Tour of West Indies 2008-09                Captain :  Andrew Strauss             

England’s 96th Test tour

(January  – April  2009)

Fourteenth Test playing tour of  West Indies by England

(previous tour 2003-04)

Just before departure for the tour Kevin Pietersen resigned the captaincy and coach Peter Moores was sacked as their opposing views became irreconcilable. Hugh Morris, the ECB Director of Cricket said that it would have been "impossible to restore dressing-room unity" without the removal of both of them. The partnership between Andrew Strauss and Andy Flower began disastrously as England were shot out for only 51 at Kingston, which ultimately cost them the Wisden Trophy - but they were later to win two Ashes series.

The newly-relaid outfield at the ground for the second Test, Antigua’s Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, was so sandy that bowlers were unable to run in properly and the match was abandoned after only ten deliveries. The island’s run-down Recreation Ground was hastily made ready and its derelict facilities transformed into a venue where a replacement Test could be properly played out. West Indies escaped with an exciting draw when the last wicket pair, Edwards and Powell, held out for the last 36 minutes.

The fourth Test was a high-scoring stalemate but the conclusion to the final Test was just as thrilling as Antigua’s had been.  West Indies’ 9th wicket pair survived the final over from Monty Panesar and clinched the Wisden Trophy in their first series win since 2004.

In the one-day series West Indies coach John Dyson mis-read the chart for Duckworth-Lewis calculations and handed England the first ODI at Guyana’s Providence Stadium.

Other England tours

Previous Test tour

India 2008-09

Next Test tour

South Africa 2009-10

Next tour of West Indies

2014-15

Members of the Test tour party (16  + 2)

Opening batsmen:  Alistair Cook, Andrew Strauss

Middle-order batsmen Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood, Owais Shah

Wicket-keeper: Matt Prior, Tim Ambrose

All-rounders:  Andrew Flintoff (replaced by Amjad Khan and Ravi Bopara)

Slow bowlers: Graeme Swann, Monty Panesar, Adil Rashid

Fast bowlers: Stuart Broad, James Anderson, Steve Harmison, Ryan Sidebottom

⋄   On 9 September 2008 the ECB announced central contracts to

 James Anderson, Ian Bell, Stuart Broad

Paul Collingwood, Alastair Cook, Andrew Flintoff, Steve Harmison, Kevin Pietersen, Monty Panesar, Ryan Sidebottom, Andrew Strauss, Michael Vaughan.

County representation:

Dm - Durham (2)

Ex  -  Essex (2)

Ha - Hampshire (1)

La - Lancashire (2)

Mx - Middlesex (1)

Nth - Northamptonshire (1)

Nt - Nottinghamshire (3)

Sx - Sussex (1)

Wk - Warwickshire (2)

Yo - Yorkshire (1)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(4 February 2009): 

    27 yrs  11 months.

Test Appearances made before the tour

Flintoff 72,  Harmison 59,  Strauss 55,  Bell 45,  Pietersen 45,  Collingwood 41,  Cook 36,  Panesar 35,  Sidebottom 18,  Prior 12,  Ambrose 10,  Broad 10,  Bopara 3,  Shah 2,  Swann 2,  Amjad Khan 0,  Rashid 0.

Tour Officials

Peter Moores was dismissed as coach on 7 January.

Selectors

Geoff Miller (national selector and chairman),  Peter Moores (coach),  and  Andrew Strauss (captain).

Selection

Not considered: 

Tour Party Announced  :  29 December 2008.

Not selected:   James Foster (Ex),  Michael Vaughan  (⋄ Yo).

Pietersen resigned on 7 January, and Andrew Strauss was named as tour captain

Withdrawn:.  Samit Patel was withdrawn from the one-day squad on 3 March because his fitness levels were not satisfactory. Gareth Batty was added to the ODI squad and Adil Rashid retained in the team.

Time between selection and departure from England

   23 days

 (29 December - 21 January)

Travel

London, Gatwick   Q  Barbados

Departure for the Caribbean was on flight VS29 from Gatwick Airport to Barbados on Wednesday 21 January 2009.   

