Tour of India 1994-95          Captain: Courtney Walsh

Thirty-eighth West Indies Test tour

Eighth Test-playing tour of India by West Indies

(October - December 1994)

Because Richie Richardson was suffering from exhaustion, Courtenay Walsh was made captain and Brian Lara vice-captain. Desmond Haynes chose to miss the tour by fulfilling his agreement to play in South Africa, saying he would not expect he had any right to walk back into the team. The team was also deprived of Winston Benjamin by his suspension and Ambrose by injury.

An outbreak of pneumonic plague in the state of Gujarat put the tour in doubt but it merely delayed the West Indians departure by a week. The early part of the tour was made up of long hours travelling to the venues for one-day internationals, spread widely across India.  The players were exhausted before the Test series even began. The manager David Holford described the tour as the worst he had known.

Why a triangular one-day international tournament had to be squeezed into the middle of  the ODI series against India is unclear, but India won both series by an aggregate of 8 matches to two. Yet the tourists, having been outplayed for most of the tour, drew the Test series 1-1 with a thumping 243-run win in the final match at Chandigarh.

An hour's play was lost in the second Test match at Nagpur when the crowd pelted the West Indian fielders, particularly Chanderpaul who is of Indian descent, with fruit.  Walsh led his team from the field until order was restored.  Before that, the practice match at Calicut had been abandoned because of strikes across the southern state of Kerala in which nine people were reported killed.

Other West Indies tours

Previous tour

Sri Lanka 1993-94

Next tour

New Zealand 1994-95

Next Indian tour

2002-03

Members of the Test tour party (16)

Opening batsmen:Sherwin Campbell, Phil Simmons, Stuart Williams.

Middle-order batsmen: Jimmy Adams, