| Tour of India
& Pakistan
1958-59 Captain: Gerry
Alexander | |
| | | | |
| Tenth West Indies
Test tour Second Test-playing tour of India and first of Pakistan
by West Indies (October 1958
- April 1959) | To
tie in with the West Indies Cricket Board of Control AGM, the selectors chose
their tour party earlier than expected, with Frank Worrell as captain. "It took me completely by surprise
when I read it in the papers," he said, "I have not even written to
my University yet to ask for time off".
In the end he had to withdraw and this became the first time since the Second World War
that West Indies played a Test series
without any member of the three W's. The
selectors paid Worrell the compliment of choosing two players in his place. John Holt joined the team as an extra
batsman and as vice-captain; Wesley Hall heard he was chosen as Worrell's
bowling replacement in August 1958 during a cricket tour of the United States
organised by sports writer Brunell Jones. Hall went on to be the most
successful bowler on the tour. In
July 1958 the West Indies Board announced that the four of the professional
cricketers - Hunte, Ramadhin, Sobers and Smith - would not tour because of
deadlocked negotiations over fees but, with the efforts of the Maharaj Kumar
of Vizianagram, the matter was settled. The
most sensational moment of the tour came when Roy Gilchrist was sent home
during the last match of the Indian portion of the tour. Gilchrist had been
argumentative with his captain on and off the field and had already been
suspended for the second Test with a "pulled muscle". The affair reached boiling point in the
North Zone match when he bowled bouncers and beamers at Swaranjit Singh, in
defiance of skipper Gerry Alexander. Supported by the manager and senior players,
Alexander told him to get on the next plane home, and Gilchrist never
represented West Indies again. | Other
West Indies tours Previous
tour To England
1957 Next
tour To Australia
1960-61 Next
tour of India 1965-66 cancelled 1966-67 Next
tour of Pakistan 1974-75 | |
| Members of the Test tour party (17) Opening batsmen John Holt, Robin
Bynoe, Conrad Hunte. Middle-order batsmen Basil
Butcher, Collie Smith, Rohan Kanhai, Gary Sobers, Joe Solomon. Wicket-keepers Gerry
Alexander, Jackie Hendriks Spin bowlers Lance Gibbs,
Sonny Ramadhin, Willie Rodriguez Fast bowlers Eric
Atkinson, Roy Gilchrist, Wesley Hall, Jaswick Taylor. | F C M Alexander | Ja | 30 | WK
captain | | | E S Atkinson | B | 33 | RFM | | | B F Butcher | BG | 25 | RHB | | | M R Bynoe | B | 17 | RHB
opener | | | L R Gibbs | BG | 24 | OB | | | R Gilchrist | Ja | 24 | RF | | | W W Hall | B | 21 | RF | | | J L Hendriks | Ja | 24 | reserve WK | | | J K C Holt | Ja | 35 | RHB
vice-captain | | | C C Hunte | B | 26 | RHB
opener | | | R B Kanhai | BG | 22 | RHB | | | S Ramadhin | T | 29 | OB | | | W V Rodriguez | T | 24 | LBG | | | O G Smith | Ja | 25 | RHB
RM/OB | | | G S Sobers | B | 22 | LHB
SLA/LFM | | | J S Solomon | BG | 28 | RHB | | | J O Taylor | T | 26 | RFM | | |
| Regional representation : B
- Barbados
(5) BG
- British Guiana (4) Ja
- Jamaica (5) T
- Trinidad
(3) Average
age of team at time of first Test
match (28
November 1958) : 25 yrs 9
months. | |
| Test Appearances made before the tour | Ramadhin 33, Sobers 19, Smith
18, Holt 10, Kanhai 10, Gilchrist 9, Alexander 7, Hunte 5, Gibbs 4, Atkinson
3, Taylor 1, Butcher 0, Bynoe 0, Hall 0, Hendriks 0, Rodriguez 0, Solomon 0. | | |
| Tour Officials | Berkeley Gaskin | Manager | ? | Physiotherapist | Major
S A Rahman | Liaison
Officer in Pakistan |
| | |
| Selectors | Berkeley Gaskin (British Guiana), Cyril Merry (Trinidad), Noel Pierce (Barbados), Johnny Groves (Jamaica) and Gerry Alexander (captain). John Groves (1914-96) was Hon Secretary of the West
Indies Board, which was based in Jamaica at the time. | | |
| Selection | The
tour party was chosen in Trinidad on the concluding day of the home Test
series between Pakistan
and West Indies 1957-58. Unavailable: Everton Weekes, Clyde
Walcott, Denis Atkinson? Tour Party Announced : 1 April
1958. Not selected : Alfred Valentine. Withdrawal: Frank Worrell (the
original choice as captain) because he was studying at Manchester University. Alexander, originally vice-captain, took
over the day after Worrell withdrew on 16 May. John Holt and Wesley Hall
were named after an extra selection meeting on 24 August. At first, the extra meeting
was to have chosen six players, that is, four to replace the professionals
and two in place of Worrell. However, by 20 August the matter of tour fees
for the professionals had been satisfactorily settled. | Time between selection
and departure from West Indies 198 days (1 April - 16 October) | |
| Travel Port Antonio T Avonmouth ‘Golfito’ London Q Bombay | On 9 October 1958 Atkinson,
Bynoe and Hall sailed on the 'Golfito'
from Barbados to Trinidad
where they were joined at Port of Spain
by Butcher, Gibbs, Solomon, Rodriguez and Taylor. They sailed on to Jamaica
to pick up Alexander, Holt and Hendriks.
