Tour of Australia & New Zealand 1951-52        Captain: John Goddard

Seventh West Indies Test tour

Second Test-playing tour of Australia by West Indies.

First tour of New Zealand by West Indies

  (September 1951 –

                March 1952)

The West Indies Board of Control accepted Australia's invitation to tour, made a month after the end of the successful 1950 England visit, on 25 October 1950.  The Board agreed to an itinerary which entailed only one first-class match before the Test series began. Goddard's criticism of the Board for accepting these arrangements partly led to his three year-long exclusion from West Indies teams. Two extra practice matches were arranged before the official start to the tour, a match versus the Prime Minister's XI, for which Sir Donald Bradman declined an invitation to play, and a benefit match which raised £700 for baggageman Bill Ferguson.

At the end of the tour 'Fergie' left Wellington, having for the first time in all his years with touring parties lost track of one bag, his own.  Within 24 hours he cabled the manager to say he had found it in Sydney.

West Indies were making their second tour of Australia. They found conditions tougher and their opponents more resilient than on their triumphant tour of England. Australia had much the best of each Test match except the third at Adelaide, which was played on a rain-affected pitch.  The fourth Test ended in a thrilling finish, the last two Australian batsmen coming together needing to score 38 runs to win but West Indies could not capture the final wicket.  “That tour was a disaster from West Indies’ point of view. Although the visit to England [1950] had generally been happy, with only occasional disruptions caused by inter-island disputes, these became more open with our lack of success ‘down under’” – from Test Outcast by Roy Marshall, Pelham Books 1970.

In three of the Test matches one or other of the bowlers put in an outstanding performance, routing the Australian batting, only for West Indies in turn to collapse for a low score. Worrell, Ramadhin, Trim, Gomez and Valentine (three times) all took five or more wickets in an innings.

According to Worrell, John Goddard had received "practically all the kudos" for the historic triumph in the 1950 series in England, which apparently “annoyed the many players who had made a bevy of good suggestions during the tour". Now the support he’d taken for granted was witheld, he did not know how to put the right tactics in place. Stollmeyer described his field placings as “inexplicable” and lamented “paying little attention to batsmen’s strengths and weaknesses”. contest

In New Zealand there were two Test matches to inaugurate the Test competition between the countries. West Indies had visited New Zealand once before in 1930-31 but had not played any matches.

Other West Indies tours

Previous tour

To England 1950

Next tour

To New Zealand 1955-56

Next tour of Australia

1960-61

Next tour of New Zealand

1955-56

Members of the Test tour party

(17)

Opening batsmen: Roy Marshall, Allan Rae, Jeffrey Stollmeyer.

Middle-order: Bob Christiani, John Goddard, Ken Rickards, Everton Weekes [also Walcott and Worrell]

Wicket-keepers: Sam Guillen, Clyde Walcott.

All-rounders/medium-pacers:  Denis Atkinson, Gerry Gomez, Frank Worrell.

Spinners: Wilf Ferguson, Sonny Ramadhin, Alf Valentine

Fast bowlers:Prior Jones, John Trim.

Regional representation :

B – Barbados (5)

BG - British Guiana (2)

Ja – Jamaica (4)

T – Trinidad (6)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(9 November 1951):

      28 yrs 9 months

Test Appearances made before the tour

Gomez 15,  Christiani 13,  Goddard 13,  Stollmeyer 13,  Walcott 13,  Weekes 13,  Rae 9,  Jones 8,  Worrell 7, Ferguson 7,   Atkinson 4,  Ramadhin 4,  Valentine 4,  Trim 3,  Rickards 1,  Guillen 0,  Marshall 0.

Tour Officials

Selectors

E J Marsden (chairman),  W M Green,  N N Nethersole,  F A C Clairmonte  and  J D C Goddard.

Selection

The tour party, chosen in mid-March after the Quadrangular tournament, was not announced while the West Indian Board of Control awaited a response to their proposals for the professionals' fees and expenses.

The final hurdle was overcome once Worrell had accepted that he should not receive the same fee for a tour shorter than in England 1950 and also that it was out of season for a Lancashire League professional.

When Goddard insisted that a second wicket-keeper be taken to support Walcott, Sam Guillen became the 17th player. This was just as well because Walcott's longstanding trouble with his back worsened and he became purely a batsman.

Unavailable:  C B Williams.

Tour Party Announced :  27 April 1951.

Not selected :   Alfie Binns (wk),  Berkeley Gaskin,  Frank King,  Andy Ganteaume.

Time between selection and departure from West Indies

 126 days

 (27 April - 30 August)

Travel

Port of Spain     T      ?   

                   ‘Akaora’

Auckland     T   Sydney

            ‘Wanganella’

Tilbury  T   Fremantle Q Sydney

      ‘Strathmore’

Seven of the players (Goddard, Atkinson, Guillen, Jones, Ferguson, Christiani and Trim) and the manager, Mr Cyril Merry, left Trinidad on the 'Akaora' on 30 August, reaching Curacao on 1 September and Colon on 8 September.

Valentine flew from Palisados airport, Kingston, on 28 August, and waited for the 'Akaora' at Panama.

