Tour of England 1966               Captain: Gary Sobers

Thirteenth West Indies Test tour

Seventh Test-playing tour of England by West Indies

(May - September 1966)   

In the original planning the South Africans were scheduled to tour England in 1966 but they were doubled up with New Zealand in 1965 to allow the West Indians, so popular in 1963, to return much sooner than they would have done (the next West Indian tour after 1963 would have taken place in 1971).  Having such popular visitors back in England again prevented cricket being entirely overshadowed by the counter attraction of the football World Cup being hosted during the summer of ‘66.

Twelve of the seventeen players had toured England previously in 1963.

Barbadians made up no less than nine of the team and some might even have felt that Tony White and Robin Bynoe deserved places on the tour, too, unpopular though that might have been in the other territories in the region.  Barbados became independent from the British Empire in November 1966 and was awarded a celebratory match against the Rest of the World.

Charlie Griffith’s bowling action came under close scrutiny, and he delivered his yorker and bouncer less threateningly than in 1963. He was not no-balled but during the Headingley Test he was warned by the umpire for an illegal delivery.

By the end of the fourth Test at Leeds West Indies had retained the Wisden Trophy convincingly with a stunning performance by Sobers (an innings of 174 and 8 wickets). England were thoroughly outplayed, as in 1963, by a side which had claims to be West Indies' strongest to date.

The tour profit was less than in 1963, probably owing to rainy summer weather as much as competition from the World Cup.

Other West Indies tours

Previous tour

England 1963

India 1965-66cancelled

Next tour

To India 1966-67

Next tour of England

1969

Members of the Test tour party (17)

Opening batsmen: Joey Carew, Conrad Hunte, Easton McMorris

Middle-order batsmen:Basil Butcher, Seymour Nurse, Gary Sobers,Joe Solomon, Rohan Kanhai, Peter Lashley.

Wicket-keepers: David Allan, Jackie Hendriks.

Spin bowlers:Rawle Brancker, David Holford, Lance Gibbs

Fast bowlers: Wes Hall, Charlie Griffith, Rudolph Cohen.

Regional representation :

B - Barbados (9)

BG - British Guiana (4)

Ja - Jamaica (3)

T – Trinidad & Tobago (1)

The South American colony of British Guiana gained its independence on 26 May 1966.

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(2 June 1966) :

  30 yrs 1 month

Test Appearances made before the tour

Sobers 52,  Kanhai 43,  Hunte 36,  Hall 33,  Solomon 27,  Gibbs 26,  Butcher 20,  Griffth 11,  McMorris 11,  Nurse 9,  Hendricks 5,  Allan 3,  Carew 2,  Lashley 2,  Brancker 0,  Cohan 0,  Holford 0.

Tour Officials

Selectors

Gerry Gomez (chairman - Trinidad),   Allan Rae (Jamaica), John Goddard (Barbados), Frank Worrell,  Berkeley Gaskin (Guyana), with Gary Sobers (captain) and  Jeffrey Stollmeyer (manager) present.

Selection

In December 1965 the selectors named eight of their professionals to tour:  Sobers, Kanhai, Griffith, King (who later withdrew), Hall, Hunte, Butcher, Nurse, They were forced to make these early nominations in the team because several West Indians played in the English Leagues.

Unavailable:  Deryck Murray (place at Cambridge University).

Tour Party Announced :  9 March 1966

Withdrawal :  Lester King (because of an operation on his knee cartilage).  Cohen replaced him.

Not selected : Sobers wrote how Stollmeyer was chairman with the casting vote, and how McMorris was picked ahead of Bynoe, and Brancker ahead of Lloyd through political manoevring.  Trevor McDonald wrote “Sobers, who had seen and applauded Lloyd’s century only days before the team for England was chosen, was to comment that Lloyd’s omission from the 1966 touring party had been one of the graver errors made by the West Indian Board.” (Lloyd’s 1985 biography)

Time between selection and departure from West Indies

 38 days

 (9 March - 16 April)

Travel  

Kingston / Port of Spain  QNew YorkQLondon Heathrow

Manager Jeff Stollmeyer flew out of Trinidad with Carew, Solomon and Butcher on 16 April 1966. They proceeded to New York with the Barbadians and assistant manager Hoyos. There they met up with Gibbs.

Cohen, McMorris and Hendriks from Kingston, Jamaica, went to London on a different flight.  Kanhai was already in London. Hall had flown to England from a winter's cricket with the Sydney grade club, Randwick.

The team arrived at Heathrow on 17 April and the press conference began with Gary Sobers being presented with the new Wisden Trophy which was created to mark their tour in 1963 coinciding with the 100th publication of the Wisden’s Cricketers' Almanack.

Time spent in England

   150 days

(17 April - 14 September)

On-tour selection panel

Gary Sobers (captain),   Conrad Hunte (vice-captain),   Wes Hall,   Lance Gibbs  and  Rohan Kanhai.

Reinforcements

None.  Hendriks missed the first two Test matches through a hand injury

Fixtures/Results

† not first-class

Time spent in England before First Test:    46 days

(17 April - 2 June)

Time from end of final Test until departure from England

   38 days

(22 August - 14 September)

Test appearances on tour

5  -   Butcher,  Gibbs,  Griffith,  Hall,  Holford,  Hunte,  Kanhai,  Nurse,  Sobers.

3  -  Hendriks

2  -  Allan,  Lashley,  McMorris

1 -   Carew

0 -   Cohan,  Solomon.

Highlights

•   Gary Sobers was the outstanding player with three huge centuries: 161 at Old Trafford, 163 not out at Lord’s and 174 at Headingley.  He ended the series with 722 runs, at an average of more than 100.

•   Sobers also took 20 wickets in the Test matches, as well as most wickets on the tour (60).

•   In the Lord’s Test Sobers put on 274 for the sixth wicket with his cousin David Holford (105).

•   Gary Sobers (174) and Seymour Nurse (137) shared a record 5th wicket partnership of 265 at Headingley

•   At Old Trafford Gibbs repeated his 1963 performance of ten in the match by taking 5-37 and 5-69

•   Basil Butcher’s unbeaten 209 at Trent Bridge included three consecutive century stands with his partners.

•   Lance Gibbs took 6 wickets for 39 as England collapsed in the fourth Test at Headingley.

•   West Indies drew with Gloucestershire, the scores being level on the last ball.

Tour Summary

∎

Return to West Indies

London Q  Seawell, Barbados

The team flew from London Airport on 14 September 1966.

The manager, assistant and eleven players went from Heathrow Airport to Seawell Airport but six of the team did not fly back with them: Kanhai, Hall and Hunte stayed in England and flew directly to the Indian tour.  Solomon enrolled on a cricket coaching course.  Griffith went on a holiday to Canada.  McMorris joined his family in the United States.

Time away from West Indies

  152 days 

 (16 April to 15 September)

Finances

The tour made a profit of £15 000, half the amount earned in 1963.

Published accounts of the tour

"Everything that's Cricket"   by John Clarke & Brian Scovell [Stanley Paul, 1966)

Postscript

“There was an obvious anomaly in the quantum of fees and allowances paid to our players… Gary Sobers was receiving the same amount of basic pay as, for example, Rudi Cohen, our reserve fast bowler who played least on the tour and had failed to gain selection in a Test match. This was palpably absurd.  Players were categorised in future on the number of Test matches previously played.”  Jeffrey Stollmeyer Everything Under the Sun (1983)