Tour of India 1987-88           Captain: Vivian Richards

31st West Indies Test tour

  (November - January 1988)

Seventh Test-playing tour of India by West Indies

  (previous tour  1983-84)

A full tour of India with a five-match Test series followed the 1987 Reliance World Cup. For the first time in the history of the cricket World Cup, the West Indies failed to reach the final or even the semi-final.  The tournament further boosted the popularity of one-day cricket among the Indian public and their Board, finding how low were bookings for the first-class and Test matches, cancelled the second Test at Nagpur and substituted two extra one-day internationals. This change to the tour itinerary was made to help the finances of the Bengal Cricket Association for whom the exhibition matches at Eden Gardens at the end of the World Cup did not materialise but to the frustration of Windies’ manager Jackie Hendriks the series became a four-match contest.

For the first time West Indies were held to a draw in a Test series against India. After winning the first Test made memorable by outstanding hundreds from the opposing captains, the tourists lost the fourth match to a sharply-turning leg-spinner on a pitch prepared to suit that type of bowling which made the result one-all.

The West Indian fast bowlers, particularly Patterson at Bombay, were fiercely hostile and bowled many short deliveries that the umpires chose not to interpret as intimidatory, until a docile and then a turning pitch in the last two Tests drew their fire..

Other West Indies tours

Previous tour

New Zealand 1986-87

Next tour

England 1988

Next Indian tour

1994-95

Members of the Test tour party (16)

Opening batsmen: Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes, Phil Simmons.

Middle-order batsmen:  Carl Hooper, Gus Logie, Vivian Richards, Richie Richardson

Wicket-keepers  Jeffrey Dujon, David Williams.

Spin bowlers  Clyde Butts, Roger Harper

Fast bowlers:  Eldine Baptiste, Winston Benjamin, Winston Davis, Patrick Patterson, Courtney Walsh.

Best, , Gray and Joel Garner.

Regional representation :

B - Barbados (2)

G  - Guyana (3)

Ja  - Jamaica (3)

L - Leeward Islands (4)

T - Trinidad & Tobago (3)

W  - Windward Islands (1)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(25 November 1987) :

      27 yrs  4 months

ODI  Member of the Reliance World Cup one-day series squad

Carlisle Best, Joel Garner (until he withdrew injured) and Anthony Gray were selected for the World Cup squad but not for the rest of the tour

Test Appearances made before the tour

Richards 88,  Greenidge 77,  Haynes 65,  Dujon 43,  Baptiste 27,  Richardson 26,  Harper 19,  Logie 16,  Walsh 13,  Davis 11,  Patterson 6,  Butts 4,  W Benjamin 0,  Hooper 0,  Simmons 0.  D Williams 0.

Tour Officials

Selectors

Jackie Hendricks (chairman),  Clyde Walcott, and  Calvin Wllklns

Selection

Unavailable:   Michael Holding announced his retirement from international cricket in February, as did Larry Gomes in July.

Malcolm Marshall confirmed his unavailability on 10 June so he could concentrate on his benefit year with Hampshire (and take a rest from the game for the first time in ten years). 

Gordon Greenidge, unavailable for the World Cup, rejoined the team, having recovered from the knee operation that kept him out of the one-day tournament.

A fourteen member squad for the World Cup was announced on 15 July : Richards (captain), Greenldge, Haynes, Richardson, Hooper, Dujon, Logie, Best, Winston Benjamin, Harper, Baptiste, Walsh, Gray and Joel Garner. The manager was Clyde Walcott. There were six reserves - Keith Arthurton, Philip Simmons, Patrick Patterson, Winston Davis, Thelston Payne, a reserve wicketkeeper, and Anthony Merrick.

On 7 August Garner withdrew with a shoulder injury and was replaced by Patterson. On 10 August Greenidge withdrew for an operation on his knee injury, and Simmons came in.

Test Tour Party Announced :  The World Cup squad was announced 15 July 1987

The touring party had four representatives from Antigua -  Richards, Richardson, Baptiste and Benjamin - as had occurred previously on the tour of India in 1983-84.

Not selected :

Time between selection and departure from West Indies

  x days

(selection to depart in WI)

Travel

? Q  ?Q

Departure was on 30 September? 

The team arrived in Pakistan to play three warm-up matches prior to the Reliance World Cup, followed by six one-day internationals in the actual tournament.  Failing to progress from Group B, the West Indies team had to wait until the Reliance Cup had finished to commence their Indian tour

Best and Gray (injured) returned home, while Butts, Greenidge, Davis and Williams, not part of the World Cup squad, as well as assistant manager Norman McLean, flew in to join the team in Calcutta.

After watching the final in Calcutta, the 18-man tour party arrived in Hyderabad on 12 November.

Time spent in India

   81 days

(12 November- 1 February)

On-tour selection panel

Vivian Richards (captain),  Roger Harper (vice-captain),  Jackie Hendriks (manager),  Gordon Greenidge.

Reinforcements

None.  Roger Harper damaged his knee in a ODI at Nagpur on 8 December, so he returned to England from Madras on 18 January to rest and recuperate.

Fixtures/Results

There were only four Test matches instead of the planned series of five.

The Nagpur Test was cancelled and two extra ODIs arranged at Nagpur and Calcutta. Further the Ahmedabad international was no longer part of the ODI series and became a charity match, but still an ODI, on behalf of the Cricketers Benevolent Fund.

