Tour of England 2007           Captain: Ramnaresh Sarwan

57th West Indies Test tour

18th Test-playing tour by West Indies to England

    (May - July 2007)

Immediately after the World Cup, the West Indies had lost their captain Brian Lara to retirement. Injuries to new captain Ramnaresh Sarwan and Chanderpaul at Leeds then removed the two next best batsmen.  Adding to the team's difficulties were very cold weather, with three of the Test matches being scheduled in the north of England.  This was a tour agreed to principally to take the opportunity to earn much-needed revenue for the West Indies cricket board when Zimbabwe's visit to England was cancelled; but it did nothing to advance West Indian cricket towards recovery.

After the resignation of coach Bennett King, time was needed to regroup and re-assemble a squad of players and prepare them to face the three upcoming Test series- South Africa in December; Sri Lanka and Australia at home next spring - rather than being pitched into a four match Test series against England in the chilly weather of May.

The Board's initial vetoing of Gayle's appointment as one-day captain before he won the series and showed he was the best man for the captaincy put the Board in an even worse light.

Other West Indies tours

Previous tour

Pakistan 2006-07

Next tour

South Africa 2007-08

Next England tour

2009

Members of the Test tour party (15)

Opening batsmen  Darren Ganga, Devon Smith, Chris Gayle

Batsmen: Ramnaresh Sarwan, Sylvester Joseph, Runako Morton, Shiv Chanderpaul, Marlon Samuels (replacement).

Wicket-keepers:Dinesh Ramdin

All-rounder:Dwayne Bravo

Spin bowlers:  None

Fast bowlers: Corey Collymore, Daren Powell, Fidel Edwards, Darren Sammy, Ravi Rampaul, Jerome Taylor

Regional representation

B - Barbados (2)

G  - Guyana (2)

Ja  - Jamaica (3)

L - Leeward Islands (1)

T - Trinidad & Tobago (5)

W  - Windward Islands (2)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(17 May 2007) :

   25 yrs  8 months

ODI  One-day series squad for the NatWest trophy.

Test Appearances made before the tour

Chanderpaul 101,  Sarwan 65,  Gayle 64,  Ganga 41,  Collymore 26,  Edwards 25,  Samuels 23,  Bravo 19,  Powell 19,  D S Smith 16,  Ramdin 15,  Taylor 10,  Morton 6,  Joseph 4,  Sammy 0  Rampaul 0.

⋆ Tour Officials

Selectors

Gordon Greenidge (chairman), Andy Roberts and  Clyde Butts.

Sarwan flew from Miami to Antigua - headquarters of the WICB - to join the selection panel and to pick the 16-man team.

Selection

On 30 April Sarwan was apppointed captain by the West Indies Cricket Board.

Next day the vice-captain (Ganga) and management team were announced.

Former captain Jimmy Adams was tipped to be tour manager, but Mike Findlay was chosen.

Unavailable:  Brian Lara  (retired),  Ian Bradshaw (retired from international cricket).

Tour Party Announced :  1 May 2007.

Not selected :  Pedro Collins,  Jermaine Lawson,  Marlon Samuels.

Austin Richards, Lendl Simmons and Dwayne Smith were included in the squad of 14 for the three warm-up matches, 20/20s and one-day series.

Time between selection and departure from West Indies

  7 days

(1 May to 8 May)

Travel

BridgetownQ  London

Assembled at the Accra Beach Hotel, Barbados, where the Board, the selectors and the management team all emphasised that they were not going to tolerate indisciplined behaviour on tour.

The team flew out of Grantley Adams International Airport, Bridgetown, on Tuesday evening 8 May   Met by players like Darren Sammy who was already in England playing league cricket in Lancashire.

Dwayne Smith, Lendl Simmons and Austin Richards Jr, chosen for the one-day series, arrived in England on 21 June.

Time spent in England

   70 days

(9 May - 18 July)

On-tour selection panel

Michael Findlay (chairman), David Moore (coach), Henderson Springer (assistant coach), Ramnaresh Sarwan (captain).

Findlay said that the XI will be picked "in consultation between the selectors in England and the selectors in the Caribbean…..It's no longer going to be where the (tour) selectors will do their own thing," http://www.windiescricket.com/ news 11/5/07

Reinforcements

Marlon Samuels came in for Sarwan who injured his shoulder in a fall during the second Test against England and had to return home because the injury would take six weeks to heal. Sarwan left London for the Caribbean on Wednesday 30 May.  Samuels' arrival was held up by a delayed visa. He remained with the ODI squad after the Test series.

Fast bowlers Andrew Richardson (Ja),  Ruel Brathwaite (B) and Esaun Crandon (G), batsman Kirk Edwards (B) and all-rounder Mali Richards (L), all on professional contracts with league teams in England, joined the West Indies squad as temporary cover for one-day players who arrived too late to play the warm-up match at Worcester.

Fixtures/Results

† not first-class

§  one-day international

⊕  Twenty20 international

Time spent in England before First Test: 

8 days

(9 May- 17 May)

Test appearances on tour

4  -   Bravo,  Collymore,  Ganga,  Gayle,  Morton,  Ramdin,  D S Smith.

3  -   Chanderpaul,  Powell,  Taylor

2 -    Edwards,  Sarwan

1  -   Joseph,  Sammy,  Samuels

0  -   Rampaul.

Time from end of final Test until departure from England      6 days

(19 June -

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

•    West Indies were indebted to Chanderpaul's consistent batting. His scores were

•   

•   

Tour Summary

∎

Return to West Indies

London Gatwick Q Bridgetown

Two Test-only players Darren Ganga and Corey Collymore returned home on 20 June but Sylvester Joseph and Jerome Taylor were temporarily retained until 22 June in order to play in the match at Worcester.

After their final tour match in Dublin the one-day internationals squad flew to London on 14 July, but seats in business class for the onward journey home to the West Indies were not available, so the players spent an extra two days staying at a Gatwick Hotel waiting for a flight.  It was estimated that it cost the West Indies Cricket Board $US 15,000 in accommodation, expenses and meal allowances.  They finally departed on 18 July.

Shiv Chanderpaul (Durham), Jerome Taylor (Leicestershire, under a Digicel-sponsored scholarship), Daren Powell (Hampshire) and Ravi Rampaul (Glamorgan) remained in England to play county cricket.

Time away from West Indies    72 days  

(8 May to 19 July)

Finances

Accounts of the tour

Postscrtipt

Ramnaresh Sarwan was fit again to captain West Indies in the ICC Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa in September. However, Chris Gayle then took the Test side to South Africa in 2007-08 after Sarwan had injured his ankle and, winning the first Test in Port Elizabeth, secured his place as skipper, despite other defeats.

Australian C J (Christopher) Clark was appointed physio in December 2007.