRAWN | e | Nagpur | Central
Zone | Drawn | f | KANPUR | INDIA Third Test | LOST 153 r | g | Ahmedabad | West
Zone | Drawn | h | DELHI | INDIA Fourth Test | DRAWN | i | Cuttack | East
Zone | Lost
4 w | j | CALCUTTA | INDIA Fifth Test | DRAWN | k | BOMBAY | INDIA Sixth Test | LOST inns 100 r |
| †not first-class § one-day
international Time spent in India before
First Test: 20 days (23 August - 12 September) | |
| Test appearances on tour | 6 - Border, Higgs, Hilditch, Hogg, Hughes, Wright, Yallop. 5 -
Darling, Dymock, Whatmore 3 - Yardley 2 - Hurst,
Sleep, Wood 0 - Lawson, Porter. | | |
| Highlights | •
Border (162) and Hughes (100) shared a partnership of 222 at Madras, the 3rd wicket record against India •
Jim Higgs took 7 for 143 in an innings in the Madras Test •
Geoff Dymock had 12 wickets in the Kanpur match, getting all 11 Indian player
out. •
Graham Yallop (167) made Australia's
highest individual score in India
to date. | | |
| Tour Summary | | P | W | L | D | Aban | Test Matches | 6 | 0 | 2 | 4 | - | Other first-class matches | 5 | 0 | 1 | 4 | - | ϯ Minor matches | 0 | - | - | - | - | All Matches | 11 | 0 | 3 | 8 | - |
| | |
| Return to Australia Bombay Q Perth | On 8 November 1979 the team
flew from Santa Cruz Airport, Bombay, on
an 18-hour flight via Singapore
to Perth,
arriving on 9 November. | Time away from Australia 80 days
(21 August to 9 November) | |
| Finances | | | |
| Accounts
of the tour | | | |
| Postscript | Although
the players were, for the time being, members of the Australian national
side, many of them felt remote from what was happening in Australia
where other players were, with the new prospect of higher rewards for top
cricketers since the settlement between Packer and the Australian Board,
making their mark in the Sheffield Shield competition. "They played like
young men under sentence of death which, in cricketing terms, they were." On arriving home Kim Hughes admitted that
too few of his players came up to scratch. | | |