Test Cricket Tours - England to Australia 1982-83

Test Cricket Tours - England to Australia 1982-83

Tour of Australia 1982-83 Captain : Bob Willis

England’s 63rd Test tour

October 1982 - February 1983)

32nd Test-playing tour of Australia by England

(previous tour 1979-80)

Between 1975 and 1983 England met Australia on no less than eight occasions : 1975, 1976-77, 1977, 1978-79, 1979-80, 1980, 1981 and 1982-83, and played 31 Test matches.

For this series, marking the 100th anniversary of Ivo Bligh's tour and the creation of The Ashes, the Australian Board reverted to the traditional arrangement of a series of five Test matches rather than six. Australia won 2-1 and so regained ‘the urn'.

England were greatly weakened by the ban on 15 cricketers involved in the previous winter's South African Breweries tour; Cook and Fowler were no substitute for Boycott and Gooch, and Willis himself described his bowling attack as 'threadbare' - but the selectors need not have opted for three off-spinners while the variety of left-arm spin from Edmonds was missed.

Some controversial umpiring decisions added weight to the demands that umpires must make use of TV replays. Botham was fined $200 for commenting on this in his newspaper column. His tour was hampered by a persistent back injury,

Having been eliminated from the one-day international finals in Australia, England then lost three more one-day matches in New Zealand and even the extra match played in Sharjah on the way home.

Other England tours

Previous Test tour

India and Sri Lanka 1981-82

Next Test tour

New Zealand 1983-84

Next tour of Australia

1986-87

Members of the Test tour party (16 + 1)

Opening batsmen: Geoff Cook, Graeme Fowler, Chris Tavare

Middle-order batsmen Allan Lamb, David Gower, Derek Randall.

Wicket-keepers: Bob Taylor, Ian Gould

All-rounder: Ian Botham

Slow bowlers: Eddie Hemmings, Geoff Miller, Vic Marks

Fast bowlers: Norman Cowans, Robin Jackman, Derek Pringle, Bob Willis.

I T Botham	Sm	26	RHB RFM

G Cook	Nth	31	RHB opener

N G Cowans	Mx	21	RF

G Fowler	La	25	LHB opener

I J Gould	Sy	25	reserve WK

D I Gower	Le	25	LHB vice-captain

E E Hemmings	Nt	33	OB

R D Jackman	Sy	33	RFM

A J Lamb	Nth	28	RHB

V J Marks	Sm	27	OB

G Miller	Dy	30	OB

D R Pringle	Ex	24	RHB RMF

D W Randall	Nt	31	RHB

C J Tavare	Kt	27	RHB

R W Taylor	Dy	41	WK

R G D Willis	Wk	33	RF captain

County representation:

Dy – Derbyshire (2)

Ex - Essex (1)

Kt - Kent (1)

La - Lancashire (1)

Le - Leicestershire (1)

Mx - Middlesex (1)

Nth - Northamptonshire (2)

Nt - Nottinghamshire (2)

Sm - Somerset (2)

Sy - Surrey (2)

Wk - Warwickshire (1)

Average age of team at time of first Test match

(12 November 1982):

29 yrs 3 months

Test Appearances made before the tour

Willis 74, Botham 54, Gower 44, Taylor 42, Randall 33, Miller 27, Tavare 17, Lamb 6, Cook 4, Jackman 4, Pringle 4, Hemmings 2, Fowler 1, Marks 1, Gould 0, Cowans 0, Jesty 0.

Tour Officials

Doug Insole	Tour manager
Norman Gifford	Assistant manager
Bernard Thomas	Physiotherapist
Geoffrey Saulez	Scorer

The manager was named on 6 August and Norman Gifford was named as asistant manager on 1 September 1982.

Selectors

Peter May (chairman), Alec Bedser, Norman Gifford, Alan Smith, Frank Mann (chairman of the TCCB), Doug Insole (manager) and Bob Willis (captain).

Selection

Bob Willis was announced as captain on 21 August 1982

Unavailable : All players who took part in the 1982 South African Breweries tour (Amiss, Boycott, Emburey, Gooch, Hendrick, Humpage, Knott, Larkins, Lever, Old, Sidebottom, Taylor, Underwood, Willey, Woolmer).

Tour party announced : 11 September 1982.

Not selected: Phil Edmonds ("rather than risk upsetting team harmony" was the view of author David Fulton); Paul Downton.

Time between selection and departure from England

32 days

(11 September - 13 October)

Travel

London Q Brisbane

After assembling at the M.C.C. Indoor School, Lord's, on 13 October 1982, the team flew out of Heathrow Airport at 9.30 pm on a Qantas jumbo jet.

They flew via Bahrain, Singapore and Sydney to Brisbane, The Times reporting that the players were disgruntled to be travelling such a long flight in tourist class, which saved the T.C.C.B. £40,000 on fares. The team arrived in Brisbane on Friday 15 October. The 1982 Commonwealth Games had only just finished.

