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As soon as the invitation to South Africa was withdrawn, the Australian Cricket Board of Control started organising a Rest of the World XI tour to take its place.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. 

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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

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

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  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