Tour of  Australia & New Zealand 1962-63    Captain : Ted Dexter      

England’s 47th Test tour

(September 1962  –1963)

25th Test-playing tour of Australia by England

Seventh Test-playing tour of New Zealand by England

        (previous tours 1958-59)

England set out to regain the Ashes, lost on the previous Australian tour in 1958-59. 

Much of the pre-tour interest centred on the appointment of the Duke of Norfolk as manager and a  three-cornered contest between Dexter, Sheppard and Cowdrey for the captaincy. On arrival Dexter and his Australian counterpart, Benaud, stated their intentions to play positively but, once the Test series began, avoiding defeat became of paramount importance. Never before had three matches in a Test series in Australia been drawn.

In general, neither side had quite the superiority of bowling to be decisive and the series was dominated by the batsmen.  After an entertaining draw in the first Test match at Brisbane, and a well-deserved victory for each side in turn, the last two matches were a great disappointment.  The cricket was as slow as the pitch, and neither side dared to go on the attack for risk of losing. Dexter blamed the concept of The Ashes. Too much had been expected really after the thrilling series in Australia in 1960-61 and the classic match at Old Trafford in 1961.

M.C.C. were unable to accept an invitation to play in India on the way home and the tour ended after three Test matches in New Zealand, which were all won easily and helped swell the tour profits.

Other England tours

Previous Test tour

Pakistan & India 1961-62

Next Test tour

India 1963-64

Next tour of  Australia

1965-66

Members of the Test tour party (17)

Opening batsmen:  Geoff Pullar, David Sheppard

Middle-order batsmen Ted Dexter, Colin Cowdrey, Ken Barrington, Tom Graveney, Peter Parfitt

Wicket-keepers: John Murray, Alan Smith.

All-rounder:  Barry Knight

Slow bowlers: David Allen, Fred Titmus, Ray Illingworth

Fast bowlers: Fred Trueman, Brian Statham, David Larter, Len Coldwell

County representation:

Ex  -  Essex (1)

Gs - Gloucestershire (1)

Kt  -  Kent (1)

La - Lancashire (2)

Mx - Middlesex (3)

Nth - Northamptonshire (1)

Sy - Surrey (1)

Sx - Sussex (2)

Wk - Warwickshire (1)

Wo - Worcestershire (2)

Yo - Yorkshire (2)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

 (1 December 1962): 

2 yrs  2 months.

Test Appearances made before the tour

Statham 62,  Cowdrey 57,  Graveney 52,  Trueman 49,  Dexter 35,  Barrington 32,  Pullar 24,  Allen 23,  Illingworth 15,  Sheppard 14,  Murray 12,  Parfitt 9,  Knight 8,  Titmus 4,  Coldwell 1,  Larter 1,  Smith 0.

Tour Officials

The Duke of Norfolk needed to return to England at one point to oversee rehearsals for a state funeral, and Griffith stood in for him as manager.

Selectors

Walter Robins (chairman),  Gubby Allen,  Alec Bedser,  Donald Carr, Willie Watson and Doug Insole were the selectors.  Harry Altham and Billy Griffith were also present.

Selection

The announcement of the captaincy (delayed from 10 July) was made on 19 July;  and names of the vice-captain and tour selection committee were given out on 2 August. Both were chosen by the M.C.C. Committee at Lord's.

Unavailable : On 6 July the names of 29 cricketers who had been asked whether available were announced. M.J.K.Smith could not tour for family reasons

A distinctive feature of the tour party was the choice of three off-spinners.

Two undeclared reserves were chosen because Cowdrey and Statham had not confirmed their availability.

Not selected  Of those whose availability was asked, eleven were not selected (Edrich, Flavell, Gifford, Lewis, Lock, Millman, Prideaux, Sharpe, Stewart, Taylor and Walker).

Tour party announced : 29 July 1962.

Time between selection and departure from England

   59 days

 (29 July - 26 September)

Travel

London  Q  Aden     T  Fremantle

                                ‘Canberra’ 

On 26 September the party flew from London to Aden, where it boarded the ss 'Canberra'  and sailed to Western Australia. The manager flew to Colombo to join the ship there.