Because they had failed to reach the Benson & Hedges Cup ODI finals, England had a week off in Sydney before flying to New Zealand on 17 February.

Time spent in Australia

125 days

(15 October - 17 February)

On-tour selection panel

Bob Willis (captain), David Gower (vice-captain), Ian Botham (senior player), Doug Insole (manager), Norman Gifford (assistant manager)

Reinforcements

T E Jesty

RHB RM

Trevor Jesty flew out on Christmas Eve after Randall had been hit in the face by a ball from Holding against Tasmania. The other reserve batsman (Mike Gatting) had made himself unavailable owing to his wife's pregnancy.

Fixtures/Results

a	Brisbane	Queensland	Lost 171 r
b	ϯ Newcastle	Northern New South Wales	Won 10 w
c	Adelaide	South Australia	Drawn
d	Perth	Western Australia	Won 1 w
e	PERTH	AUSTRALIA First Test	DRAWN
f	Sydney	New South Wales	Won 26 r
g	BRISBANE	AUSTRALIA Second Test	LOST 7 w
h	Melbourne	Victoria	Drawn
i	ADELAIDE	AUSTRALIA Third Test	LOST 8 w
j	Hobart	Tasmania	Won 6 w
k	ϯ Launceston	Tasmania(one-day, 50 overs)	Won 4 w
l	MELBOURNE	AUSTRALIA Fourth Test	WON 3 r
m	SYDNEY	AUSTRALIA Fifth Test	DRAWN
n	§ Sydney	Australia (1st ODI)	Lost 31 r
o	§ Melbourne	New Zealand (2nd ODI)	Lost 2 r
p	§ Brisbane	New Zealand (3rd ODI)	Won 54 r
q	§ Brisbane	Australia (4th ODI)	Lost 7 w
r	§ Sydney	New Zealand (5th ODI)	Won 8 w
s	§ Melbourne	Australia (6th ODI)	Lost 5 w
t	§ Sydney	Australia (7th ODI)	Won 98 r
u	§ Adelaide	New Zealand (8th ODI)	Lost 4 w
v	§ Adelaide	Australia (9th ODI)	Won 14 r
w	§ Perth (5 Feb)	New Zealand (10th ODI)	Lost 7 w

x	§ Auckland (19 Feb)	New Zealand (1st ODI)	Lost 6 w
y	§ Wellington	New Zealand (2nd ODI)	Lost 103 r
z	§ Christchurch	New Zealand (3rd ODI)	Lost 84 r

a’	ϯ Sharjah (4 March)	Pakistan XI (one-day benefit match)	Lost 4 w

† not first-class

Time spent in Australia before First Test:

28 days

(15 October - 12 November)

Test appearances on tour

5 - Botham, Gower, Lamb, Miller, Tavare, Taylor, Willis.

4 - Cowans, Randall.

3 - Cook, Fowler, Hemmings, Pringle.

2 -

1 -

0 - Gould, Jackman, Jesty, Marks.

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

a’

I T Botham

G Cook

N G Cowans

G Fowler

I J Gould

D I Gower

E E Hemmings

R D Jackman

T E Jesty

A J Lamb

V J Marks

G Miller

D R Pringle

D W Randall

C J Tavare

R W Taylor

R G D Willis

R E S U L T S

England’s six previous Test tour results

Highlights

• Derek Randall, with 78 in the first innings and 115 in the second, ensured England would not lose at Perth

• Bob Willis captured five for 66 in the second Test at Brisbane

• David Gower stroked 60 and 114 in the third Test at Adelaide

• Norman Cowans took 6 for 77 in the fourth Test

• England won at Melbourne by 3 runs, equalling their narrowest margin in Test cricket, set in 1902

• David Gower and Derek Randall each scored 70 in a stand of 122 after England had slumped to 24-3 at Sydney

• Eddie Hemmings, sent in as night-watchman when England were set 460 to win, scored 95 runs, saving the match

Tour Summary

	F	W	L	D	Aban
Test Matches	5	1	2	2	-
Other first-class matches	6	3	1	2	-
§ One-day internationals	13	4	9	0
†Minor matches *	3	2	1	0	-
All Matches	27	10	13	4	-

* including Sharjah.

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

Return to England

Christchurch Q Sydney Q Heathrow

Dubai Q London

Leaving from Christchurch on 28 February the team flew to Sydney where it split up.

Hemmings, Willis, Tavare, Marks and Randall reached Heathrow on 1 March, along with physio Bernard Thomas. Bob Taylor went to California.

The remainder went via Dubai to Sharjah UAE to play against Pakistan on 4 March. This one-day benefit match (for Zaheer Abbas) was not part of the official tour programme. England were captained by Jackman.

Time away from England

139 days

(13 October - 1 March)

(excluding the Sharjah visit)

Finances