A gulf between the two sides was created by the two
Australian fast bowlers, Lillee and Thomson. Their fearsome short-pitched
bowling cut through England’s
batting order at Brisbane and Perth,
and enabled Australia to
regain the Ashes by the time of the fourth Test match at Sydney. This was the match in which Denness
stood down, the first MCC tour captain in Australia to miss a Test because
he was out of form - previously, Chapman (1928-29 tour) and Hammond (1946-47)
had done so but were unfit.
As in 1973-74, the selection panel had turned down
Denness's wishto include John Snow in
the team. Geoff Boycott who had been left out of the Test matches during the
summer at his own request, never accepted the invitation to tour. Both
players, the stars of the 1970-71 side, were badly missed.
Opening batsmen:David Lloyd, Brian Luckhurst, John Edrich.
Middle-order batsmenDennis Amiss, Keith
Fletcher, Mike Denness
Wicket-keeper: Alan Knott, Bob Taylor
All-rounders:Tony Greig
Slow bowlers:Derek Underwood, Fred Titmus
Fast bowlers: Peter Lever, Geoff Arnold,
Chris Old, Bob Willis, Mike Hendrick
D LAmiss
Wk
30
RHB
G
GArnold
Sy
29
RFM
GBoycottw/d
Yo
32
RHB opener
M
HDenness
Kt
32
RHBcaptain
J
HEdrich
Sy
37
LHB openervice-captain
K W
RFletcher
Ex
29
RHB
A WGreig
Sx
27
RHBRFM
MHendrick
Dy
24
RFM
A P
EKnott
Kt
27
WK
PLever
La
34
RFM
DLloyd
La
27
LHBopener
Not to
NZ
B WLuckhurstadded
Kt
35
RHB opener
C
MOld
Yo
24
RFM
R WTaylor
Dy
32
reserve WK
F
JTitmus
Mx
42
OB
D
LUnderwood
Kt
28
SLA
R G
DWillis
Sy
24
RF
Not to
NZ
County representation:
Dy – Derbyshire (2)
Ex-Essex (1)
Kt-Kent (4)
La - Lancashire
(2)
Mx - Middlesex (1)
Sy - Surrey
(3)
Sx - Sussex (1)
Wk - Warwickshire (1)
Yo - Yorkshire
(1)
Average age ofteam at time of first Test match
(29 November 1974) :
31 yrs 4 months
Test
Appearances made before the tour
Cowdrey
109, Edrich 65,Knott 61, Titmus 49, Underwood 47, Fletcher 39, Amiss 32, Greig 30, Arnold 27, Denness 20, Luckhurst 19, Old 18, Lever 12, Willis 11,Hendrick 5, Lloyd 5, Wood 5, Taylor 1.
Tour
Officials
Alec
Bedser
Tour Manager
Alan
Smith
Assistant Manager
Bernard
Thomas
Physiotherapist
Selectors
Alec
Bedser (chairman),Jack Bond,C.G.A.(Cecil) Paris,Mike Denness
(captain), Brian Taylor, Ossie Wheatley andGubby Allen who took a place on the selection
committee becauseDoug Insole was on
holiday.
Selection
The captain and manager were named on 23 August 1974.
Unavailable :
Tour party announced : 28 August 1974
Fred
Titmus was chosen for the first time since injury to his toes in the West Indies in 1968. The selectors said they debated
taking a batsman who could keep wicket instead of Taylor, and of omitting one of the fast
bowlers
Not selected:Phil Edmonds.
Withdrawn:Geoffrey
Boycott.It was announced on 24
September that he had withdrawn from the tour for personal reasons, and that Brian
Luckhurst would go instead. Luckhurst,
relaxing on holiday in Spain,
had to hurry back to England
when he heard the news that he would be touring in his place.
Time between selection and departure from England
54 days
(28 August - 21 October)
Travel
LondonQSydney
On 21
October the team flew from Heathrow Airport, via Frankfurt and Beirut
to Sydney Airport,
and thence to Adelaide
where they arrived on 23 October. The flight took 36 hours.They stayed in Adelaide until the first match. Denness was
confined to bed with a sore throat, later diagnosed as a virus.
Time spent in Australia
114 days
(23
October -14 February)
Time spent in New Zealand
On-tour
selection panel
Mike Denness (captain), John Edrich (vice-captain), Alec Bedser, Alan Smith, Alan Knott.