The England team arrived in Basseterre, St Kitts, on 22 January.

Time spent in West Indies

    74 days

(21 January  -  5 April)

On-tour selection panel

Andrew Strauss (captain),  Andy Flower (interim coach),  and the on-tour selector

Members of the ‘Team Management Committee’ were: Andrew Flintoff, Paul Collingwood, Stuart Broad and Alistair Cook (replaced by Kevin Pietersen for the one-day series)

Reinforcements

On 19 February England called up fast bowler Amjad Khan from Kent and batsman Ravi Bopara from Essex as cover for the injured Andrew Flintoff (muscle strain on his hip).  Amjad and Bopara came over from the England Lions tour in New Zealand arriving on 21 February

Gareth Batty and Adil Rashid were added to the one-day squad in place of Samit Patel who was dropped, and Graeme Swann who needed an operation on an elbow injury.  Ryan Sidebottom withdrew from the one-day series against West Indies due to an Achilles problem and Amjad Khan was asked to remain with the team.

Fixtures/Results

† not first-class

Å  T20 international

§ one-day international

Time spent in West Indies before First Test:   14 days

(21 January  - 4 February)

Test appearances on tour

5  -   Broad,  Collingwood,  Cook,  Pietersen,  Strauss.

4  -   Anderson,  Prior,  Shah, 

3  -   Flintoff,  Panesar,  Sidebottom,  Swann

2  -   Harmison, 

1  -   Ambrose,  Bell,  Bopara,  Amjad Khan, 

0  -   Rashid.

Match appearances

T  Test match

o  one-day international 

x other match 

⊕ T/20 international

 W won  L lost  D drawn

N no result   A abandoned

u unknown result

England’s six previous Test tour results:

Highlights

•  Stuart Broad took 5 for 85 at Kingston.

•  England were bowled out for their third-lowest total in Test matches: 51 at Kingston, and lost the match

•  Andrew Strauss scored 169 on the first day of the replayed Test at the Antigua Recreation Ground

•  Strauss scored a further century (142) and reinforcement Ravi Bopara 104 at Bridgetown as England piled up 600

•  Alistair Cook (139*) and Kevin Pietersen (79*) added 150 in an unbroken stand as the 4th Test Test was drawn

•  Andrew Stauss scored his third century (142) in the final Test at at Port of Spain

•  Paul Collingwood (161) and Matt Prior (131*) added 218 together for the fifth wicket together

•  Andrew Flintoff took 5 for 19 including a hat-trick in the last one-dayer at Gros Islet, St Lucia.

Tour Summary

Return to England

St Lucia  Q  London

Matt Prior returned to England for the birth of his son and missed the fourth Test. Flintoff flew home on 27 February to recover from his hip muscle tear

Returned to England from St Lucia on 5 April 2009.

Time away from England

  x days  

(21 January - )

Finances

Account of the tour

Postscript

England’s new coach Andy Flower decided to do without Mark Garaway, the computer analyst since 2006, who under Duncan Fletcher had given coaching, too. His successor Nathan Leamon would now work only on the computer analysis.

Other Test tours in 2008-09

Australians to India 2008-09  -  captain Ricky Ponting

Australians to South Africa 2008-09  -  captain Ricky Ponting

Bangladesh to South Africa 2008-09  -  captain Mohammad Ashraful

England to India 2008-09  -  captain Kevin Pietersen

Indians to New Zealand 2008-09  -  captain M S Dhoni

New Zealanders to Bangladesh 2008-09   -  captain Daniel Vettori

New Zealanders to Australia 2008-09 -  captain Daniel Vettori

South Africans to Australia 2008-09  -  captain Graeme Smith

Sri Lankans to Bangladesh 2008-09  -  captain Mahela Jayawardene

Sri Lankans to Pakistan 2008-09  -  captain Mahela Jayawardene

West Indians to New Zealand 2008-09  -  captain Chris Gayle

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