Tour of India & Sri Lanka  1992-93                   Captain :  Graham Gooch             

England’s 73rd Test tour

 (January -   March 1993)

Eleventh Test-playing tour of India by England

Second Test-playing tour of Sri Lanka

       (previous tour 1981-82)

It was a tour where everything went wrong, from selection to strategy and public relations.

The controversial omission of David Gower and Jack Russell started it. In their place Reeve, Blakey and the South African rebel tour captain Mike Gatting were taken, culminating in a special meeting of M.C.C. held on 27 January to debate lack of confidence in the selectors.

Graham Gooch, who played in his 100th Test match but was given permission to leave the tour before the Sri Lankan leg, later said  "If I had my time again as England captain I'd let David have a free rein and let him get on with his batting...I left him out of the tour to India and that was a mistake....Lesser players were exposed against the Indian slow bowlers Kumble and Raju”  (The Captain's Tales  David Fulton)

New cricket manager Keith Fletcher returned from a scouting mission in South Africa overconfident that England would handle the Indian spin bowlers easily, but India won 3-0, inflicting a ‘brownwash’ by winning every match in a Test series against England for the first time. Hapless chief selector Ted Dexter mused that smog was something to do with England’s heavy defeat at Calcutta, and promised a report into the effects of pollution on cricketers.

The food (dodgy prawns caused Gooch to miss a Test match), travel (by train because Air India were on strike), climatic conditions, comcivil disorder across India  and poor decisions made by inexperienced umpires all had an effect on the health and morale of the tour party. There was widespread criticism of England’s organisation (such as not arranging a doctor to accompany the squad) and their selections for the Test matches. Even their shabby unshaven appearance at the post-match presentations came in for criticism from the brewery sponsoring the team.

Previous Test tour

New Zealand 1991-92

Next Test tour

West Indies 1993-94

Next Test tour of  India

2001-02

Members of the Test tour party (16  +  1)

Opening batsmen:   Graham Gooch, Mike Atherton

Middle-order batsmen  Graeme Hick, Robin Smith, Neil Fairbrother, Mike Gatting, Dermot Reeve, Alex Stewart

Wicket-keeper: Richard Blakey.

All-rounders:  Chris Lewis

Slow bowlers: John Emburey, Phil Tufnell plus Ian Salisbury (reinforcement)

Fast bowlers: Phil DeFreitas, Paul Taylor, Paul Jarvis, Devon Malcolm.

County representation:

Dy – Derbyshire (1)

Ex - Essex (1)

Ha - Hampshire (1)

La - Lancashire (3)

Le - Leicestershire (1)

Mx - Middlesex (3)

Nth - Northants (1)

Sy - Surrey (1)

Wk - Warwickshire (1)

Wo - Worcestershire (1)

Yo - Yorkshire (2)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

 (29 January 1993)

     29 yrs  8 months.

Test Appearances made before the tour

Gooch 99,  Gatting 68,  Emburey 60,  Smith 36,  DeFreitas 31,  Stewart 22,  Atherton 21,  Malcolm 21,  Lewis 14,  Hick 11,  Tufnell 10,  Fairbrother 7,  Jarvis 6,  Reeve 3,  Salisbury 2,  Blakey 0,  Taylor 0 

Tour Officials

Selectors

Ted Dexter (chairman of selectors),  Mickey Stewart (coach),  Dennis Amiss, Keith Fletcher (cricket manager),  Alan Smith (Chief Executive of T.C.C.B.) and Graham Gooch (captain).

Selection

Not considered: 

Tour Party Announced  :  10 September 1992

Mike Gatting, John Emburey and Paul Jarvis were included when bans for the rebel tour of South Africa were lifted.

Not selected:  David Gower,  Jack Russell

Team manager Keith Fletcher’s reason, that too many batsmen would have been in their mid-30s, was undermined by the choice of Gatting, who was older than Gower.

Withdrawn: none.

Reserve :   Graham Thorpe

Time between selection and departure from England

   109 days

 (10 September - 28 December)

Travel

London  Q Colombo

After preparations and training at Lilleshall, the team departed from London Airport on 28 December 1992

Landed in Delhi on 29 December for a week of further preparation. The team had to travel by train throughout most of the tour because internal flights were grounded after a plane crash and strikes by Air India staff.

England left New Delhi for Colombo on 6 March and arrived next day.

Time spent in India    67  days

(29 December -  6 March

Time spent in Sri Lanka  14 days

(7 March - 21 March)

On-tour selection panel

Keith Fletcher (coach),  Graham Gooch (captain), Alec Stewart  (vice-captain),  Mike Gatting (senior player)

Reinforcements

Ian Salisbury accompanied the team for the first three weeks to provide net practice against spin bowler. Having  caused the batsmen problems, he was retained in the tour party but was inaccurate and costly in his two Tests.

Alec Stewart took the captaincy in Sri Lanka. There was no official vice-captain there but, as senior player, Mike Gatting would understudy Stewart.

Fixtures/Results

† not first-class

Time spent in India before First Test:   31 days

(29 December - 29 January)

Test appearances on tour

(v India 1992-93)

(v Sri Lanka 1992-93)

3 -   Gatting,  Hick,  Lewis,  Smith,  Stewart

2 -   Blakey,  Fairbrother,  Gooch,  Jarvis,  Malcolm,  Salisbury,  Tufnell,

1 -   Atherton,  DeFreitas,  Emburey,  Taylor

0 -   Reeve.

1  -   Atherton, Emburey, Fairbrother, Gatting, Hick, Jarvis, Lewis, Malcolkm, Smith, Stewart, Tufnell.

Highlights

•   Graeme Hick scored 178 at Bombay, his maiden Test century.

•   Graham Gooch was the fifth Englishman (after Cowdrey, Gower, Boycott and Botham) to appear in 100 Tests

•   Chris Lewis scored 117 in the Madras Test after recording a duck in the first innings

•   Paul Jarvis took 5-34 in the one-day international at Bangalore.

•   Having worked on his batting technique, Robin Smith scored 128 in the Test match against Sri Lanka

• 

Tour Summary

Return to England

Colombo  Q  London

72 year-old scorer Clem Driver had to return home early for health reasons.

Graham Gooch returned home after the one-day series in India, and Alec Stewart led the side in Sri Lanka.

The tour ended with the team flying out of Colombo on 21 March. Landing on 22 March, they quickly made their uncomfortable way through Heathrow Airport, where Graham Gooch was waiting to meet his colleagues.

Time away from England

  84 days 

 (28 December - 22 March)

Finances

The tour made a profit of £80,000.

Phil Tufnell was fined £500 by the tour management for arguing with an umpire at Visakhapatnam

Tour Book

"Spin-washed and Kumble-dried"  (1993)   by Chandra Senan   (Preposterous Publications)

“England Tour of India 1992-93”  (1993)  by S.Pervez Qaiser  (Al Feisal Publications, Delhi)

Postscript