24 days
(14
February - 10 March)
Reinforcements
M C
Cowdrey
Kt
41
RHB
Not to
NZ
B Wood
La
32
RHBopenerRM
Only
to NZ
41 year-old Colin Cowdrey
was chosen by the tour committee on 4 December because batsmen Dennis Amiss
(thumb) and John Edrich (hand) were unfit.
Barry Wood joined
the New Zealand
part of the tour when Lloyd (neck injury), Willis (knee) and Cowdrey returned
home. Wood joined the tour from West Indies
where he had been with an English counties side.
Owing to injury in New Zealand, manager Alan Smith
played once, and a West Australian colt, Peter
Brondson, turned out for MCC when Hendrick was in hospital with a throat
infection.
Denness missed early matches with a virus. Edrich cracked a rib
Fixtures/Results
a
† Port Lincoln
South
Australia Country
Drawn
b
Adelaide
South Australia
Drawn
c
† Warrnambool
Victoria
Country XI
Drawn
d
Melbourne
Victoria
Drawn
e
† Canberra
Capital Territory
Country XI
Drawn
f
Sydney
New
South Wales
Won 6 w
g
†Nambour
Queensland
Country XI
Abandoned
h
Brisbane
Queensland
Won 46 r
i
† Southport
South-East Queensland
Won 10 w
j
BRISBANE
AUSTRALIAFirst Test
LOST
166 r
k
Perth
Western
Australia
Lost 120 r
l
† Geraldton
West Australia
Country XI
Drawn
m
PERTH
AUSTRALIASecond Test
LOST 9
w
n
Adelaide
South
Australia
Drawn
o
MELBOURNE
AUSTRALIAThird Test
DRAWN
p
† Melbourne
Australia (ODI)
Won 3 w
q
SYDNEY
AUSTRALIAFourth Test
LOST
171 r
r
Hobart
Tasmania
Drawn
s
Launceston
Tasmania
Won inns 72
t
Sydney
New
South Wales
Won 187 r
u
ADELAIDE
AUSTRALIAFifth Test
LOST
163 r
v
† Newcastle
Northern New South
Wales
Won 4 w
w
† Melbourne
New
Zealand (ODI)
Lost 66 r
x
MELBOURNE
AUSTRALIASixth Test
WON
inns 4
y
Wellington
Wellington
Drawn
z
AUCKLAND
NEW ZEALANDFirst Test
WON
inns 83
a’
CHRISTCHURCH
NEW ZEALANDSecond Test
DRAWN
b’
† Wellington
New
Zealand XI
Drawn
c’
† Wellington
New
Zealand XI
Drawn
d’
† Hong Kong
Hong Kong
President's XI
Won 84 r
e’
† Hong Kong
Hong Kong XI
Won inns 102
† not first-class
Time spent in Australia before First Test: 37 days
After the Australian tour three players returned to London. Colin Cowdrey had not in any case been
engaged for New Zealand.
David Lloyd arrived on 11 February, Bob
Willis on 17 February.The rest of the tour party reached Wellington on 14
February.
Leaving New Zealand
from Auckland on 10 March, the MCC party
arrived at Kai Tak
Airport, Hong
Kong, that night. They left again for London on 14 March.Greig went to South Africa to join the
D.H.Robins tour.
Time away from England
x
days
(21
October - 15 March
Finances
Accounts
of the tour
“Assault on the Ashes"Christopher Martin-Jenkins (Macdonald & Janes, 1975)
"Test of Nerve"Frank Tyson(Manark Pty Ltd, Victoria, 1975)
"Swanton in Australia with M.C.C.", dealing with
eight post-War M.C.C. tours of Australia,
includes his remarks on the 1974-75 tour (Fontana, 1977)
Postscript
Tony Greig was exonerated after making criticisms of the team
selection and explaining his comments to the M.C.C.
Despite the M.C.C. team's relatively
advanced age, and its failure to cope with the Australian batting or bowling,
there was no purge. After the tour the selectors discarded only Lever, Lloyd,
Luckhurst, Cowdrey and Titmus. All the others represented England again. However, all the
selectors except Alec Bedser were replaced.
Other
Test tours in 1974-75
West Indiansto India and Pakistan 1974-75-captain Clive Lloyd
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
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