The eight players then crossed the Pacific Ocean, reaching Pitcairn on 14 September and New Zealand on 24 September. A two-day match had been arranged but it was rained off.  Leaving Auckland on the 'Wanganella' on 27 September, they reached Sydney on 1 October.

The Lancashire League professionals - Marshall, Ramadhin, Rickards, Walcott, Weekes, Worrell - left England from Tilbury Docks on 11 September on the 'ss Strathmore'. By way of Spanish Morocco, Port Said, Aden, Bombay and Colombo, they arrived at Fremantle on 9 October. Next day they flew to Sydney.

Marshall had tonsilitis and remained on the ship as far as Adelaide. He flew to Sydney on 14 October.

Stollmeyer and Gomez, who had both just become fathers, left Trinidad's Piarco Airport on 5 October for San Francisco.

Rae had his Bar finals in London between 26-28 September. On 2 October he flew from London Airport via New York, and joined up with Gomez and Stollmeyer in San Francisco. Together they flew by way of Honolulu and Fiji to Sydney, arriving on the evening of 10 October after 67 hours of flying time.

After the Australian tour, the team departed from Sydney on Friday 1 February 1952 and arrived at Dunedin by way of Christchurch.  Goddard and Weekes joined the group later.

Time spent in Australiaand New Zealand

   142 days

(10 October - 29 February)

On-tour selection panel

John Goddard,   Gerry Gomez,   Cyril Merry. 

The West Indian Board had not appointed a vice-captain and the responsibility fell upon Stollmeyer, although Gomez and Rae also captained the side on occasions.

Reinforcements

None

Fixtures/Results

In the first tour match against a Combined XI at Sydney, seven of the tourists played for the opposition.

† not first-class

Time spent in Australia before First Test:

 49 days

(10 October - 28 November)

Test appearances on tour

7  -   Ramadhin,  Stollmeyer,  Valentine,  Weekes,  Worrell

6  -   Christiani,  Goddard,  Gomez

5  -   Walcott,  Guillen

4  -   Rae,  Marshall

3  -   Atkinson

2  -  

1  -   Jones,  Rickards,  Trim

0  -   Ferguson.

Match appearances

T  Test match

x other match 

c  played for Combined XI in first tour match

 W  won  L   lost  D  drawn 

Highlights

•   Valentine took 24 wickets in the Test series against Australia. He and Ramadhin bowled a huge number of eight-ball overs in the series (Ramadhin 232 and  Valentine 217).

•   Worrell (108) and Stollmeyer (104) scored West Indies’ only Test hundreds in the series.

•   Worrell captured 6 wickets for 38, bowling throughout Australia’s innings of 82 in the Adelaide Test

•   John Trim in his only Test appearance took 5-34 at Melbourne, which won him a local prize of £25.

•   Gomez took 7-55 to dismiss Australia for only 116 at Sydney, but West Indies were then all out for 78.

•   At Eden Park  Allan Rae scored 99 after Moir had earlier declined to run him out when he slipped.

•   Three other West Indians scored centuries in the same innings.

Tour Summary

Return to West Indies

Auckland  Q Sydney  TLondon

Auckland   T    Port of Spain

             ‘Rangitoto’

The team flew from Wellington to Auckland on the evening of 26 February. The professionals (Marshall, Ramadhin, Rickards, Valentine, Walcott and Weekes) left by air for Sydney on 28 February, then by ship to England.  Worrell and Ferguson had left for Sydney earlier.

Stollmeyer and Gomez went from Palmerston North to Auckland and then by air to Canada to visit relatives.  Gomez was the first to arrive home. He flew into Port of Spain on 5 March; Stollmeyer flew in from New York on 7 March; Goddard, en route to Bridgetown, arrived at Piarco Airport on 18 March.

The main body of the team sailed from Auckland on the 'ss Rangitoto'  on the evening of Friday 29 February.  They reached Port of Spain where Merry, Ferguson, Guillen and Jones disembarked on 21 March. Rae flew to Kingston on 25 March; Christiani and Trim to British Guiana on 23 March; Atkinson and Merry to Bridgetown on 26 March.

Time away from West Indies

  204 days 

 (30 August to 21 March)

Finances

In Australia receipts of £A 32 500 were exceeded by expenses and a £900 loss incurred. The Australian Board of Control guaranteed the tour against loss up to £8000.

Allowances to players exceeded £14,000 with a maximum ot £l,000 and a minimum of £666 per man. Air fares for professionals being flown were an additional cost of £1500. “

Only as a result of New Zealand guarantees, made as an inducement to play there, was the tour loss kept down to £400.

The tour also needed to be insured against loss that might be incurred through the Korean War.

Published accounts of the tour

"Straight Hit" by Keith Miller  &  R S Whitington (Latimer House,  London 1952)

"Cricket Crusaders" by Harold Dale (pub  Werner Laurie, London 1952).

"With the West Indies in Australia 1951-52 : A critical story of the tour"  

                                                                   by  A G ‘Johnny’ Moyes [Angus & Robertson,  Sydney 1952]

Postscript