Tour of West Indies 1997-98                  Captain : Mike Atherton                  

England’s 78th Test tour.

(January 1998 - April 1998)

Twelfth Test-playing tour of West Indies by England

  (previous tour 1993-94)

C

SUMMARY to be completed

Other England tours

Previous Test tour

Zimbabwe & New Zealand 1996-97

Next Test tour

Australia 1998-99

Next tour of  West Indies

2003-04

Members of the Test tour party (16)

Opening batsmen:   Mike Atherton, Alec Stewart, Mark Butcher

Middle-order batsmen  , John Crawley, Mark Ramprakash, Graham Thorpe, Nasser Hussain

Wicket-keeper:  Jack Russell.

All-rounders:  Adam Hollioake

Slow bowlers: Phil Tufnell, Robert Croft

Fast bowlers: Angus Fraser, Dean Headley, Andrew Caddick, Ashley Cowan, Chris Silverwood

County representation:

Ex  -  Essex (2)

Gm - Glamorgan (1)

Gs - Gloucestershire (1)

Kt  -  Kent (1)

La - Lancashire (2)

Mx - Middlesex (3)

Sm - Somerset (1)

Sy - Surrey (4)

Yo - Yorkshire (1)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(29 January 1998): 

   28 yrs  7 months.

Test Appearances made before the tour

Atherton 73,  Stewart 69,  Russell 49,  Thorpe 43,  Fraser 32,  Tufnell 28,  Crawley 22,  Hussain 23,  Ramprakash 20,  Caddick 16,  Croft 10,  Butcher 5,  Headley 3,  Hollioake 2,  Silverwood 1,  Cowan 0.

Tour Officials

Selectors

David Graveney (chairman),  Mike Gatting,  Graham Gooch,  Mike Atherton (captain).

Selection

Not considered: 

Tour Party Announced  :

Not selected:   Dominic Cork

One-day party selected

Dougie Brown,  Mark Ealham,  Matthew Fleming, Graeme Hick, Ben Hollioake, Nick Knight and Ashley Giles would replaced  Butcher, Caddick, Cowan, Crawley, Hussain, Silverwood, Tufnell

Withdrawals:   The decision to withdraw Darren Gough from the Test squad (injury in left hamstring) was taken on 31 December, and he was replaced by Chris Silverwood.  David Lloyd apparently asked the selectors for Dougie Brown to join the tour party as well.

Time between selection and departure from England

   days

 (September? - 3 January)

Travel

London  Q  Antigua

The tour party departed from London’s Gatwick Airport on 3 January 1998 and  arrived in Antigua to spend a week acclimatising and practising but were thwarted by persistent heavy rain and left for Kingston on 8 January.

The one-day players left London for Barbados on 20 March

Time spent in West Indies

    days

(3 January - 

On-tour selection panel

Reinforcements

Ashley Giles withdrew from the one-day squad through and achilles injury, and Angus Fraser was added to the squad.

Mike Atherton withdrew from the ODI captaincy when he resigned the England Test captaincy, and Adam Hollioake, who led England to the four nations championship in Sharjah in December, became captain of the one-day side.

Jack Russell was asked to stay on through the one-day series as cover for Alec Stewart.  Mark Ramprakash was also added to the ODI squad of fifteen on 17 March.

Graham Thorpe returned to England on 1 April with a back injury.

Fixtures/Results

Players among the one-day squad who were not involved in the final Test in Antigua went to Barbados to practise and played two matches against a club invitation XI on Monday and Tuesday 23 and 24 March 1998.

ϯ not first-class

§  one-day international

Time spent in West Indies before First Test:

   26 days

(3  - 29 January)

Test appearances

  (v West Indies 1997-98)

6  -   Atherton,  Fraser,  Headley,  Hussain,  Stewart,  Thorpe,  Tufnell

5  -   Butcher,  Caddick,  Russell 

3  -   Crawley,  Ramprakash 

2  -   Hollioake

1  -   Croft

0  -   Cowan,  Silverwood.

Match appearances

T  Test match

o  one-day international 

x other match 

 W won  L lost  D drawn

N no result   A abandoned

u unknown result

Matches l  and  m  were played as practice for the ODI series while the sixth Test was in progress

England’s six previous Test tour results

Highlights

•  T

• 

•   Angus Fraser took 8-53 in England’s victory at Port of Spain (3rd Test) and 27 wickets in the series.

• 

Tour Summary

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

Return to England

Port of Spain  Q  London

At the end of the Test series Butcher, Caddick, Cowan, Crawley, Hussain, Silverwood and Tufnell flew home to England.

Time away from England

  x days  

(3 January  - 10 April)

Finances

Accounts of the Tour

Postscript

Other Test tours in 1997-98

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