Tour of West Indies 1959-60                       Captain : Peter May          

England’s 45th Test tour

(December 1959 - April 1960)

Fifth Test-playing tour of West Indies by England

  (previous tour 1953-54)

This tour, M.C.C.'s eighth to the West Indies (on three of which there were no Test matches),

The tour restored good cricketing relations after the ill-feeling caused on the 1953-54 visit. However, there was another riot, this time at Port-of-Spain where bottles were hurled by sections of a record-sized crowd, displeased at Charran Singh's run-out, and possibly politically-inspired.

M.C.C.'s new-look team included only six of those who had gone to Australia and New Zealand the previous winter, and was the first English tour party which had no member over the age of thirty.

When Peter May had to return home because of the after-effects of an operation, Cowdrey took over and held on to England's one-nil lead in the series.

M.C.C. played two matches in British Honduras (now Belize) before returning home.

Other England tours

Previous Test tour

Australia & New Zealand 1958-59

Next Test tour

India & Pakistan 1961-62

Next tour of  West Indies

1967-68

Members of the Test tour party (15)

Opening batsmen:  Geoff Pullar, Colin Cowdrey, Raman Subba Row

Middle-order batsmen Ted Dexter, Ken Barrington, Peter May, Mike Smith

Wicket-keeper:  Roy Swetman, Keith Andrew.

Slow bowlers:   Ray Illingworth, David Allen, Tommy Greenhough

Fast bowlers:  Fred Trueman, Brian Statham, Alan Moss.

County representation:

Gs - Gloucestershire (1)

Kt  -  Kent (1)

La - Lancashire (3)

Mx - Middlesex (1)

Nth - Northamptonshire (2)

Sy - Surrey (3)

Sx - Sussex (1)

Wk - Warwickshire (1)

Yo - Yorkshire (2)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(6 January 1960) :

    27 yrs 6 months

Test Appearances made before the tour

May 59, Statham 47, Cowdrey 39, Trueman 31, Barrington 7, Dexter 7, Swetman 7, Moss 5, Smith 5, Greenhough 3, Illingworth 3, Pullar 3, Subba Row 2, Andrew 1, Parks 1, Allen 0.

Tour Officials

 Walter Robins was named as tour manager on 8 July 1959.

Selectors

Gubby Allen (chairman),  Doug Insole,  Herbert Sutcliffe,  Wilfred Wooller,  Walter Robins (manager),  Peter May (captain elect),  Freddie Brown and  Donald Carr.

Selection

On 24 July  M.C.C. announced the names of 29 players who had been asked whether they were available for the tour. Of these the following were not picked for the team :  Trevor Bailey, Tom Cartwright, Brian Close, Godfrey Evans, Peter Loader, Tony Lock, Arthur Milton, John Mortimore, John Murray, Gilbert Parkhouse, Harold Rhodes, Peter Richardson, David Sayer, Ken Taylor.

Unavailable :  Trevor Bailey,  Frank Tyson.

Peter May was confirmed as captain on 31 July.

The selectors announced a team of  fourteen names with one or two fast bowlers to be added later, according to form and fitness.  Rhodes and Loader came under consideration but Alan Moss alone was chosen.

Tour party announced :  25 August 1959.

Not selected : Tom Graveney,  Jim Parks,  Les Jackson (the first to take 100 wickets in the 1959 season).

Time between selection and departure from England

   105 days

 (25 August -  8 December)

Travel

Avonmouth   Q  Bridgetown

Geoff Dyson, coach of the Amateur Athletics Association, was called in to prepare the team before embarkation.

Departure was on 8 December 1959.  The team sailed from Avonmouth for Barbados on the ss 'Camito', arriving at Bridgetown on 17 December.

Time spent in West Indies

    106 days

(17 December - 1 April)

On-tour selection panel

Peter May,  Walter Robins,  Colin Cowdrey and Brian Statham.   Trueman and Subba Row joined the committee later.

Reinforcements

Peter May returned home on 2 March. May's abdominal surgery would not heal, a fact he concealed from his manager in the hope that he would be able to remain fit enough to play. Colin Cowdrey took over the captaincy and Raman Subba Row the vice-captaincy.

Jim Parks was coaching young players in Trinidad when called to Georgetown to be twelfth man in the Fourth Test (and he fielded because Subba Row fractured a bone). Parks then remained with the team because May returned home.

On 16 March Brian Statham had to fly back to England because his son was ill, and Trueman, as senior professional, joined the tour committee.

Subba Row took over the captaincy for the brief visit to Belize.

Fixtures/Results

The Test matches were of six days duration

(SP)  Sabina Park

(MP)  Melbourne Park

† not first-class

Time spent in West Indies before First Test:  

20 days

(17 December - 6 January)

Test appearances on tour

(v West Indies 1959-60)

5 -  Allen,  Barrington,  Cowdrey,  Dexter,  Illingworth,  Pullar,  Smith,  Trueman.

4 -  Swetman.

3 -  May,  Statham.

2 -  Moss,  Subba Row.

1 -  Parks.

0 -  Andrew,  Greenhough.

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

Jim Parks was 12th man in the fourth Test though he had not then joined the tour party

Subba Row captained the side against Berbice as well as in British Honduras.

Smith and Barrington each played in every match except one.

Highlights

•  Tommy Greenhough took 6-32 and then Fred Trueman took 5-22 in the first match of the tour on Grenada

•  Ted Dexter (136*) and Ken Barrington (128) each scored centuries in England’s first Test innings of the series

•  David Allen took 7-33 and 3-30 in the second match against Trinidad

•  Barrington (121) added another century, and Mike Smith (108) too, in the second Test

•  Statham and Trueman (5 wickets for 35) made West indies collapse to 112 all out at Port of Spain

•  Colin Cowdrey opened the innings at Kingston with scores of 114 and 97.

•  Ted Dexter (110) and Raman Subba Row (100) were the bedrock of England’s

•  Reinforcement Jim Parks (183 against Berbice) played himself into the Test team scoring 101* in the 5th Test

Tour Summary

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

Return to England

Kingston  Q  London

Peter May returned home early on 2 March.

Cowdrey and Trueman flew back from Piarco Airport after the final Test and arrived at Heathrow, London, on 1 April.

Subba Row, who took over the captaincy, accompanied by the manager and eleven players, took a special flight in a Viscount to Stanley Field, Belize.  After two light-hearted matches, M.C.C. left for Jamaica on Tuesday 5 April, with George Headley, who had coached the British Honduras team.  The M.C.C. team flew out of Palisados Airport, Kingston, at midnight on 6 April for New York and London.

Time spent away from England 

120 days

(8 December - 6 April)

Finances

Accounts of the tour

"Through the Caribbean"   byAlan Ross (Hamish Hamilton, 1960;   reissued Pavilion Books 1986)

"West Indies Revisited"   by E W Swanton (Heinemann, 1960)

Postscript

Other Test tours in 1959-60

Australians in Pakistan & India 1959-60