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| Rest of the World XI in Australia 1971-72
| Rest of
the World XI tour of Australia 1971-72
Captain Garfield Sobers | | | (November
- February 1972) | As soon as the invitation to South Africa
was withdrawn, the Australian Cricket Board of Control started organising a
Rest of the World XI tour to take its place.
At first it looked as if the SACA would not support the tour and that
all the top South African players would not be made available; in which case Sir
Donald Bradman said the tour would be neither of mixed composition nor of acceptable
standard. Garry Sobers promised the
public bright, positive cricket but was unable to take part in the early
matches himself because of an eye infection. However, he soon showed that he
remained the greatest cricketer in the world. Bradman described Sobers’
innings of 254 in the representative match at Melbourne
as “probably the greatest exhibition of batting ever seen in Australia”. Others in the team did less
well. Australian manager Bill Jacobs
ordered the players to improve their efforts, dropping four players from the
Sydney XII. | Home Page South Africa to England
1970 cancelled Rest of the World XI in England 1970 South Africa to Australia
1971-72 cancelled | | | Members
of the Rest of the World tour party (17) Opening batsmen Hylton Ackerman, Sunil
Gavaskar Middle-order batsmen Graeme Pollock, Gary Sobers, Rohan Kanhai,
Clive Lloyd, Zaheer Abbas. Wicket-keepers Farokh Engineer, Bob Taylor All-rounder Tony Greig Spin bowlers Bishan Bedi, Intikhab Alam, Norman Gifford Fast
bowlers Peter Pollock, Asif
Masood, Bob Cunis, Richard Hutton | H M
Ackerman | South
Africa | 24 | LHB opener | | Asif
Masood | Pakistan | 25 | RFM | | B S Bedi | India | 25 | SLA | | R S Cunis | New
Zealand | 30 | RM | | F M
Engineer | India | 33 | RHB WK | | S M
Gavaskar | India | 22 | RHB opener | | N Gifford | England | 31 | SLA | | A W Greig | England | 25 | RHB RFM | | R A
Hutton | England | 29 | RHB RFM | | Intikhab
Alam | Pakistan | 29 | LBG vice-captain | | R B
Kanhai | West Indies | 35 | RHB | | C H
Lloyd | West Indies | 27 | LHB | | P M
Pollock | South
Africa | 30 | RF | | R G
Pollock | South
Africa | 27 | LHB | | G S
Sobers | West Indies | 33 | LHB LFM | | R W Taylor added | England | 30 | WK | | Zaheer
Abbas | Pakistan | 24 | RHB | |
| Average age of team at time of first Test match (26 November 1971): 27
yrs 0 months | | | Test
Appearances made before the tour | H M Ackerman 0, Asif
Masood 6, B S Bedi 27, R S Cunis 15, F M Engineer 33, S M Gavaskar 7, N
Gifford 6, A W Greig 0, R A Hutton 5, Intikhab Alam 29, R
B Kanhai 66, C H Lloyd
23, P M Pollock 28, R G Pollock 23, G S Sobers 81, R W Taylor 1, Zaheer Abbas 4. | | | | Tour
Officials | | | | | Selectors | Sir Donald Bradman, Neil Harvey, Sam Loxton, Phil
Ridings The selection was organised by Jack Ledward who took
three weeks to contact all the players and obtain agreement. | | | | Selection | Unavailable: Among those who turned
down an invitation to join the tour party were Ali Bacher, Barry Richards
(coaching in Natal), Eddie Barlow (wine
business, Mike Procter (coaching in Rhodesia),
John Snow (contracted to Carlton), Geoffrey
Boycott. (coaching contract in South Africa),
Alan Knott (writing a book), Peter Lever (in New Zealand). Rest of the World party announced : 4 October 1971. Jack Ledward announced sixteen names, with the name
of a wicket-keeper yet to be given out because Knott was unavailable. Bob Taylor was subsequently chosen. | | | | Travel | The players met up in Melbourne
on 2 November. The first tour match began on 5 November. | | | | Reinforcements | Clive
Lloyd withdrew from the tour just
before Christmas with a back injury and returned to England. Mike
Procter turned down an offer to replace him. Peter and Graeme Pollock arrived from South Africa
on 30 December to join the tour party. Bob
Cunis returned to New Zealand in January to prepare for the New
Zealanders’ tour of West Indies. | | | | Fixtures | Melbourne | Victoria | Drawn | Sydney | New South Wales | Drawn | Brisbane | Queensland | Won 38 r | BRISBANE | AUSTRALIA 1st representative
match | DRAWN | Perth | Western Australia | Won 72 r | PERTH | AUSTRALIA 2nd representative
match | LOST inns 11 r | ϯ Perth | Australian XI (25 overs) | Won 14 r | ϯ Perth | Australian XI (40 overs) | Won 44 r | Adelaide | South Australia | Lost inns 1 r | Launceston | Tasmania | Won 8 w | Hobart | Combined XI | Drawn | MELBOURNE | AUSTRALIA 3rd representative
match | WON 96 r | SYDNEY | AUSTRALIA 4th representative
match | DRAWN | ϯ Sydney | Australia (one-day) | Abandoned | ϯ Melbourne | Australia (one-day) | Lost 10 w | ϯ Melbourne | Australia (15 overs exhibition match) | Lost 6 r | ϯ Canberra | Southern New South Wales | Drawn | ϯ Newcastle | Northern New South Wales | Drawn | ADELAIDE | AUSTRALIA 5th
representative match | WON 9 w |
|
|
| |
Representative
match appearances on tour |
5 - Bedi,
Gavaskar, Greig, Intikhab,
Sobers, Zaheer 4 - Ackerman, Engineer,
3 - G
Pollock, Kanhai, 2 - Cunis, Hutton,
Lloyd, P Pollock 1 - Asif
Masood, Gifford, Taylor. | | | | Highlights | | | | | Tour
Summary | | F | W | L | D | Aban | Representative matches | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | - | Other first-class matches | 7 | 3 | 1 | 3 | - | ϯ Minor matches | 7 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | All matches | 19 | 7 | 4 | 7 | 1 |
| F Fixtures W Won
L Lost
D
Drawn Canc Cancelled Aban abandoned without any play | | | Finances | Six newspaper companies sponsored the tour Total prize money for the series was $25,000. | | | | Postscript | | | |
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