Tour of England 1991          Captain: Vivian Richards

35th West Indies Test tour

Fourteenth Test-playing tour of England by West Indies

    (May - August 1991)

Gradually, West Indian domination in the ‘seventies and ‘eighties was ebbing and the two sides fought an evenly-contested series. At Headingley, West Indies lost a Test match in England for the first time since 1969 after Graham Gooch played one of the best captain’s innings ever seen.

West Indies put all their eggs in the fast bowling basket, leaving Carl Hooper to cover as the only spinner. Curtly Ambrose produced fine bowling figures consistently through the Test series and ended with 28 wickets. Marshall and Walsh were almost as incisive and added to the relentless fast bowling attack. West Indies won the third and fourth Tests with Patrick Patterson as well, bursting back from injury, to expose frailty in the English batting against extreme pace.

After England had made 419 at The Oval West Indies were spun out for 176 and made to follow on. Vivian Richards scored 60 in his last Test innings and Richardson, who would succeed him as captain, scored another century but it was not enough to prevent England from squaring the rubber two-all.

Other West Indies tours

Previous tour

Pakistan 1990-91

Next tour

Australia 1992-93

Next England tour

1995

Members of the Test tour party   (16 + 1)

Opening batsmen: Desmond Haynes, Phil Simmons, Gordon Greenidge (replaced by Clayton Lambert).

Middle-order batsmen   Carl Hooper, Brian Lara, Gus Logie, Viv Richards, Richie Richardson.

Wicket-keepers:Jeffrey Dujon, David Williams

Fast bowlers  Ian Allen, Curtly Ambrose, Hamish Anthony, Malcolm Marshall, Patrick Patterson, Courtney Walsh

Regional representation :

B - Barbados (3)

G  - Guyana (1)

Ja  - Jamaica (3)

L - Leeward Islands (5)

T - Trinidad & Tobago (4)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(6 June 1991:

   29 yrs  11 months

Test Appearances made before the tour

Richards 116,  Haynes 97,  Greenidge 83,  Marshall 76,  Dujon 76  Richardson57,  Logie 48,  Walsh 45,  Ambrose 28,   Hooper 27,  Patterson 23,  Simmons 2,  Lara 1,  Allen 0,  Anthony 0,  Lambert 0,  Williams 0

Tour Officials

Selectors

Jackie Hendriks (chairman),  David Holford,  Irving Shillingford.

Selection

Unavailable:  Ian Bishop  (stress fracture in back)

Tour Party Announced :  25 April 1991

Six fast bowlers were chosen at the expense of any spin bowlers (apart from Hooper)

Not selected : Jimmy Adams,  Keith Arthurton,  Clayton Lambert and Roger Harper.

Time between selection and departure from West Indies 

   13 days

(25 April to 8 May)

Travel

Bridgetown   Q  London

David Williams, Logie and Lara from Trinidad joined their West Indies team mates in Barbados on 7 May and flew out on 8 May 1991 and arrived at Heathrow on 9 May

Time spent in England

   x days

(9 May - depart)

On-tour selection panel

Viv Richards,  Desmond Haynes,  David Holford.

Reinforcements

Clayton Lambert, from the North Yorkshire & South Durham League, joined the tour party when Gordon Greenidge withdrew with a knee injury. Greenidge came back as captain in the World XI match

Richard Staple played for the tourists against the World XI at the end of the tour. Staple was a 21 year-old Jamaican batsman who later became captain of the United States, a team which included Clayton Lambert. 

Ian Bishop and Roger Harper also played in this match.

Fixtures/Results

† not first-class

§  one-day international

Time spent in England before First Test: 

      28 days

(9 May - 6 June)

Test appearances on tour

5  -  Ambrose,  Dujon,  Haynes,  Hooper,  Marshall,  Richards,  Richardson, Simmons,  Walsh.

4  -  Logie

3  -  Patterson

2  -  Allen

1  -  Lambert

0  -  Anthony,  Greenidge,  Lara,  D Williams.

Match appearances

T  Test match

o  one-day international 

x other match 

⊕ T/20 international

 W won  L lost  D drawn   N no result   A abandoned   u unknown result

Highlights

•    Curtly Ambrose took six for 52 at Headingley, only Gooch defying his bowling

•    Hooper (111) scored a century in the rain affected Test at Lord’s

•    Haynes and Richardson shared an unbroken partnership of 114 to win the third Test by nine wickets

•    Patrick Patterson returning from injury took 5 for 81 at Edgbaston

•    Desmond Haynes carried his bat for 75 not out in the first innings at The Oval

•    Richie Richardson had already been made Man of the Match for his century on a difficult pitch at Edgbaston, now scored 121 in the second innings but it was not enough to prevent England from winning.

•    Viv Richards scored 60 in his final Test innings at The Oval.

Tour Summary

                    including the 2 minor matches in Holland  and the first-class match against the World XI

Return to West Indies

? Q  ?

Seems the official tour ended with the fifth Test and the matches in Holland on 15 and 16 August. The match at Scarborough was a private affair.

Time away from West Indies    x days  

(8 May to arrive home in WI)

Finance

The team was sponsored by the Jamaican brewers, Red Stripe.

Accounts of the tour

Postscript

The tour marked the end of an era: Viv Richards retired after captaining West Indies in fifty Test matches, in which he never lost a series, and Greenidge, Marshall and Dujon also bowed out.

Richie Richardson was appointed as the next West Indian captain and narrowly avoided defeat in his first match against South Africa at Bridgetown.

The West Indian Board also appointed a coach for the first time.