Test Cricket Tours - New Zealand to Pakistan India 1955-56

Test Cricket Tours - New Zealand to Pakistan & India 1955-56

Tour of Pakistan & India 1955-56             Captain : Harry Cave

Fifth New Zealand Test tour
(October 1955 -
          January 1956)

First Test-playing tours of Pakistan and India by New Zealand
   (no previous tour)



The tour started with two heavy defeats in West Pakistan before flying to the east of the country, now Bangladesh. Three days of the Dacca Test were washed out, then fifteen wickets tumbled on the fourth day. The tourists eventually saved this match. In India, the New Zealanders found their modest bowling attack to be innocuous; on comfortable pitches there were plenty of runs for Reid and Sutcliffe, but many more for the Indian batsmen who averaged no less than 66 runs for every wicket lost.
The manager blamed the New Zealand team’s poor performance on a number of factors - the heat, the extensive travelling, and the tightly scheduled programme with insufficient rest. He also felt the strength of the opposing teams in side matches did not allow fringe players a chance to rebuild their form and practise.
He was also critical of the umpires in his end-of-tour report: “Bad decisions (and some were so bad as to be almost ludicrous) were so frequent and often of such great advantage to the local side that it was hard to believe they were all due to lack of concentration and judgement or even incompetence.”
The tour was in the end a costly failure because not only did New Zealand lose two of the three Tests played in Pakistan and then two more in India but also left the players jaded, unwell and exhausted for their next home series against West Indies. But, as far as promoting New Zealand in the Indian sub-continent went (cricket strengthening the bonds of Commonwealth for political expedience, thought John Reid), the tour was unquestionably successful. The New Zealanders were popular everywhere and often played entertaining cricket in the most trying of circumstances.

All New Zealand tours

Previous tour
South Africa 1953-54

Next tour
England 1958

Next tour of India and Pakistan   1964-65

Members of the Test tour party (15)

Opening batsmen Gordon Leggatt, Noel McGregor.
Middle-order batsmen John Reid, John Guy, Neil Harford, Zin Harris, Bert Sutcliffe, Matt Poore.
Wicket-keepers Trevor McMahon, Eric Petrie.
Spin bowlers Jack Alabaster, Alex Moir.
Fast bowlers Harry Cave, Jack Hayes, Tony MacGibbon.

J C Alabaster
-
25
LBG

H B Cave
CD
33
RFM

J W Guy
CD
21
RHB

N S Harford
CD
25
RHB

P G Z Harris
C
28
RHB

J A Hayes
C
28
RFM

J G Leggatt
C
29
RHB opener

A R MacGibbon
C
31
RFM

S N McGregor
O
23
LHB opener

T G McMahon
W
25
WK

A M Moir
O
36
LBG

E C Petrie
ND
28
WK

M B Poore
C
25
RHB

J R Reid
W
27
RHB    RM

B Sutcliffe
O
31
LHB opener

Provincial representation
  (Plunket Shield teams)
A - Auckland (0)
C - Canterbury (5)
CD - Central Districts (3)
ND - Northern Districts (1)
O - Otago (3)
W - Wellington (2)

Jack Alabaster had represented Southland.


Average age of team at time of first Test match
(13 October 1955) :
28 years 2 months.

Test Appearances made before the tour

Sutcliffe 18, Reid 15, MacGibbon 10, Moir 7, Poore 7, Cave 6, Hayes 5, Leggatt 3, McGregor 2, Alabaster 0, Guy 0, Harford 0, Harris 0, McMahon 0, Petrie 0.

Tour Officials

W H Cooper
Manager

Selectors

Walter Hadlee, Lankford Smith, Eric Tindill, Giff Vivian, Harry Cave (captain).

Selection

The team had to be picked within a month of the tour arrangements being completed.
Unavailable : None known.
Tour Party Announced : 1 August 1955.
Jack Kerr announced the team in Christchurch. The manager's name was given out later.
Not selected:

Time between selection and departure from New Zealand
63 days
(1 August - 3 October)

Travel

ChristchurchQ Karachi

The team flew from Harewood Airport, Christchurch, on 3 October to Sydney where Noel Harford, who had been on a basketball tour of Australia, joined the squad at Mascot Airport.
The team arrived in Karachi on 4 October.
After the Pakistan section of the tour, the team left Dacca for Calcutta on 12 November (and flew on from there to Bombay).
Time spent in Pakistan   39 days (4 October - 12 November)
Time spent in India  65 days
(12 November - 16 January)

On-tour selection panel

Harry Cave (captain), John Reid (vice-captain), Bert Sutcliffe (senior player).

Reinforcements

None. Many of the team were ill in Karachi and elsewhere, unused to the exhausting heat, the water and the oils the food was cooked in. Tony MacGibbon was almost crippled by enteritis, but still took 22 Test wickets.
Zin Harris suffered from a virus which affected his leg. Gordon Leggatt chipped a bone in his middle finger.

