Tour of New Zealand 2013-14                   Captain:  Darren Sammy

67th West Indies Test tour

Tenth Test-playing tour of New Zealand by West Indies

 (November 2013 - January 2014)

This tour is really a continuation of the India tour 2013-14 but is separated for greater detail.

The performance in India, where back-to-back Test matches were lost, had been an embarrassment. Darren Sammy’s captaincy, already under pressure, was further threatened by losing two of the three Tests in New Zealand.

New Zealand were poised for victory at the end of the third day at Dunedin until a magnificent double century by Darren Bravo and then rain held New Zealand off and saved the tourists.  At Wellington, however, they were thrashed by an innings and 73 runs. In the final Test at Hamilton the Windies had reached a strong position until their second innings collapsed for 103, lasting less than a session, leaving spinners like Narine no margin before New Zealand got the runs to win.

Despite missing a lot of key players to injury, West Indies produced an outstanding performance in the final one-day international, scoring their highest ever one-day international total, to square the series 2-2  but failed to build on this, ending the tour by losing the two Twenty20 internationals.

Other West Indies tours

Previous tour

Bangladesh 2012-13

 India 2013-14

Next tour

India 2014-15

Next tour of New Zealand

None scheduled

Members of the Test tour party  (15  + 1)

Opening batsmen:  Kieron Powell, Kraigg Brathwaite.

Middle-order batsmen: Darren Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Kirk Edwards, Narsingh Deonarine, Marlon Samuels.

Wicket-keepers: Denesh Ramdin, Chadwick Walton.

Spin bowlers:   Veersammy Permaul, Shane Shillingford plus Sunil Narine (reinforcement)

Fast bowlers: Sheldon Cottrell, Darren Sammy, Tino Best, Shannon Gabriel.

⋆

Regional representation:   

B - Barbados (3)

G - Guyana (3)

Ja - Jamaica (3)

L - Leeward Islands (1)

T - Trinidad & Tobago (3)

W - Windward Islands (2)

⋄ - central contract  

Average age of team at time of first Test match   

 (at 3 December 2013)    

     28 yrs  4 months

ODI   - member of squad for the ANZ one-day international series

T20 - member of the Twenty20 internationals squad.

Test Appearances made before the tour

Chanderpaul  150,  Ramdin 53,  Samuels 48,  Sammy 35,  D M Bravo 25,  Best 22,  Powell 17,  Deonarine 15,  Shillingford 12,  Brathwaite 9,  Edwards 9,  Narine 5,  Gabriel 4,  Permaul 3,  Walton 2,  Cottrell 1

⋆ Tour Officials

Selectors

Clyde Butts (chairman),  Robert Haynes and Courtney Browne.

Selection

Unavailable:   Kemar Roach (injured his shoulder on the Indian section of  tour); Kieran Pollard (knee); Dwayne Smith withdrew from the Big Bash League in Australia for personal reasons and also for the limited-overs series

Test tour party announced:  18 November 2013.

Withdrawn:  Chris Gayle picked up a hamstring injury in first ODI at Kochi, India, on 21 November and returned to the Caribbean for treatment - so Kraigg Brathwaite was added to the side.

Limited-overs squad named   12 December 2013.

Samuel Badree, Andre Fletcher and Andre Russell were added for the T20 internationals only.

Time between selection and departure from West Indies

     x days

(18 November to x November)

Travel

Mumbai   Q  Christchurch

Nine of the 15 members of the Test squad were playing in the ODI series in India while Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Kirk Edwards, Shannon Gabriel, Sheldon Cottrell and Chadwick Walton with assistant coach Stuart Williams arrived in Christchurch from India to train and play in the warm-up game at Lincoln

The other Test players met up with this advance party after a 30-hour journey from India that went via Dubai, Bangkok and Sydney to Christchurch. The squad finally arrived in Dunedin on 30 November.

Marlon Samuels and Shane Shillingford, accompanied by coach Ottis Gibson, went to Perth for independent testing of their bowling actions and joined the West Indies squad in New Zealand on Sunday 1 December

Kraigg Brathwaite, a replacement for Chris Gayle, was held up waiting for his New Zealand visa and a transit visa to Australia from 22 November onwards. He did not depart from Bridgetown until Friday evening 6 December and flew via London, Hong Kong and Sydney, arriving in Wellington on 9 December.

The ODI players not taking part in the Test series assembled in Barbados for a week-long training camp. They arrived in New Zealand on 21 December.

Andre Fletcher, Andre Russell and Samuel Badree arrived in Auckland on 6 January for the T20 internationals.

Time spent in New Zealand  -

   48 days

(29 November - 16 January)

On-tour selection

Reinforcements

Sunil Narine was added to the tour party on 28 November after Shane Shillingford and Marlon Samuels were reported for suspect bowling actions during the tour of India.

Because their full squad had not arrived from India, only five West Indian players were available for the team against a New Zealand XI at Lincoln. Kirk Edwards was captain, and New Zealanders Jeet Raval, Aaron Redmond, Sam Wells, Rob O’Donnell, Tim Johnston and Ili Tugaga made up the side.

Shane Shillingford  was suspended from bowling by the I C C on 16 December and he touched down at Melville Hall Airport., Dominica, on Sunday night 22 December.

Marlon Samuels withdrew from the one-day internationals, going home for an operation on his wrist injury, so Chadwick Walton remained with the one-day side.

Darren Bravo flew home to Trinidad from Auckland on Friday 27 December for personal reasons.

Darren Sammy and Ravi Rampaul missed the two T20 internationals, returning home because of hamstring and a thumb injury respectively.

Thus nine leading players (Roach, Pollard, Smith, Gayle, Shillingford, Sammy, Samuels, Rampaul and Bravo) missed the limited-overs matches against New Zealand.

Fixtures/Results

(BR)  Basin Reserve, Wellington    (S)  Saxton Oval, Nelson     (WS)  WestPac Stadium, Wellington.

† not first-class

§  one-day international (ANZ international series)

⊕  Twenty20 international

Time spent in New Zealand before First Test:       4 days

(29 November - 3 December)

Test appearances on tour

3   -   Best,  Chanderpaul,  Deonarine,  Edwards,  Powell,  Ramdin,  Sammy,  Samuels.

2  -    Darren Bravo,  Gabriel,  Shillingford.

1  -    Brathwaite,  Narine,  Permaul.

0  -    Cottrell,  Walton.

Match appearances

New Zealand tour 2014.

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

 •    Darren Bravo scored a nine-hour double century (212) in the first Test.

•     Denesh Ramdin scored a hundred at Hamilton (107) sharing a partnership of 200 with Chanderpaul (122*)

•     Kirk Edwards, required to open, scored fifties in the first two Tests.

•     West Indies’ 363 for 4 in the final ODI at Hamilton was their highest ever one-day international total.

•     In that innings Kirk Edwards (123)  and Dwayne Bravo (106) shared a 211-run stand for the 4th wicket.

Tour Summary

Return to West Indies

   Q  London  Q   Bridgetown

Marlon Samuels went back to Jamaica after the Test matches to have an operation on his wrist.

Kraigg Brathwaite, having played in one Test, flew back to West Indies on 24 December via Sydney, Hong Kong and London arriving on 27 December.

The team flew out of Wellington on 16 January.

Time away from West Indies

    x days  

(till arrive home in WI in January)

Finances

Accounts of the tour

Postscript

The twin tour of India and New Zealand was yet another setback for West Indies’ progress. Darren Sammy admitted that the team’s performances could not continue as they had been doing.  The side had failed to graft or show commitment,  and his own position and that of the coach were now on the line.