Tour of Australia 1996-97      Captain: Courtney Walsh

42nd official tour

th official Test-playing tour of Australia by West Indies

    (November 1996 -

                   February 1997)

Australia retained the Frank Worrell Trophy which they had wrested from West Indies eighteen months before. Since then West Indies cricket had undergone an upheaval, changing its captain, coach and manager. If the new team officials had helped overcome the factionalism of twelve months ago, a general lack of intensity and commitment of which the captain and manager complained had now set in.  Australia held the trophy winning at Adelaide by an innings and 183 runs, West Indies heaviest Test defeat for nearly forty years.  West Indies also lost the one-day series to Pakistan.  Yet they won two Test matches and had a run of eight successive victories in mid-tour before losing the vital Test match at Adelaide.

Brian Lara, beset by controversies, took six months off in preparation for the tour.

The fast bowlers - Ambrose aged 33, Walsh 34, Bishop 29 and Benjamin, also 29 - were all affected by injuries and the two new bowlers Nixon McLean and Patterson Thompson were of a different class and unable to step up in their places.

Other West Indies tours

Previous tour

Pakistan 1997-98

Next Australia tour

2000-01

Members of the Test tour party (16)

Openers Adrian Griffith, Sherwin Campbell, Robert Samuels

Batsmen:  Carl Hooper, Brian Lara, Jimmy Adams, Shiv Chanderpaul, Roland Holder.

Wicket-keepers:   Junior Murray, Courtney Browne

Spin bowlers   none

Fast bowlers:   Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh, Nixon McLean, Kenny Benjamin, Ian Bishop, Patterson Thompson

Representation of teams:  

B - Barbados

G  - Guyana

J  - Jamaica

L - Leeward Islands

T - Trinidad & Tobago

W  - Windward Islands

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(December 1996) : 25 yrs  11 months

ODI  Member of the Carlton & United one-day series squad

Test Appearances made before the tour

Walsh  82,  Ambrose 61,  Hooper 52,  Lara 33,  Bishop  26,  Murray 24,  Adams 24,  Simmons 24, K Benjamin 21,  Campbell 11,  Chanderpaul 11, Browne 5,  R Samuels 2,  Griffith 0

Team Officials

Selectors

David Holford (chairman), Easton McMorris, Andy Roberts

Selection

Unavailable: Richie Richardson (retired)

Tour Party Announced :  .

Kenneth Benjamin was reinstated by the selectors

Not selected :   Phil Simmons, Roger Harper.

Travel

Manager Clive Lloyd arrived in Kingston, Jamaica, from London on 21 October 1996.  The West Indian team assembled for a five-day training camp including three limited-over practice matches on 25, 26, 27 October 1996. The West Indies team left for London on Monday 28 October earlier than originally planned.

Ambrose and fellow Antiguan pacer Kenneth Benjamin needed to return to Antigua and left there for London on 29 October to join the team, which arrived in Perth Saturday 2 November 1996.

On-tour selection panel

Lloyd(manager),  Marshall (coach),  Walsh (captain),  Lara.

Reinforcements

Phil Simmons flying from London flew into Sydney on 17 January and  Cameron Cuffy arrived from St Vincent on 19 January as replacements for Nixon McLean (groin muscle) and Kenny Benjamin (strained muscle in right side) who both went home early before the fourth Test.  The management

had unsuccessfully sought Simmons, 33, as a 17th player earlier in the tour.

Several members of the team and all the fast bowlers suffered injuries which physio Dennis Waight blamed on “too much cricket, too much travelling, not enough rest."

Fixtures/Results

§ ODI: 

† not first-class

.

Test appearances on tour

5  -   Adams,  Bishop,  Campbell,  Chanderpaul,  Hooper,  Lara,  Walsh

4  -   Ambrose,  Samuels

3  -   K Benjamin,  Browne

2  -   Murray

1  -   Cuffy,  Griffith,  Simmons, Thompson

0  -   Holder, McLean.

Highlights

•   

•    Ambrose took nine for 72 in the third Test at Melbourne to help win the match.

•   

Tour Summary

Return to West Indies

approx 6 February 1997.