Tour of West Indies 1954-55               Captain: Ian Johnson

24th Test tour

First Test-playing tour of  West Indies by Australia

   (March - June 1955)

Arrangements for an Australia-West Indies series were made in September 1953.  The West Indies Board of Control had written pointing out that the Australians owed West Indies a visit in return for their tours of 1930-31 and 1951-52, which had not been reciprocated. The problem was squeezing in a tour so soon after the Ashes series.

From the Australian point of view the Caribbean tour was a great success. Having conceded the Ashes in 1953, and seen them comfortably retained by England in 1954-55, all the batsmen fully rehabilitated themselves after the battering they took against England only a few weeks before.  Morris, Harvey, Miller and others were prolific scorers. The average innings for the whole tour was an incredible 44.76, although it must be admitted that the pitches were benign and the West Indian bowling attack was nothing like as strong as England's.

Lindwall and Miller showed they were still a fearsome pair of fast bowlers though Bill Johnston was less of a force before a twisted right knee brought his career to an end.

Skipper Ian Johnson, gifted with a diplomatic manner, made sure the side was popular wherever they went since it was inevitable that the Australians would be compared with the MCC tourists from the  year before.

Other Australian Tours

Previous tour

England 1953

Next tour

England 1956

Next tour of West Indies 

1964-65   

Members of the Test tour party  (16)

Opening batsmen:  Arthur Morris, Colin McDonald, Billy Watson

Middle-order batsmen:  Neil Harvey, Les Favell, Keith Miller, Peter Burge.

Wicket-keepers:  Gil Langley, Len Maddocks.

Spin bowlers:  Richie Benaud, Ian Johnson, Jack Hill.

Fast bowlers: Ray Lindwall, Bill Johnston, Alan Davidson, Ron Archer.

State representation

  Sheffield Shield teams

N   New South Wales (5)

Q  Queensland (3)

S   South Australia (2)

T   Tasmania (0)

V   Victoria (6)

W  Western Australia (0)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(26 March 1955) :

    29 years  2 months.

Test Appearances made before the tour

Miller 44,  Lindwall 42,  Morris 42,  Johnston 36,  Harvey 34,  Johnson 32,  Langley 16,  Benaud 13,  Archer 8, Davidson 8,  McDonald 8,  Favell 4,  Maddocks 3, Hill 2,  Burge 1,  Watson 1.

Tour Officials

On 30 December 1954 Jack Burge (the father of Peter Burge), an administrator and state selector with Queensland, was appointed manager from a short list of four.  When he was unwell in mid-tour, Langley took over his duties for a week.

Selectors

Sir Donald Bradman (South Australia),  Dudley Seddon (New South Wales),  Jack Ryder (Victoria) 

Selection

The team was named at the end of the fourth Test against England. Jim Burke and Graeme Hole who had played in the Ashes series were discarded.

Unavailable: none

Tour Party Announced:  3 February 1955.

Not selected :. The selectors were criticised for not taking a chance on Pat Crawford or Bob Simpson who had done well in the Sheffield Shield

The Australian Board of Control named Ian Johnson as captain on 7 February and Keith Miller next day, replacing Morris.

Time between selection and departure from Australia    

  37 days

(3 February - 12 March)

Travel

Sydney  Q  Kingston

Departure was on 12 March 1955 from Mascot Airport, Sydney. The team flew via Vancouver, Toronto and Nassau, to Palisados Airport, Kingston, on 15 March. They received an enthusiastic welcome after  - according to Landsberg - a ninety-six hour journey.

Time spent in West Indies

   100 days

(15 March  - 23 June)

On-tour selection

Ian Johnson (captain),  Keith Miller (vice-captain),  Arthur Morris.

It was considered likely that Neil Harvey would be the third selector once Morris was demoted from vice-captain

Reinforcements

None.  Arthur Morris led the side when the new vice-captain Keith Miller was unable to appear against Trinidad because of a knee injury.  A similar knee injury, suffered by Bill Johnston on the first day of the final Test match, was bad enough to end his Test career.

Fixtures/Results

† not first-class

Time spent in West Indies before First Test: 

  11 days

(15 March - 26 March)

Test appearances on tour

5 -  Archer, Benaud, Harvey, Johnston, Lindwall, McDonald, Miller.

4 -  Johnston, Langley, Morris

3 -  Watson.

2 -  Favell

1 -  Burge, Hill, Maddocks

0 -  Davidson.

Highlights

•    Openers Morris and McDonald began the series with a stand of 102 at Kingston before Harvey (133) and Miller (147) shared a third wicket partnership of 224; and the heavy run-scoring continued from there.

•   Harvey and Miller scored three centuries each in the series, and there were seven others by team-mates.

•   Lindwall’s 6-95 at Port of Spain cut West Indies back from their strongest batting position in the series.

•   Ian Johnson took 7-44 in the second innings of the Third Test to ensure Australia was set a low target.

•   After losing two quick wickets, five batsmen scored centuries in the Australian first innings of the final Test at Kingston: McDonald (127), Harvey (204), Miller (109), Archer (128) and Benaud (121)

•   Benaud’s century was the fastest in Tests since 1902-03 by Jimmy Sinclair; and the innings of 8 wickets for 758 declared was Australia’s highest total in Test matches.

•   Wicket-keeper Gil Langley played four Tests, conceding only 22 byes while 2464 runs were scored.

Tour Summary

Return to Australia

Kingston  T  Wellington

Christchurch  Q  Melbourne

The ‘Rangitane’ left London and was available for the Australians to board on 23 June so the planned rearrangement of the two-day fixture at Montego Bay was scrapped.

The team sailed from Kingston on the 'Rangitane' to Wellington, New Zealand, docking on 14 July.  They then took the inter-island steamer to Lyttelton and flew from Christchurch to Melbourne on 15 July.

Time away from Australia

  125 days  

(12 March to 15 July)

Finances

The home Board would finance the tour and take any profit or loss from the fourteen games originally planned.  Hosting the tour cost the West Indies Cricket Board £60 000 and they approached the government of the West Indies Federation to indemnify it against losses of up to £10 000.

Written accounts of the tour

"The Kangaroo Conquers"   (1955)  by Pat Landsberg  [Museum Press Ltd]

Postscript

After succumbing against Tyson and Statham’s fast bowling and Hutton’s captaincy to lose the Ashes in 1954-55, the selectors opted for experience, and picked only two new players in Burge and Watson but neither took their chance. Nor did Davidson, Maddocks or Favell make much progress.  The tour was a triumph for the older brigade of Harvey, Miller, Morris, Lindwall and Langley.