Tour of England 2009                    Captain: Chris Gayle

Sixtieth West Indies Test tour

19th official Test-playing tour by West Indies to England

    (April - June 2009)

2009’s early season tour to England was supposed to be made by Zimbabwe, who had no Test status. They could have played a one-day series but the British government ruled it out by cutting ties with Zimbabwe.  Sri Lanka, the country which was lined up to tour as a replacement, pulled out after their key players demanded the opportunity to play in the IPL in South Africa according to their contracts.  

The West Indies Cricket Board agreed in December 2008 to take their place. However, they had not consulted the players’ associations.  Players who had already signed for the IPL were compensated but Gayle and Edwards were given permission to play in the IPL until the first Test.

West Indies lost the two Test matches heavily.  The tourists’ performances suggested they hardly wanted to be taking part in the tour at all. At Chester-le-Street the temperature at times fell as low as 7°C. It did not help the malaise that skipper Chris Gayle, who was allowed to join the tour even later than first agreed, flying in only 48 hours before the first Test, then said that he would shortly be giving up the captaincy because of the pressures that the job entailed.

The team remained in England at the end of the tour and participated in the ICC World T20 international series, reaching the semi-final stage.

Other West Indies tours

Previous tour

New Zealand 2008-09

Next tour

Australia 2009-10

Next England tour

2012

Members of the Test tour party (17)

Opening batsmen  Chris Gayle, Dale Richards, Devon Smith.

Middle-order batsmen  Lendl Simmons, Brendan Nash, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Shiv Chanderpaul, Narsingh Deonarine.

Wicket-keepers Denesh Ramdin

Spin bowlers  Sulieman Benn

Fast bowlers  Lionel Baker, David Bernard, Fidel Edwards, Nelon Pascal, Andrew Richardson, Darren Sammy, Jerome Taylor.

Regional representation   

B - Barbados (3)

G  - Guyana (3)

J  - Jamaica (5)

L - Leeward Islands (1)

T - Trinidad & Tobago (2)

W  - Windward Islands (3)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match (6 May 2009) :   27 yrs  7 months

ODI  Member of the NatWest one-day series squad

T20  member of the ICC World 20/20 Trophy squad

Test Appearances made before the tour

Chanderpaul 119,  Gayle 80,  Sarwan 79,  Edwards 41,  Ramdin 34,  DS Smith 29,  Taylor 26,  Benn 7,  Nash 7,  Sammy 5,  Deonarine 4,  Baker 2,  Bernard 1,  Simmons 1,  Pascal 0,  Richards 0,  Richardson 0.

⋆ Tour Officials

Selectors

Clyde Butts (chairman of selectors),  Raphick Jumadeen,  Robert Haynes,  Chris Gayle (captain) and  John Dyson (coach).

Selection

Unavailable:  Dwayne Bravo was not considered because medical staff said he had not recovered sufficiently from ankle surgery. However, he was regarded as fit enough to play in the IPL in South Africa.

Tour Party Announced :  7 April 2009.

Not selected :  Adrian Barath, Daren Powell, Ryan Hinds.

One-day squad announced :  22 April

Chris Gayle, Denesh Ramdin, Lionel Baker, Sulieman Benn, Dwayne Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Fidel Edwards, Keiron Pollard, Ravi Rampaul, Dale Richards, Darren Sammy, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Lendl Simmons, Jerome Taylor

Time between selection and departure from West Indies

  8 days

(7 April to 15 April)

Travel

Bridgetown   Q  London

The team departed on Wed 15 April and landed in London next day, without Chris Gayle and Fidel Edwards who were allowed to participate in the early stages of the IPL before heading to England; and two other players, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Jerome Taylor (side strain and injured in a car accident), who were given extra time at home to recover from injuries. They flew in on 23 and 27 April respectively

After a 12-hour overnight flight from Johannesburg, Gayle landed in London at 6.45am on Monday morning 4 May and he trained with the squad during the afternoon. Edwards arrived the day before. Gayle was originally cleared to play in the IPL only until 1 May.

The one-day players (Bravo, Morton, Pollard, Rampaul) arrived in England on Monday 18 May.

Time spent in England

   66 days

(16 April - 21 June)

On-tour selection panel

Reinforcements

Runako Morton replaced Dale Richards in the one-day squad when Richards returned home early with a shoulder injury.

Kieron Pollard, having faced only one ball in a T20 practice match against Scotland, played for PCA Master’s XI against Ireland at Wormsley.

Fixtures/Results

† not first-class

§  one-day international

⊕  Twenty20 international

Time spent in England before First Test: 

20 days

(16 April - 6 May)

Test appearances on tour

2  -   Baker,  Benn,  Chanderpaul,  Edwards,  Gayle,  Nash,  Ramdin,  Sarwan,  Simmons, Smith,  Taylor.

0  -   Bernard,  Deonarine,  Pascal,  Richards,  Richardson, Sammy.

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

•    Fidel Edwards took 6 for 92 in the first Test match

•    Nash and Ramdin added 143 for the sixth wicket at Lord’s

•    Sarwan scored 100 at Chester-le-Street

Tour Summary

Return to West Indies

LondonQ  Kingston

Dale Richards returned home early with a shoulder injury.

After the official tour the team remained in England to play the World Twenty 20 tournament between 5 and 19 June. 

Gayle arrived home with four other members of the team, Sarwan, Marshall, Bernard and Taylor at the Norman Manley International Airport on 22 June. The rest of the team and officials arrived next day to begin a one-day series against India at Sabina Park at the end of the week.

Time away from West Indies    68 days

(15 April to 22 June)

Finances

The West Indies Cricket Board offered the players $US1.5 million between them, much improved on the usual figure of $250,000 normally paid on such a tour. This included compensation for players contracted to the Indian Premier League.

Account of the tour

Postscript

Fitness coach Steve Folkes left at the end of the tour to return to Rugby League and contrasted the attitudes towards hard training there with those among the West Indians: “They're playing on natural ability. In professional sport these days, natural ability alone is never enough.”

John Dyson was sacked as West Indies coach on 14 August 2009 and David Williams temporarily took over.