Tour of Zimbabwe & New Zealand 1996-97      Captain :  Mike Atherton      

England’s 77th Test tour.

(November 1996 - January 1996)

First Test playing tour of Zimbabwe

15th Test-playing tour of New Zealand by England

  (previous tour 1991-92)

Having gained Test status in 1992 Zimbabwe was granted its first tour by an England side, which brought much needed revenue from television rights. England were set back by losing two of the warm-up matches and then a one-day international. They later lost the other two ODIs, too, a further humilation coming when farmer Eddo Brandes took a hat-trick and ended with figures of 5-28.

Zimbabwe snatched a draw from the Bulawayo Test with the scores level. With England needing 13 runs from the final over, Nick Knight hit a six but was thwarted by Streak bowling wide of the stumps and was then run out off the last ball going for the winning run. David Lloyd’s outburst that "We flippin’ murdered them" caused offence as Zimbabwe had been competitive throughout the match.

In New Zealand England’s frustrations continued. New Zealand were 105-8 at lunch and facing defeat on the last day of the opening Test at Auckland but Danny Morrison held out for four hours to prevent England winning. As the batting became more consistent and the bowling steadier, England’s fortunes changed and the remaining two Tests were won decisively before faltering again to share the one-day series. The tour was marked by criticism of some aloof or rude off-field behaviour and Tufnell was accused of smoking cannabis in a bar in Christchurch. But the last two Tests had put England back on winning ways in readiness for an Ashes series in the summer.

Wives and families were not allowed to accompany the players on this tour, after it was decided that they had been a distraction in South Africa the previous winter. Back in England Dominic Cork had been allowed to join the team late in New Zealand in order to sort out his marriage difficulties.

Other England tours

Previous Test tour

South Africa 1995-96

Next Test tour

West Indies 1997-98

Next tour of  Zimbabwe

 none scheduled

Next tour of  New Zealand

2001-02

Members of the Test tour party (15)

Opening batsmen:  Mike Atherton, Nick Knight

Middle-order batsmen Alec Stewart, John Crawley, Nasser Hussain, Graham Thorpe

Wicket-keeper: Jack Russell. 

All-rounder:  Ronnie Irani

Slow bowlers: Robert Croft, Phil Tufnell.

Fast bowlers: Darren Gough, Andy Caddick, Dominic Cork, Alan Mullally, Chris Silverwood.

County representation:

Dy – Derbyshire (1)

Ex  -  Essex (2)

Gm - Glamorgan (1)

Gs - Gloucestershire (1)

La  -  Lancashire (2)

Le  -  Leicestershire (1

Mx - Middlesex (1)

Sm  -  Somerset (1)

Sy - Surrey (2)

Wk - Warwickshire (1)

Yo - Yorkshire (2)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

  (18 December 1996)

    27  yrs  2 months.

Test Appearances made before the tour

Atherton 62,  Stewart 58,  Russell 49,  Thorpe 32,  Tufnell 22,  Cork 16,  Crawley 12,  Gough 12,  Hussain 12,  Caddick 9,  Knight 6,  Mullally 6,  White 6,  Irani 2,  Croft 1,  Silverwood 0.

Tour Officials

Selectors

The tour selection panel - David Graveney (chairman), David Lloyd (coach) and Mike Atherton (captain) – met at Lord’s and picked both the Test touring team and an ‘A’ team to Australia .

Selection

Not considered: 

Tour Party Announced  : September 1996

Not selected: 

Withdrawn:    Dominic Cork (for personal reasons) withdrew from the Zimbabwe section of the tour.

Time between selection and departure from England

   -  days

 (September - 25 November)

Travel

Gatwick    Q Harare

Johannesburg    Q  Auckland

The team had fitness training in Portugal before the tour.

Departure for Zimbabwe was from London’s Gatwick Airport on 25 November 1996, arriving at Harare Airport at 9 am next morning.

For the second leg of the tour the team left Harare Airport for Johannesburg on 4 January. After a delay the team was able to fly from Johannesburg to Perth, and on to Sydney where there was another six hour delay before embarkataion to Auckland.  The journey from Harare to Auckland took nearly 40 hours.

Cork did not join the tour party until after the Zimbabwe section, and met up with the team in New Zealand.

Time spent in Zimbabwe 

    39 days

(26 November  -  4 January)

Time spent in New Zealand

    58 days

(6 January - 5 March)

On-tour selection panel

Reinforcement

Ronnie Irani had back problems so Craig White was summoned to Zimbabwe from the England A tour as cover but Irani remained in the tour party and was soon playing again.

Fixtures/Results

(SCC)  South Country Club

(HSC)  Harare Sports Club.

ϯ not first-class

§  one-day international

Time spent in Zimbabwe before First Test:   22 days

(26 November - 18 December)

Test appearances on tour

5  -   Atherton,  Crawley,  Gough,  Hussain,  Knight,  Stewart,  Thorpe,  Tufnell.

4  -   Croft, 

3  -   Cork,  Mullally

2  -   Caddick,  White

1  -   Silverwood

0  -   Irani,  Russell.

Match appearances

T  Test match

o  one-day international 

x other match 

W won  L lost  D drawn  T  tied

N no result   A abandoned

C   cancelled  u unknown result

Nasser Hussain played in every match.  He was captain in the 2nd ODI against New Zealand

England’s six previous Test tour results

Highlights

•  Darren Gough had match figures of 11 for 139 in the first-class match against Matabeleland

•  Hussain (113) and Crawley (112) struck centuries in the first Test at Harare, giving England a lead of 30 runs

•  Nick Knight (96) struck a six in the final over when England needed 13 in the last over but was run out

•  Alec Stewart’s ninth Test century (101*) at Harare was his first while also playing as the wicket-keeper

•  Stewart scored a second consecutive century (173) at Auckland with a stand of 182 with Atherton (83)

•  Graham Thorpe also scored  a century at Auckland (119) and then another (108) at Wellington

•  Darren Gough took nine wickets (5-40 and 4-52) in the innings victory at Wellington

•  The third Test at Christchurch saw Mike Atherton return to form with 94*, carrying his bat, and 118

•  Robert Croft (5-95) recorded his best bowling figures for England at Christchurch

Tour Summary

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

Return to England

Auckland  Q  London

Departure 5 ?  March 1997.

Time away from England

  x days  

(25 November -   March)

Finances

Accounts of the Tour

“Out of the Rough: England in Zimbabwe and New Zealand”   by Peter Baxter, Jonathan Agnew and David Lloyd (Andre Deutsch,  1997)

Postscript

Zimbabwe needed the income from television rights that the tour brought to help put the game on a professional basis.

Jack Russell was a peripheral player throughout the winter tour, marginalised by Alec Stewart being preferred behind the stumps and taking the role of all-rounder, but Russell returned for one more tour a year later and played the whole series against West Indies 1997-98.

Other Test tours in 1996-97

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