Rest of the World XI tour of England 1970           Captain: Garfield Sobers

(June- August 1970)

Seeing how the Anti-Apartheid Movement had disrupted the 1969-70 Springboks rugby union tour, there was mounting pressure on the Cricket Council at Lord’s to call off the 1970 South African cricket tour of England.

A “Stop the Seventy Tour” group was planning direct action at the cricket grounds, such as pitch invasions, and it looked hopeless to try to play any cricket at all.

Then James Callaghan, Home Secretary, made “a formal request from HM Government to withdraw the invitation to the South African touring team", and on 22 May the Cricket Council reluctantly agreed to do so, saying “the Council were of the opinion that they had no alternative but to accede to this request.”

Because the South African tour would have produced about £100,000 for distribution to the English counties and to other poverty-stricken cricket bodies, and another £90,000 would have been lost from television rights, it was deemed essential to substitute another series.

Guinness put forward £20,000 to sponsor five matches between England and a Rest of the World XI, which the Test & County Cricket Board granted Test-match status and awarded full England caps.  Later the Tests were ruled to be unofficial.

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South Africa to England 1970  cancelled

South Africa to Australia 1971-72 cancelled

Rest of the World XI in Australia 1971-72

Members of the Rest of the World tour party (14)

Opening batsmen Eddie Barlow,  Barry Richards.

Middle-order batsmen  Graeme Pollock, Gary Sobers, Rohan Kanhai, Clive Lloyd, Mushtaq Mohammad.

Wicket-keepers  Farokh Engineer, Deryck Murray.

Spin bowlers  Lance Gibbs, Intikhab Alam.

Fast bowlers  Peter Pollock, Mike Procter, Graham McKenzie.

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(18 June 1970):

       29 yrs  1 month

Test Appearances made before the tour

E J Barlow 30,  F M Engineer 30,  L R Gibbs 50,  Intikhab Alam 26,  R B Kanhai 61  C H Lloyd 18,  G D McKenzie 57,  D L Murray 10,  Mushtaq Mohammad 22,  P M Pollock 28,  R G Pollock 23,  M J Procter 7,  B A Richards 4,  GS Sobers 76.

Tour Official

Selectors

Freddie Brown (chairman),  Garry Sobers (captain),  Les Ames.

Selection

Unavailable:  It was announced that  no-one declined an invitation to join the team.  However, some of the Australians might have been unlikely to gain further time off from their jobs after taking part in the lengthy cricket tour of India and South Africa in 1969-70.

On 26 May Peter Pollock had said that, while at first he was unwilling to take part in the series, he would be now prepared to play after all.

Rest of the World party announced :  beginning of June 1970.

Reinforcements

Peter Pollock who was reporting the games as a journalist was unexpectedly called upon to take McKenzie’s place in the third ‘Test’. 

Mike Denness acted as substitute fielder in the 4th Test and took a catch

In the Scarborough match the following players:  H M Ackerman, Sadiq Mohammad, C P Wilkins, Khalid Ibadulla, Sarfraz Nawaz, U C Joshi, Saeed Hattea - appeared, as well as Mushtaq, Kanhai, Murray and Gibbs.

Fixtures

¹This match which is listed on www.cricketarchive (but without any details) took place on the Sunday of the fourth ‘Test’ match at Headingley, two hundred miles away in London, and seems likely to have been played by a completely different group of players

‘Test’ appearances on tour

5  -   Barlow,  Engineer,  Intikhab Alam,  Kanhai,  Lloyd,  G Pollock,  Procter,  Sobers.

4  -   Gibbs,

3  -   McKenzie,  Murray, 

2  -   Engineer, Mushtaq Mohammad

1  -   P Pollock.

Highlights

•   Barlow, Lloyd and Sobers scored two centuries each while Kanhai and Pollock scored one each.

•   Eddie Barlow took eleven wickets at Headingley including a hat-trick.

Tour Summary

F  Fixtures   W  Won   L  Lost  

D Drawn   Canc  Cancelled

Aban  abandoned

Finances

Government compensation for cancellation of the tour did not cover the loss to first-class counties English county clubs who said that cancelling the tour cost them between £120,000 and £150,000