Leaving Port Antonio on 16 October, the 'Golfito' sailed for Avonmouth docks. The professional cricketers
who had been playing league cricket in England
- Gilchrist, Hunte, Kanhai, Ramadhin, Smith and Sobers - joined the group in England. The
whole touring party flew from London to Bombay arriving on the
afternoon of 2 November. At the end of the Indian section of the tour the team
went by road from Amritsar across the Wagah
border into Pakistan and a
coach drove them to Lahore
Airport. They were
flown to Karachi,
arriving on the evening of 7 February. They then had two days' practice on matting wickets. | Time spent in India 96 days (2 November - 6 February) Time spent in Pakistan 54 days (7 February - 2 April) Is this correct? | |
| On-tour selection panel | Gerry Alexander (captain), John Holt
(vice-captain), Berkeley Gaskin (manager), Sonny Ramadhin. | | |
| Reinforcements | None. There was no major
injury suffered on the tour and the most serious illnesses were chicken pox (Taylor) and gastric
illness (Hendriks and others). Gilchrist did not tour Pakistan but was not
replaced. He travelled by train to Bombay on Tuesday 17 February before flying to England
where he remained, as he had a professional playing contract with Middleton
Cricket Club. | | |
| Fixtures/Results | Khadakwasla,
Poona | Combined
Services | Drawn | Baroda | Baroda | Won
185 r | Ahmedabad | Indian
Board President's XI | Drawn | Solapur | Maharashtra | Drawn | Bombay | Cricket
Club of India | Drawn | BOMBAY | INDIA First Test | DRAWN | Jabalpur | Central
Zone | Drawn | KANPUR | INDIA Second Test | WON 203 r | Nagpur | Combined
Universities | Won
inns 152 r | Jamshedpur | Bihar Governor's XI | Won
160 r | CALCUTTA | INDIA Third Test | WON inns 336 r | Jorhat | East
Zone | Won
inns 17 r | Bangalore | South
Zone | Won
278 r | MADRAS | INDIA Fourth Test | WON 295 r | Hyderabad | Hyderabad | Won
10 w | Delhi | INDIA Fifth Test | DRAWN | Amritsar | North
Zone | Won
73 r | KARACHI | PAKISTAN First Test | LOST 10 w | Bahawalpur | Central
Zone | Drawn | DACCA | PAKISTAN Second Test | LOST 41 r | Rawalpindi | Commander-in-Chief's
XI | Won 9
w | Peshawar | President's
XI | Won
10 w | LAHORE | PAKISTAN Third Test | WON inns 156 r |
| † not first-class Time spent in India
before First Test: 26 days (2 November - 28 November) Time from end of final Test (in Pakistan)
until departure from Bombay 3 days (31 March - 3 April) . | |
| Test appearances on tour | 8 -
Alexander, Butcher, Hall, Kanhai, Smith, Sobers 7 -
Holt, Solomon 6 -
Hunte 5 -
Atkinson 4 -
Gibbs, Gilchrist, Ramadhin 3 - 2 - Taylor 1 - Bynoe 0 - Hendriks, Rodriguez.. | | |
| Highlights | • Garfield
Sobers hit three centuries in the Test matches. • Rohan Kanhai
exceeded 1000 runs for the Indian tour in the last match at Amritsar. • Butcher,
Holt, Hunte and Sobers also exceeded 1000 runs on the whole tour. • Wesley Hall
took a hat-trick in the third Test against Pakistan
at Lahore. Hall had 46 wickets in the Test matches and
87 on the whole tour. | | |
| Tour Summary | | P | W | L | D | Aban | Test Matches | 8 | 4 | 2 | 2 | - | Other first-clas matches | 15 | 9 | 0 | 6 | - | ϯ Minor matches | - | - | - | - | - | All Matches | 23 | 13 | 2 | 8 | - |
| | |
| Return to West Indies Bombay Q London Avonmouth T Kingston ‘Camito’ | On 2 April the team flew from Lahore
to Karachi and on to Bombay. The next day they caught a flight to London and arrived there
on 4 April. The professional cricketers went to their league engagements
while the remainder took a passage on the banana boat 'Camito' from Avonmouth. Atkinson and Bynoe disembarked at Bridgetown
and the other seven players (Alexander, Butcher, Hendriks, Holt, Solomon,
Rodriguez and Taylor) arrived at Port
of Spain on 17 April. The Guianese flew home the next day. The Jamaicans reached Kingston when the 'Camito' berthed there on the morning of 20 April. | Time away from West Indies 151 days
(16 October to 17 April) | |
| Finances | | | |
| Published
accounts of the tour | "Cricket Ups and Downs" Qamaruddin
Butt. “The Happy Warrior” (biography
of Collie Smith) by Ken Chaplin
(Dominion Publishing, 1960) | | |
| Postscript | | | |