The ship arrived at Fremantle on 9 October. At Dexter's instigation, Gordon Pirie had organised fitness training on board ship.

Brian Statham flew out late, owing to his wife's illness.

Time spent in Australia

    135 days

(9 October -  21 February)

Time spent in New Zealand

    26 days

(21 February -   19 March)

On-tour selection panel

Ted Dexter (captain),  Colin Cowdrey (vice-captain),  Alec Bedser (assistant manager),  David Sheppard,  Brian Statham.

Reinforcements

None.  John Murray injured his shoulder in the third Test and played only one more match in New Zealand.

Manager Alec Bedser played in the match against the Prime Minister’s XI

Fixtures/Results

† not first-class

Time spent in Australia before First Test:   52 days

(9 October - 30 November)

Test appearances on tour

(v Australia & New Zealand 1962-63)

8 -   Barrington,  Cowdrey,  Dexter,  Sheppard, Titmus.

7 -   Trueman.

6 -   Smith.

5 -   Illingworth,  Parfitt,  Statham.

4 -   Knight,  Pullar.

3 -   Coldwell,  Graveney,  Larter.

2 -   Murray.

1 -   Allen.

Match appearances

T  Test match

x other match 

∙  played for opposition

W won  L lost  D drawn  

N no result   A abandoned  

u unknown result

Highlights

•  Cowdrey's 307 at Adelaide was the highest innings ever played by an Englishman in Australia.

• 

• 

•  Barrington aggregated 1763 first-class runs, the second highest by an MCC player on a tour of Australia and New Zealand.  Dexter, Cowdrey and Sheppard also topped 1000 runs in all first-class matches.

Tour Summary

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

Return to England

Christchurch  Q  Delhi   Q  London

David Allen, Tom Graveney, Geoff Pullar (who had a knee ligament injury that required an operation) and Brian Statham and Watkins, the scorer, returned home after the Australian tour. They arrived at London Airport on 22 February.

Ted Dexter, accompanied by his wife who was on a modelling tour for Hardy Amies, led the other twelve cricketers to New Zealand. They landed on 21 February 1963 at Whenuapai (Auckland’s commercial airport until 1965).

The tour ended at Christchurch on 19 March and the bulk of the team took off for home that evening.  The Duke of Norfolk, and Colin Cowdrey made their own travel arrangements. Ted Dexter went to Rhodesia to play in the last week of an International Cavaliers tour.  David Sheppard returned to Sydney for a preaching engagement.

Nine players arrived back at London Airport on the evening of 21 March, after their plane had been delayed at New Delhi for a technical repair. They were : Barrington, Coldwell, Illingworth, Knight, Larter, Murray, Smith, Titmus, Trueman, and the manager Alec Bedser.

Time away from England

  176 days  

(26 September - 21 March)

Finances

The tour made a profit of £30 000.

A small sub-committee of M.C.C., on the recommendation of the tour management, deducted £50 from Trueman’s tour bonus for breaching his good conduct agreement. Trueman, who Dexter described as the best bowler on the tour, threatened in his column in The People that he would never play for England again.

Tour Books

"Spin Me a Spinner"  by Richie Benaud (Hodder & Stoughton, 1963)

"Challenge Renewed"   by John Clarke (Stanley Paul, 1963)

"With the M.C.C. in Australia 1962-63" by Johnnie Moyes & Tom Goodman (Angus & Robertson, 1963)

"Australia 63"   by Alan Ross (Faber, 1963)

"The Ashes in Suspense" by E.W.Swanton (Daily Telegraph, 1963)

"Dexter v Benaud"  by E.M.Wellings (Howard Timmins, 1963)

Postscript

On 31 January 1963 the M.C.C. committee abolished amateurism in cricket.  All first-class cricketers were now players and the distinction between amateurs and professionals was discontinued 

(in these webpages, starting from the 1963-64 tour onwards, all players will now have their surnames preceded by initials)

Other Test tours in 1962-63

None

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