The 1976-77 M.C.C. tour of South Africa had been cancelled as
long ago as 11 September 1975, and this tour brought forward from
1977-78.
It was England's
most successful visit to India,
the sixth on which England
had played Test cricket there. To the intense disappointment of the home
supporters, the Indians capitulated in the first three Tests and thus lost
the series. Greig's strategy, apart from engendering high morale in his team,
was to use batsmen like Tolchard and himself determined to stay in and wear
down the Indian spinners (Bedi, Chandrasekhar and Prasanna) who had baffled England
on the previous tour in 1972-73.
India won a
consolation victory at Bangalore and played
with confidence in the final Test, but by then England's thoughts may already
have been looking ahead to the Centenary Test, and Greig's to the launch of
World Series Cricket.
The name of the manager, Ken Barrington, was announced at Lord’s on
31 August. (He had been given a trial run on the Derrick Robins tour of South
Africa in 1975-76).Tony Greig was
chosen as captain at the same meeting of the MCC Committee by Gubby Allen, Alec
Bedser, Freddie Brown, Insole and Peter May.
Selectors
Alec Bedser (chairman)
, Tony Greig (captain),Doug Insole, Len Hutton, Ken Barrington, Charlie Elliott and Freddie Brown.
Selection
Unavailable :Geoff Boycott. When Boycott turned down the offer of the
vice-captaincy, Greig suggested it should be given to Brearley.
Tour party announced :8 September 1976.
Chris Old was selected subject to a special fitness test on 3
November. Bedser let it be known that Mike Gatting would have been the 17th
player.
Not selected:David Steele was particularly unlucky not to be chosen.
Time between selection and departure from England
days
(8 September - 23 November)
Travel
LondonQColombo
The team flew by Air India
jumbo jet from Heathrow Airport, London, on
23 November 1976 and arrived at Santa Cruz
Airport, Bombay, at 4:20 am on 24 November after an
11-hour flight.
There were three days of practice at Wankhede Stadium. Then they
departed by rail for the first match at Pune.
After the Indian tour on 19 February the team flew from Bombay in an aged Avro plane for Colombo.While in Sri Lanka Greig
and Barrington were charged to report to the
I.C.C. on Sri Lanka's
readiness for Test cricket.
After the four matches in Sri Lanka,
the team left Bandaranayeke International Airport,
and flew via Kuala Lumpur and Singapore to Perth, arriving on 4 March.
Time spent in India
87 days
(24
November - 19 February)
Time spent in Australia
14 days
(4
March - 18 March)
On-tour
selection panel
Tony Greig
(captain), Ken Barrington (manager), Mike Brearley (vice-captain), Keith Fletcher, Alan Knott.
Reinforcements
None.Geoff Cope returned
briefly to England
on the death of his father.
Alan Knott was temporarily captain in the North Zone match and Keith
Fletcher against Sri Lanka.
Fixtures/Results
The
tour itinerary was announced by the BCCI on 31 March 1976
The MCC team flew out of Melbourne
on 18 March, reaching Heathrow on the morning of 19 March.
Time away from England
115 days
(24
November - 19 March)
Finances
Accounts
of the tour
"MCC in India
1976-77"by Christopher
Martin-Jenkins (Macdonald and Janes,
1977)
"Test Commentary: India
v England
1976-77" by Dicky Rutnagur.
Postscript
This was the last England
tour to take place under the name of M.C.C. In future, touring teams would be
known as "England".
This decision was prompted by another team under the name of M.C.C. touring Bangladesh in
1976-77.
Other
Test tours in 1976-77
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.
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
WEBSITEARE COPYRIGHT