Tour of England 1995          Captain: Richie Richardson

Fortieth West Indies Test tour

15th Test-playing tour by West Indies to England

    (May - September 1995)

The tour took place immediately after Australia beat West Indies at Sabina Park 1995 and there was inevitably staleness on an over-long, drawn-out tour.  But instead of uniting and striving to regain their place as the number one cricket team, the end-of-tour report from manager Wes Hall spoke of conflicts, disrespect, discord, bad attitudes and poor behaviour.

Without strong seniors from the golden era, the last of whom Desmond Haynes was excluded while he was in dispute with the West Indies Board, “...the team behaved as a fractured collection of individuals who did not wish to work together,” wrote Hilary Beckles.  “No national pride as representatives of the nation but individual professionals plying their trade.”

Coach Andy Roberts, one of the greatest fast bowlers of all time, complained that the bowlers ignored his advice and a mid-tour meeting was called after the Old Trafford Test to discuss the unacceptable and irresponsible conduct of some players. When Lara blamed Richie Richardson for the problems and Richardson said he would gladly resign but (according to  ‘A House Divided Cannot Stand’) “..was not prepared to bow to egotistical people with agendas and ambitions”, Lara walked out of the tour. He returned only after sympathetic persuasion from the Board president, Peter Short.

Winston Benjamin’s conduct saw him sent home, and a disciplinary committee of the Board found Carl Hooper, Curtly Ambrose, Kenny Benjamin and Lara guilty of misconduct. All were fined ten per cent of their tour fee (about £2000).

Other West Indies tours

Previous tour

New Zealand 1994-95

Next tour

Australia 1996-97

Next England tour

2000

Members of the Test tour party (17 + 2)

Opening batsmen: Sherwin Campbell, Stuart Williams

Middle-order batsmen Richie Richardson, Brian Lara, Carl Hooper, Jimmy Adams, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Keith Arthurton

Wicket-keepers:Junior Murray, Courtney Browne.

Spin bowler  Rajindra Dhanraj

Fast bowlers:Ottis Gibson, Winston Benjamin, Curtly Ambrose, Courtney  Walsh, Kenny Benjamin, Ian Bishop.

Regional representation

 Red Stripe Cup teams

B - Barbados (4)

G  - Guyana (2)

Ja  - Jamaica (2)

L - Leeward Islands (4)

T - Trinidad & Tobago (3)

W  - Windward Islands (2)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(8 June 1995) :

28 yrs  2 months

ODI  Member of the one-day squad for the NatWest internationals

Test Appearances made before the tour

Richardson 79,  Walsh 73,  Ambrose 53,  Hooper 46,  Arthurton 27,  Lara 24,  W Benjamin 20,  Murray 20,  Bishop 18,  Adams 17,  K Benjamin 15,  Williams 9,  Chanderpaul 7,  Campbell 3,  Dhanraj 2,  Browne 0,  Gibson 0.

Tour officials

Selectors

Selection

The selectors met on Monday 24 April and the squad was announced next day.

Unavailable:

Tour Party Announced:   25 April 1995

Not selected:  Desmond Haynes (controversially omitted after taking the West Indies Cricket Board to court for ruling him ineligible for the series against Australia);  Roland Holder.

Time between selection and departure from West Indies

  12 days

(25 April to 7 May)

Travel

   Q  London

The team departed for London on Sunday 7 May 1995.

Brian Lara wished to travel to England later than the rest of the team to attend to personal matters at home in Trinidad. Hall turned down his request.

Time spent in England

   x days

(arrival - depart Host)

On-tour selection panel

Wesley Hall (manager) chaired the meetings; Andy Roberts (coach),  Richie Richardson (captain), and Courtney Walsh (vice-captain)  made up the panel.

Reinforcements

Winston Benjamin was sent back to West Indies for disciplinary reasons and Vasbert Drakes replaced him in the squad after the second Test

Anderson Cummins, playing in the Kent League, was called up owing to injuries to fast bowlers.

Jimmy Adams’ tour was ended by a fractured cheek batting against Somerset, and Phil Simmons covered for a couple of matches..

Fixtures/Results

Test appearances on tour

6  -   Bishop,  Campbell,  Lara,  Richardson,  Walsh.

5  -   Arthurton,  Ambrose,  K Benjamin,  Hooper, 

4  -   Adams,  Murray, 

2  -   Browne,  Chanderpaul,  Williams

1  -   Dhanraj,  Gibson.

0  -   W Benjamin,  Cummins,  Drakes,  Simmons.

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

•    Ian Bishop, on his return after two years out with injury, took 5-32 in the first Test at Headingley.

•    West Indies’ emphatic victory on a lively pitch at Edgbaston gave Walsh figures of 3-54 and 5-45

•    Brian Lara scored 765 runs in the series including three centuries consecutively in the last three Tests.

•    Carl Hooper had a generally poor summer but scored a century (127) in West Indies’ 692-8 at The Oval.

•    Dhanraj took most wickets on the tour (61) but none of them came in the only Test match he played.

Tour Summary

  ⋆  result of final tour match unknown.

Return to West Indies

LondonQ 

Winston Benjamin was sent home on  20? June on disciplinary grounds.

“The tour ended on September 5 with a benefit match for Ramadhin and Valentine against a World XI”

Finances

The team was supported by Sandals, the holiday company, during their United Kingdom tour, to help boost the tourist industry.

Published accounts of the tour

Postscript

A disastrous tour on the playing front where West indies were bailed out only by Brian Lara’s batting. The team was discordant, with managers complaining about attitudes and players resenting the attempts to enforce discipline.