Tour of  India 1963-64             Captain : Mike Smith                      

 (M.C.C. tour)

England’s 48th Test tour

(January - February 1964)

24th Test-playing tour of India by England

        (previous tour 1961-62)

The series between India and England passed without any risk of the five Test matches reaching a result. This may be explained by the deadening mixture of lifeless pitches, India's dread of defeat and M.C.C.'s illness and injury problems;  blame could be laid at the door of all these factors. 

Yet it is possible that some good came from the series, not least in a financial way. England had picked a group of promising cricketers for the tour, amongst them Jeff Jones and John Price, the fast bowlers, and batsmen John Edrich and Phil Sharpe.  Although their health was tested, they came home with reputations improved.  Of the established players, Titmus and Cowdrey, when he arrived, made a lasting mark. Skipper Mike Smith emerged as an astute and natural leader with the ability to motivate and maintain morale, even as illness at Bombay was decimating the side, and earned his position as captain on the next two England tours abroad to South Africa and Australia.

Other England tours

Previous Test tour

Australia 1962-63

Next Test tour

South Africa 1964-65

Next tour of  India

1972-73

Members of the Test tour party (15  +  2)

Opening batsmen:  Brian Bolus, Micky Stewart, John Edrich

Middle-order batsmen Ken Barrington, Mike Smith, Phil Sharpe (+ Colin Cowdrey, Peter Parfitt replacements).

Wicket-keepers:  Jimmy Binks, Jim Parks.

All-rounder:  Barry Knight.

Slow bowlers: John Mortimore, Fred Titmus, Don Wilson.

Fast bowlers: Jeff Jones, John Price, David Larter.

County representation:

Ex  -  Essex (1)

Gm - Glamorgan (1)

Gs - Gloucestershire (1)

Le -  Leicestershire (

Mx - Middlesex (2)

Nth - Northamptonshire (1)

Nt - Nottinghamshire (1)

Sy - Surrey (3)

Sx - Sussex (1)

Wk - Warwickshire (1)

Yo - Yorkshire (3)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(10 January 1964): 

    28 yrs  4 months.

Test Appearances made before the tour

Cowdrey 67,  Barrington 45,  Smith 22,  Titmus 16,  Parfitt 14,  Knight 12,  Parks 11,  Stewart 6,  Mortimore 5,  Larter 4,  Edrich 3,  Sharpe 3,  Bolus 2,  Binks 0,  Jones 0,  Price 0,  Wilson 0.

Tour Officials

Selectors

The team was chosen on 18 August by Walter Robins (Chairman of Selectors),  Alec Bedser,  Freddie Brown, Doug Insole, Willie Watson,  Mike Smith and Colin Cowdrey; but it was not announced for a further week.

Selection

Unavailable :  Bob Barber, Brian Close, Ted Dexter, Tom Graveney, Tony Lock and Brian Statham.

Fred Trueman (rested) was not considered.  36 players had been asked if they were available to tour.

The names of captain and vice-captain were announced on 21 August.

Withdrawal : Colin Cowdrey, the original choice as captain, withdrew because of the risk of complications to his injured forearm. He was replaced by Micky Stewart.

Tour party announced :   27 August 1963.

Time between selection and departure from England

   126 days

 (27 August - 31 December)

Travel

London  Q  Bombay

On 31 December the team flew from Heathrow Airport, London, to Bombay.  On arrival in India, the team took net practice with Conrad Hunte, who was on a Moral ReArmament tour of India.

Time spent in India

    days

(1 January -  

On-tour selection panel

Mike Smith (captain),  Micky Stewart (vice-captain;  later Colin Cowdrey),  David Clark (manager).

Reinforcements

Colin Cowdrey as vice-captain and Peter Parfitt for Micky Stewart, who suffered from severe stomach illness, and Ken Barrington (broken bone in hand fielding at Ahmedabad).

Manager David Clark and journalist Henry Blofeld were standing by to field in the second Test when most of the team were ill with stomach complaints. Kripal Singh fielded for England in this match.

John Edrich missed the first three Test matches with a throat infection.

Fixtures/Results

† not first-class

Time spent in India before First Test:   9 days

(1 January - 10 January)

Test appearances on tour

(v  India 1963-64)

5 -   Bolus,  Knight,  Parks,  Smith,  Titmus,  Wilson.

4 -   Price.

3 -   Cowdrey,  Larter,  Mortimore,  Parfitt

2 -   Binks,  Edrich,  Stewart

1 -   Barrington,  Jones,  Sharpe.

0 - 

Match appearances

T  Test match

x other match 

∙ appearaed as substitute

 W won  L lost  D drawn

N no result   A abandoned

u unknown result

England’s six previous Test tour results

Highlights

•  England's makeshift team at Bombay, chosen from the only fit men available, avoided defeat.

• 

• 

Tour Summary

F  Fixtures   W  Won   L  Lost   D Drawn   T  Tied  Canc  Cancelled  Aban  abandoned

Return to England

Bombay  Q  London

Ken Barrington returned home to England during the fourth Test

Return approx 27 February 1964.

Time away from England

  58 days  

(31 December - 27? February)

Finances

More than a million people attended games during the tour and the profit was very large.

Postscript

It was the first of the shorter tours of the Indian sub-continent, five Test matches and five other games but no visit to Ceylon or Pakistan.

In all five Test matches the pitches were so low and slow and flat that it was difficult to play shots

Other Test tours in 1963-64

South Africans  to Australia & New Zealand 1963-64  -  captain Trevor Goddard.

Acknowledgements

To general reading of The Times newspaper digital archive (Gale Group);  Jamaica Gleanor archive;  National Library of Australia Trove; Papers Past NZ.

From former British Newspaper Library, Colindale and online:  The Age, Melbourne Argus, Bangladesh Daily Star, Barbados Advocate, Canberra Times, Daily Telegraph, Dawn, Eastern Daily Press, The Hindu, The Independent (Dhaka), Indian Express, The Island (Lanka), Lahore Times, New Nation, New Zealand Auckland Herald, Sri Lanka Daily News, Stabroek News, Straits Times, Sydney Morning Herald, The Telegraph (Calcutta), Times of India , The Tribune Chandigarh, Trinidad Guardian, The West Australian.

cricketweb.net;  ESPN cricinfo;  cricket archive; www.cricketcountry; www.coverpoint

Magazines/periodicals including Australian Cricket, B & H West Indies Annual, The Cricketer International, Cricketer Quarterly, Indian Cricket, Indian Cricket Field Annual, Playfair Cricket Monthly, Shell Cricket Almanack of New Zealand, Wisden Cricket Monthly, Wisden Book of Test Cricket, Wisden’s Cricketers’ Almanack.

Men In White, A History of Australian Cricket (Harte), A History of Indian Cricket (Bose), A History of West Indies Cricket (Manley)

Biography and tour books (own collection and at the M.C.C. Library at Lord’s Ground)                                                ALL CONTENTS OF THE TEST-CRICKET-TOURS.CO.UK WEBSITE  ARE COPYRIGHT