Fixtures/Results

a
Karachi
Chief Commissioner's XI
Drawn
b
KARACHI
PAKISTAN First Test
LOST inns 1 r
c
Bahawalpur
Prime Minister's XI
Lost 7 w
d
LAHORE
PAKISTAN Second Test
LOST 4 w
e
Peshawar
Governor-General's XI
Won 7 w
f
DACCA
PAKISTAN Third Test
DRAWN
g
Poona
West Zone
Lost 6 w
h
HYDERABAD
INDIA First Test
DRAWN
i
Bangalore
South Zone
Won inns 3 r
j
BOMBAY
INDIA Second Test
LOST inns 27 r
k
Ahmedabad
All-Indian XI
Drawn
l
DELHI
INDIA Third Test
DRAWN
m
Benares
Board President's XI
Drawn
n
CALCUTTA
INDIA Fourth Test
DRAWN
o
MADRAS
INDIA Fifth Test
LOST inns 109 r
p
Nagpur
Indian Universities
Won 119 r

† not first-class

Time spent in Pakistan before First Test: 9 days
(4 October - 13 October)

Test appearances on tour

8 -   Cave, MacGibbon, Reid, Sutcliffe
7 -   McGregor, Poore
6 -   Guy, Hayes
5 - Alabaster, Leggatt, Moir
4 - Harford, McMahon, Petrie.
3 - Harris.

Match appearances

T Test match
x other match
∙ played for opposition

W won L lost D drawn
N no result   A abandoned
u unknown result

a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
n
o
p
J C Alabaster
x
T

x

x
T
x
T

T
x
T

x
H B Cave
x
T
x
T

T
x
T
x
T
x
T
x
T
T

J W Guy
x

x

x
T
x
T

T
x
T
x
T
T

N S Harford
x

x
T

T
x
T
x

x

x
T

x
P G Z Harris
x
T
x
T
x

x
T
x

x

x
J A Hayes
x

x
T
x

x
T

T
x
T

T
T

J G Leggatt

T
x

x
T
x

x
T
x
T
T
x
A R MacGibbon
x
T

T
x
T
x
T
x
T

T
x
T
T
x
S N McGregor

T

T
x
T

T
x

x
T
x
T
T
x
T G McMahon

T
x

x

x

x
T

T
T

A M Moir

T
x
T
x
T
x

T
x

x

T
x
E C Petrie
x

T
x
T

T
x
T

x

x
M B Poore
x
T
x
T

T
x
T
x
T
x
T

T
x
J R Reid
x
T
x
T
x
T

T
x
T

T
x
T
T
x
B Sutcliffe
x
T
x
T
x
T
x
T
x
T
x
T

T
T
x
R E S U L T S
D
L
L
L
W
D
L
D
W
L
D
D
D
D
L
W

New Zealand’s previous four Test tour results:

in South Africa 1953-54 (5 Tests)
- lost 0-4
in England 1949 (4 Tests)
- drew 0-0
in England 1937 (3 Tests)
- lost 0-1
in England 1931 (3 Tests)
- lost 0-1

Highlights

•   Noel McGregor scored his maiden first-class century (111) at Lahore but NZ lost the match heavily.
•   John Guy (102) and Bert Sutcliffe (137*) scored centuries at Hyderabad on a perfect batting strip.
•   Bert Sutcliffe played a huge innings in the third Test. His 230* was New Zealand’s highest in a Test.
•   With John Reid (119*) Sutcliffe added 222 runs for the third wicket, which remains a New Zealand record.
•   At Calcutta New Zealand had a first-innings lead of more than 200 thanks to Reid’s century (120)
•   Reid’s run of scores against India were: 54, 45*, 39, 4, 119*, 120, 5, 44, 63: 493 runs, average 70.

Tour Summary

F
W
L
D
Aban
Test Matches
8
0
4
4
-
Other first-class matches
8
3
2
3
-
†Minor matches
0
-
-
-
-
All Matches
16
3
6
7
-

F Fixtures   W Won   L Lost   T Tied D Drawn   Canc Cancelled
Aban abandoned

Return to New Zealand

Calcutta   Q Christchurch

After the match at Nagpur, the team travelled 650 miles to Calcutta and took a Qantas flight out of Dum Dum Airport, flying into Singapore International Airport at noon on Monday 16 January. They spent the rest of the day shopping or resting in the hotel.
They flew into Christchurch from Sydney on 18 January. The players had suffered from illnesses throughout. John Reid later wrote : “I will always remember the skeletal gauntness of Bert Sutcliffe, the dreadfully yellow complexion of Johnny Hayes, the lack-lustre look about the usually ebullient Tony MacGibbon who had been a victim of amoebic dysentery, and the awful lethargy of everyone.” (A Million Miles of Cricket, 1966)

Time away from New Zealand    107 days
(3 October to 18 January)

Finances

The Maharaja of Vizianagram sponsored the Indian section of the New Zealand tour.

Written accounts of the tour

"Pakistan Cricket on the March" by Qamaruddin Butt.
The tour was also described in:
“ “The Mantis and the Cricket” (2001) Sky TV series with Jeremy Coney.

Postscript

Bert Sutcliffe has written how the team were too sick and exhausted on returning home to New Zealand to take on the visiting West Indian team and promptly lost three Test matches in a row before gaining their first Test victory at Eden Park, Auckland.

Other Test tours in 1955-56
West Indians to New Zealand 1955-56