† not first-class

§  one-day internationals (Charminar Challenge)

Time spent in (Pakistan and) India before First Test:  ( )

13 days

(arrival - 12 November - 25 November)

Test appearances on tour

4  -   Davis,  Dujon,  Haynes,  Logie,  Patterson,  Richards,  Richardson,  Walsh

3  -   Butts,  Greenidge,  Hooper

2  -  

1  -   Benjamin,  Harper,  Simmons

0  -   Baptiste,  D Williams.

Match appearances

T  Test match

o  one-day international 

x other match 

W won  L lost  D drawn  

N no result   A abandoned  

u unknown result

Team against Gavaskar’s XI unknown.  Three players in the final match against Nehru Centenary XI unknown

West Indies’ six previous Test tour results:

in New Zealand 1986-87 (3 Tests)

 - drew 1-1

in Pakistan 1986-87 (3 Tests)

 - drew 1-1

in Australia 1984-85 (5 Tests)

 - won 3-1

in England 1984 (5 Tests)

 - won 5-0

in India 1983-84 (6 Tests)

 - won 3-0

in Australia 1981-82 (3 Tests)

 - drew 1-1

Highlights

•    Viv Richards, coming in on a hat trick, struck 181 in 125 balls in the World Cup ODI at Karachi

•    Patrick Patterson produced a spell of five for 24 in the first Test at New Delhi, shooting India out for 75.

•    Vivian Richards chanceless 109 not out took West Indies to victory in the first Test

•    Courtney Walsh took 9 wickets (5-54 and 4-40) in the Bombay Test while Patterson  took 5-68.

•    Greenidge, Logie and Hooper all scored hundreds in West Indies’ total of 530 for 5 dec at Calcutta

•    Courtney Walsh took 26 wickets in four Tests through pitching up consistently and cutting the ball in.

Tour Summary

F  Fixtures   W  Won   L  Lost  

D Drawn   T  Tied  Canc  Cancelled  Aban  abandoned

Return to West Indies

Bombay Q  London Q  regional airports

Roger Harper went to London suffering from a knee injury, and remained there for treatment

The West Indians flew out of Bombay for home on 1 February 1988. They were seen off at the airport by the BCCI Secretary, Polly Umrigar, and the Hon Secretary, Ranbhir Singh. 

Simmons, Williams, Butts and Davis all returned to Piarco Airport, Trinidad, while Logie stayed over in New York. 

Others also reached their various regional destinations in the West Indies on 3 or 4 February. West Indies Cricket Board wanted to get all the best cricketers back from tour after the last official match to participate in the Red Stripe Cup but first of all the charity matches had to be played.

Time away from West Indies

    x days  

(depart W Ind to 3 February)

Finances

The charity matches at the end of the tour were an integral part of the financial planning, agreed with the Indian Board. Not to play them would have resulted in losing the guaranteed sum for the tour, which was reckoned to be $800,000.  Each Test match was poorly attended and even Bombay lost money on their’s.

Accounts of the tour

Postscript

West Indies failed to make progress in the 1987 Reliance World Cup, and could only draw this series against India and the next at home against Pakistan, before winning the forthcoming series against England on the 1988 tour and Australia in 1988-89, and regaining the dominance achieved in the Clive Lloyd era.

Other Test tours in 1987-88

England to Pakistan 1987-88  -  captain Mike Gatting

England to Australia & New Zealand 1987-88  -  captain Mike Gatting

New Zealanders to Australia 1987-88  -  captain Jeff Crowe

Pakistanis to West Indies 1987-88  -  captain Imran Khan

Sri Lankans to Australia 1987-88  -  captain Ranjan Madugalle

Acknowledgements

To general reading of The Times newspaper digital archive (Gale Group);  Jamaica Gleanor archive;  National Library of Australia Trove; Papers Past NZ.

From former British Newspaper Library, Colindale and online:  The Age, Melbourne Argus, Bangladesh Daily Star, Barbados Advocate, Canberra Times, Daily Telegraph, Dawn, Eastern Daily Press, The Hindu, The Independent (Dhaka), Indian Express, The Island (Lanka), Lahore Times, New Nation, New Zealand Auckland Herald, Sri Lanka Daily News, Stabroek News, Straits Times, Sydney Morning Herald, The Telegraph (Calcutta), Times of India (Bombay) , The Tribune (Chandigarh), Trinidad Guardian, The West Australian.

cricketweb.net;  ESPN cricinfo;  cricket archive; www.cricketcountry; www.coverpoint

Magazines/periodicals including Australian Cricket, B & H West Indies Annual, The Cricketer International, Cricketer Quarterly, Indian Cricket, Indian Cricket Field Annual, Playfair Cricket Monthly, Shell Cricket Almanack of New Zealand, Wisden Cricket Monthly, Wisden Book of Test Cricket, Wisden’s Cricketers’ Almanack.

Men In White, A History of Australian Cricket (Harte), A History of Indian Cricket (Bose), A History of West Indies Cricket (Manley)

Biography and tour books (own collection and at the M.C.C. Library at Lord’s Ground)                                    ALL CONTENTS OF THE TEST-CRICKET-TOURS.CO.UK WEBSITE  ARE COPYRIGHT