Tour of West Indies 1977-78              Captain: Bob Simpson

Fortieth Australian Test tour

Fourth Test-playing tour of  West Indies by Australia

((February to May 1978)

The first overseas venture by an Australian side without its Packer stars. They were outclassed in the first two Test matches by a full-strength West Indian side. This was a very different prospect from playing India a month before, until a strike by the West Indies' WSC players put the two sides on a more equal footing for the third Test which was won by a more confident Australian team. The batsmen could not maintain the form they had found in Georgetown, however, and collapsed for 94 to lose the fourth Test and concede the series. The final Test was controversially abandoned as a draw after crowd disturbances denied Australia a face-saving victory

There was an age barrier between the captain and his young, inexperienced side and he was not well-liked. They switched off from the 'tirades of the fogeyish Simpson' ('The Cricket War' Gideon Haigh).  After the tour Simpson declared his candidacy to continue as Australian skipper but was not required.

Other Australian Tours

Previous tour

England 1977

Next tour

India 1979-80

Next tour of West Indies 

1983-84   

Members of the Test tour party  (15  +  1)

Opening batsmen:  Graeme Wood, Rick Darling

Middle-order batsmen:  Gary Cosier, Kim Hughes, Craig Sarjeant, Bob Simpson, Peter Toohey, Graham Yallop (reinforced by David Ogilvie) .

Wicket-keeper:  Steve Rixon

Spin bowlers: Jim Higgs, Bruce Yardley

Fast bowlers:  Ian Callen, Trevor Laughlin, Wayne Clark, Jeff Thomson

State representation

  Sheffield Shield teams

NSW -  New South Wales (3)

Qld -  Queensland (2)

SA -   South Australia (1)

Tas -   Tasmania (0)

Vic -   Victoria (4)

WA -  Western Australia (5)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(3 March 1978) :

   26 yrs  2 months

Test Appearances made before the tour

Simpson 57, Thomson 27, Cosier 13, Serjeant 7, Clark 5, Rixon 5, Toohey 5, Yallop 4, Hughes 3, Callen 1, Darling 1, Wood 1, Yardley 1, Higgs 0, Laughlin 0.  [Ogilvie 3].

Tour Officials

Selectors

Neil Harvey (New South Wales), Sam Loxton (Victoria) and  Phil Ridings (South Australia) chose the team.

Selection

The manager was appointed on 22 December 1977.

Bob Simpson notified the Board on 12 January that he was available and willing to lead and rebuild the Australian side. Had Simpson not been prepared to take the team to the West Indies, Craig Serjeant would have been captain.

Unavailable: A condition of selection had been that players were available for Australian Cricket Board-controlled matches in 1978-79, which effectively ruled out the World Series Cricket (WSC) players.  On 9 January fourteen WSC players had sent a letter to the Australian Cricket Board expressing their wish to take part in the tour of West Indies.

Tour Party Announced :  20 January 1978.

Not selected : No World Series Cricket players were in the team. Kerry Packer said on 20 February that he would release Australian WSC players for the Caribbean tour but this was ignored.

Having been excused his WSC contract because he was already contracted to a radio station to continue playing Test cricket, Jeff Thomson was named vice-captain on 25 January. Previously, the selectors had named Yallop and Serjeant before him.

Time between selection and departure from Australia            

     23 days

(20 January - 12 February

Travel

Sydney  Q  Antigua

The team flew from Sydney on 12 February and made a stopover in San Francisco before flying on to New York. There was a strike by British West Indies Airline (BWIA) pilots so they flew to St John's, Antigua, on a chartered Primair Heron, landing on 14 February.

Time spent in West Indies

   80 days

(14 February - 5 May)

On-tour selection

 Bob Simpson (captain),  Fred Bennett (manager),  Jeff Thomson  (vice-captain).

Reinforcements

David Ogilvie joined the tour party because Kim Hughes needed an appendix operation and Peter Toohey broke his thumb. He arrived on 11 March after a 35-hour flight.

Graham Yallop's jaw was broken by a ball from Croft in the Guyana match forcing him to miss the third Test. Gary Cosier's thumb was broken while playing Windward Islands.

Fixtures / Results

† not first-class

§  one-day international

Time spent in West Indies before First Test: 

  17 days

(14 February - 3 March)

Test appearances on tour

5 -  Rixon,  Serjeant, Simpson, Thomson,  Wood,  Yardley.

4 -  Clark, Higgs, Yallop.

3 -  Cosier,  Darling, Toohey

2 -  Laughlin,  Ogilvie.

1  - 

0 -   Callen,  Hughes.

Highlights

•  Australia were set 362 to win the third Test at Bourda and recovered from 22 for 3 thanks to centuries from Wood (126) and Serjeant (124).

•  Peter Toohey who had missed some of the tour matches through injury scored 122 and 97 in the fifth Test at Kingston.  Australia were unable to press for victory when the last day's play was disrupted by the crowds.

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Tour Summary

Return to Australia

Kingston   Q  Hamilton

Hamilton   Q  Sydney

Gary Cosier and David Ogilvie flew direct back to Australia. 

The team arrived in Hamilton, Bermuda, late on Friday night 5 May from Kingston.  Though they had not been looking forward much to the short tour, the Australains said they were pleased to find how much they enjoyed this extension to the trip.  On 13 May the team left for New York (Ian Callen went to England) and they arrived back in Sydney at 6:30 am on 15 May. 

   'Cricket Archive  shows that Ogilvie was playing in the 5th match in Bermuda

Time away from Australia  

    92 days  

(12 February to 15 May)

Finances

…..

Accounts of the tour

……..

Postscript

Bob Simpson was willing to continue as Australian skipper but the Australian Board, unappreciative as well as unwise, decided not to make use of his services any longer.  Graham Yallop took over as captain for the Ashes series of 1978-79; he was so overawed by the task against shrewd opposing skipper Mike Brearley that he lost 5-1.