Tour of India 2014-15            Captain:  Dinesh Ramdin

Tour abandoned

68th West Indies Test tour

(October - December 2014)

Twelfth Test-playing tour of India by West Indies

(previous tour  2013-14)

The West Indian team abandoned the tour, leaving a three-Test match series unplayed, the first time that any tour had been abandoned because of players withdrawing, though things had come close on previous tours for a similar pay dispute in South Africa 1998-99, and because of controversial umpiring on the Windies’ tour of New Zealand in 1980.

The 2014 team was in dispute with its own Players’ Association (with WIPA chief executive Wavell Hinds in particular) for putting forward a contract that cut the Test players’ share of sponsorship fees which was somehow agreed without the players approving it. Sponsorship funds were to be re-allocated to improve the financial rewards for all the first-class cricketers across the Caribbean.

As the threat of a strike grew, the West Indies Cricket Board was too slow in reacting to the crisis and it was left to the B.C.C.I. to try to convince for the West Indians to carry on, but the team quit at the conclusion of the fourth ODI in Dharamsala.

The B.C.C.I. hurriedly arranged a five-match ODI series against Sri Lanka in place of the remaining tour matches, which helped replace some lost income but nevertheless had grounds to sue the West Indian Board for huge compensation. With WICB already in desperate financial straits, the threat of India suspending future tours to the Caribbean and costing the Board lucrative television, advertising and sponsorship income was a further blow that jeopardised the very future of cricket in the region.

Other West Indies tours

Previous tour

New Zealand 2013-14

Next tour

South Africa 2014-15

Next tour of India

None scheduled

Members of the ODI tour party  (15) -

Opening batsmen 

Middle-order batsmen 

All-rounder   .

Wicket-keepers 

Spin bowlers  

Fast bowlers 

Regional representation:   

B - Barbados (-

G - Guyana (-

Ja - Jamaica (-

L - Leeward Islands (-

T - Trinidad & Tobago (-

W - Windward Islands (-

⋄ - central contract  

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(at 30 October 2014)    

ODI   - member of squad for the one-day international series

Test appearances before tour

Chanderpaul 158,  Ramdin 61,  Samuels 52,  Taylor 34,  Smith 33,  Roach 28,  Benn 22,  Brathwaite 14,  Gabriel 9,  Blackwood 3,  Cottrell 1,  Holder 1,  Johnson 1, 

Tour Officials

Selectors

Clive Lloyd (chairman),  Courtney Browne,   Courtney Walsh,   Eldine Baptiste. 

Selection

Unavailable:  Chris Gayle (rehabilitation of back injury);  Darren Sammy (retired from Test cricket in May)

One-day squad named   24 September 2014.

Withdrawal :  Off-spinner Sunil Narine was withdrawn by West Indies Cricket Board on 3 October, and Sulieman Benn added to the one-day squad next day.

Test tour party announced:  4 October 2014.

Not selected :  Shannon Gabriel,  Kirk Edwards,  Kraigg Brathwaite

Time between selection and departure from West Indies

  4 days

(24 September to 28 September)

Travel

BridgetownQ  Mumbai

Denesh Ramdin, Lendl Simmons, Kieron Pollard, Marlon Samuels, Dwayne Smith, Kemar Roach, Jerome Taylor and Darren Sammy flew out of the Caribbean on 28 September to London.

The team flew in to Mumbai on 1 October 2014, and met up with other members of the one-day party Jason Holder, Ravi Rampaul and Sunil Narine.  Dwayne Smith, Dwayne Bravo and Andre Russell were also already in India, playing in the  Champions League T20 competition, and missed the first two warm-up matches.

It seems the tour began with the players still unaware about the memorandum of understanding between signed between the WICB and WIPA.

Time spent in India 

   18 days

(1 October - 19 October)

On-tour selection

Clive Lloyd,  Dwayne Bravo,  Stuart Williams,  Richie Richardson

Reinforcements

Jerome Blackwood and coach Stuart Williams played in the second tour match as the tourists struggled to field a team.

Lendl Simmons was ruled out of the tour by a back injury and had to return to Trinidad & Tobago for rehabilitation. He was replaced on 16 October by Nikita Miller who flew in from Sri Lanka

Fixtures/Results

The tour programme was announced on 14 August

.

† not first-class

§  one-day international (international series)

⊕  Twenty20 international

Time due to be spent in India before First Test:

  29 days

(1 October - 30 October)

Test appearances on tour

none    

Match appearances

T  Test match

o  one-day international 

x other match 

⊕ T/20 international

W won  L lost  D drawn   T  tied

N no result   A abandoned 

C cancelled     u unknown result

West Indies’ six previous Test tour results:

In India & New Zealand 2013-14 (2 + 3 Tests)

 - lost 0-2 and lost 0-2

In Bangladesh 2012-13 (2 Tests)

 -  won 2-0

In England 2012 (3 Tests)

 - lost 0-2

In Bangladesh & India 2011-12 (2 + 3 Tests)

 - won 1-0  and lost 0-2.

In Sri Lanka 2010-11 (3 Tests)

 - drew 0-0

In Australia 2009-10 (3 Tests)

 - lost 0-2

Highlights

 •    Denesh Ramdin scored a century in the  second warm up match at Mumbai.

•     Marlon Samuels scored a century (126*) in the first ODI at Kochi and another (112)  in the fourth ODI, which turned out to be the last match of the tour

Tour Summary

F  Fixtures   W  Won   L  Lost  

D Drawn   T  Tied  Canc  Cancelled  Aban  abandoned

Return to West Indies

 Delhi  Q  London  Q   Bridgetown

The third Test was due to end on 19 November and the touring party would return to West Indies for a fortnight before leaving for the South African tour.

However, the tour was abandoned on 17 October. The B.C.C.I. assisted the players to travel from Himachal Pradesh, flying to Delhi on the afternoon of Saturday 18 October but the players had to make their travel arrangements onwards to West Indies, paying for their own tickets. They left Delhi on Sunday.

Time away from West Indies

    22 days  

(30 September - 21 October)

Finances

The BCCI claimed damages for the abandoned tour. The main claim was for lost  media rights, estimated at US$35 million.

Accounts of the tour

Postscript

With the England tour and T20 champions league barely completed, iIt was feared that the Indian public was becoming indifferent to seeing West Indies again, having toured three times in four years. Yet by the time this tour was abandoned, there were fears for the future of West Indies in international cricket itself.

Already India, Engand and Australia’s dominant position was turning them into the only sides able to pay their way, while the other Test nations found it difficult to attract sponsorship and television money. Now West Indies were cast into an even more parlous financial position, as bad as Zimbabwe or Pakistan’s. The prospect loomed of the big three playing each other repeatedly home and away while other Test series would not be financially viable.

Other Test tours in 2014-15

Australians in UAE to play Pakistan 2014-15 - captain Michael Clarke

England in West Indies 2014-15 - captain Alastair Cook

Indians in Australia 2014-15  -  captain  Virat Kohli

New Zealanders in UAE to play Pakistan 2014-15 - captain Brendon McCullum

Sri Lankans in New Zealand 2014-15 - captain Angelo Mathews

West Indians in South Africa 2014-15 - captain Denesh Ramdin

Zimbabweans in Bangladesh 2014-15 - captain Brendan Taylor

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 (Bombay) , 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