Tour of Sri Lanka 2011-12                      Captain :  Andrew Strauss           

England’s 101st Test tour

(March -  April  2012)

Sixth Test playing tour of Sri Lanka by England

  (previous tour 2007-08)

Less than two months after the series in United Arab Emirates in January when Pakistan’s two spin bowlers captured 43 wickets in three Tests, England’s deficiencies against spin bowling were again exposed. Rangana Herath took 12 wickets to bring Sri Lanka victory in the first Test match at Galle.

Other England tours

Previous Test tour

To UAE v Pakistan 2011-12

Next Test tour

India 2012-13

Next tour of Sri Lanka

none scheduled

Members of the Test tour party (16)

Opening batsmen:  Andrew Strauss, Alastair Cook

Middle-order batsmen Ian Bell, Keven Pietersen, Jonathan Trott, Ravi Bopara

Wicket-keepers: Matt Prior, Steven Davies,

All-rounder:  Samit Patel

Slow bowlers: Graeme Swann, James Tredwell, Monty Panesar

Fast bowlers:  Stuart Broad, Tim Bresnan, James Anderson, Steven Finn.

Thirteen players won full ECB central contracts for 2011-12: Anderson, Bell, Bresnan, Broad, Cook, Finn, Morgan, Pietersen, Prior, Strauss, Swann, Tremlett, Trott

On 7 October 2011 the ECB announced incremental contracts until September 30 2012 for Ravi Bopara, Jade Dernbach and Craig Kieswetter

County representation:

Ex  -  Essex (2)

Ha - Hampshire (1)

Kt  -  Kent (1)

La - Lancashire (1)

Mx - Middlesex (2)

Nt - Nottinghamshire (3)

Sy - Surrey (1)

Sx - Sussex (2)

Wk - Warwickshire (2)

Yo - Yorkshire (1)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(26 March 2012)

   29 yrs  6 months.

Test Appearances made before the tour

Strauss  92,  Pietersen 81,  Cook 75,  Bell 72,  Anderson 66,  Prior 50,  Broad 44,  Panesar 41,  Swann 39,  Trott 26,  Bopara 12,  Finn 12,  Bresnan 10,  Tredwell 1,  Patel 0,  Davies 0.

⋆ Tour Officials

Selectors

Geoff Miller (national selector), Andy Flower (Team Director),  Ashley F Giles,  James Whitaker.

Selection

Not considered:  Chris Tremlett (back injury)

Tour Party Announced  :  28 February 2012.

Not selected:  Johnny Bairstow,  Eoin Morgan

Time between selection and departure from England

   11 days

 (28 February - 10 March)

Travel

London  Q  Colombo

As Test specialists who were not involved in the limited-overs matches in UAE, Andrew Strauss, Steven Davies, James Tredwell, Ian Bell, Matt Prior, Samit Patel and Monty Panesar travelled out before the rest of the squad, departing on 5 March to acclimatise and practice under Graham Gooch’s supervision.

The remainder of the team left London’s Heathrow Airport on 10 March and arrived at the Bandaranaike International Airport  11 March 2012.

Time spent in Sri Lanka

    28 days

(11 March  -  8 April)

On-tour selection panel

Reinforcements

None

Fixtures/Results

RPS : R Premadasa International Cricket Stadium

SSC : Sinhalese Sports Club

PSS : P Saravannamuttu Stadium

† not first-class

Time spent in Sri Lanka before First Test:   15 days

(11 March - 26 March)

Test appearances on tour

2  -    Anderson,  Bell,  Cook,  Patel,  Pietersen,  Prior,  Strauss,  Swann,  Trott

1  -    Bresnan,  Broad,  Finn,  Panesar

0  -    Bopara,  Davies,  Tredwell.

Match appearances

T  Test match

o  one-day international 

x other match 

⊕ T/20 international

 W won  L lost  D drawn

N no result   A abandoned

u unknown result

Highlights

•  Alastair Cook (163*) carried his bat through the England innings of 303-8 dec in the first warm-up match

•  James Anderson had figures of 4-19 and 3-21 in the same match as England won by an innings.

•  Andrew Strauss (100) and Jonathan Trott (101) scored not out centuries opening in the second warm-up match

•  Jonathan Trott followed up by scoring a century in the first Test  (112) at Galle

•  James Anderson took 5-72 and Graeme Swann 6-82 at Galle in the first Test

•  Alastair Cook (94) and Andrew Strauss (61) opened the innings in the second Test with a century partnership before Kevin Pietersen added a century  (151 in 212 minutes)

•  Graeme Swann spun the ball sharply to take ten wickets (4-75 and 6-106) in the match at Colombo.

Tour Summary

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

Return to England

Colombo Q  London

Return 8 April 2012.

Time away from England

  29 days  

(10 March - 8 April)

Finances

Accounts of the tour

Postscript

Other Test tours in 2011-12

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 , 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