Tour of West Indies 1983-84             Captain: Kim Hughes

48th Test tour

Fifth Test-playing tour of West Indies by Australia

 (February - May 1984)

Members of the tour party refused to sign contracts binding them, without guarantee of payment, to play only for the Australian Board of Control until May 1985.  Eventually, a scheme guaranteeing minimum payments was agreed.

On their fifth tour of the West Indies the Australians suffered their heaviest defeat, losing the Test series 3-nil and the one-day internationals by three matches to one. They were outgunned by the West Indian fast bowlers and batsmen, especially the opening batsmen, who averaged nearly 100 each.  The simultaneous loss of Greg Chappell, Dennis Lillee, Rod Marsh to retirement at the end of the home series against West Indies, the decline of Jeff Thomson’s bowling and the loss of Yallop to injury largely explains it.

Kim Hughes got little respect from his team-mates as captain.  A remarkable photograph showing Hogg swinging a punch at him on the field of play went round the world but Hughes was not blameless himself.  In the closing stages of the Trinidad and Tobago match Hughes temperamentally scored from only two balls in the last 24 overs while his partner sat down at the non-striker's end. Hughes was later fined $200 for this action.

Other Australian Tours

Previous tour

Sri Lanka 1982-83

Next tour

England 1985

Next tour of West Indies

1987-88  cancelled

1990-91

Members of the Test tour party (16 + 1)

Opening batsmen:  Steve Smith, Kepler Wessels (replaced by Graeme Wood)

Middle-order batsmen:Allan Border, Kim Hughes, David Hookes, Dean Jones, Greg Ritchie.

Wicket-keepers:  Wayne Phillips, Roger Woolley. 

Spin bowlers:  Tom Hogan, Greg Matthews

Fast bowlers:  Rodney Hogg, Terry Alderman, Geoff Lawson, Carl Rackemann, John Maguire.

State representation

  Sheffield Shield teams

N   New South Wales (3)

Q  Queensland (5)

S   South Australia (3)

T   Tasmania (1)

V   Victoria  (1)

W  Western Australia (3)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

  (2 March 1984) :

       26 yrs  10 months.

ODI played in the Cable & Wireless one-day series

Test Appearances made before the tour

Hughes 61,  Border 56,  Wood 42,  Hogg 30,  Lawson 18,  Alderman 16,  Hookes 14,  Wessels 10,  Phillips 5,  Rackemann 3,  Ritchie 3,  Hogan 2,  Matthews 2,  Maguire 1,  Woolley 1,  Jones 0,  Smith 0.

Tour Officials

Selectors

Phil Ridings (South Australia -  chairman),  Lawrie Sawle (Western Australia),  Alan Davidson (New South Wales),  Ray Lindwall (Queensland).

Selection

Former Test umpire Colin Egar was appointed manager in November 1983, along with Queensland coach and fast bowler Geoff Dymock.  Egar's was the only application received.

Unavailable:   Greg Chappell,  Dennis Lillee,  Rodney Marsh had all retired from Test cricket at Sydney

Tour Party Announced :  19 January 1984

Not selected :   Out of those who went to India for a one-day series earlier in the season, only Murray Bennett was not chosen for this tour.  The offical stand-bys were David Boon (T) 23, RHB, and Rod McCurdy (T) 23, RFM.

Withdrawal  :  Graham Yallop withdrew with strained ligaments in his left knee.  He failed a fitness test on 9 February and Dean Jones came into the team. Before Steve Smith (left shoulder) and Greg Ritchie (twisted knee) had passed fitness tests, David Boon and Graeme Wood were asked to stand by as their reserves.

Time between selection and departure from Australia      

   27 days

(19 January - 15 February)

Travel

Sydney   Q  St John’s, Antigua

The team took a Wednesday evening flight from Sydney on 15 February 1984.  Before leaving, the players staged a fashion parade for the media at the Sheraton-Wentworth Hotel modelling their green tour outfits, with Kim Hughes introducing each player. They then made the 48-hour journey via San Francisco, New York and Antigua to St Kitts.

Time spent in West Indies

    77 days

(17 February -  4 May)

On-tour selection panel

Kim Hughes (captain),  Allan Border (vice-captain),  Rodney Hogg,  Geoff Dymock (coach).

Reinforcements

Graeme Wood was brought out to West Indies when Kepler Wessels had to return home in March for an operation after suffering from a damaged cartilage on the inside of the right knee.  Wood left Australia on 22 March and arrived in Barbados late the next day.

Graeme Wood was then put out of the tour himself when a finger was broken by a ball from Joel Garner.  David Boon the official stand-by, was not summoned. 

Carl Rackemann almost needed to be sent home for treatment after straining a back muscle in the first one-day international, and not playing for four weeks.

Fixtures/Results

† not first-class

§  one-day international

Time spent in West Indies before First Test: 

  14 days

(17 February - 2 March)

Test appearances on tour

5  -  Border,  Hogan,  Hookes,  Hughes,  Lawson,  W Phillips,  Ritchie

4  -  Hogg

3  -  Alderman,  Smith

2  -  Jones,  Maguire,  Wessels

1  -  Matthews,  Rackemann,  Wood,   Woolley.

Highlights

•    Rodney Hogg took 6 for 77 in Trinidad.

•    Wayne Phillips scored 120 at Bridgetown, supporting the last two wickets in long stands.

•    Allan Border with 4 fifties and one century in the series was the outstanding batsman. His sequence of scores was  5, 54, 98*, 100*, 38, 8, 98, 19, 41, 60*, aggregating  521 runs at an average of 74.

Tour Summary

Return to Australia

Kingston   Q  ?    Q  Sydney   

Kepler Wessels returned home on 25 March.

Terry Alderman, having been given permission to leave the tour two days early flew to England on 2 May to play for Kent in the English county championship.

The remainder of the team flew from Kingston, Jamaica, on 4 May and arrived home in Sydney  "Some players spoke out openly on their return home about the lack of team spirit, with David Hookes and Roger Woolley being prominent in stating their views"  ('A History of Australian Cricket' by Chris Harte).

Time away from Australia  

 81 days  

(15 February to 6 May)

Finances

Written accounts of the tour

Postscript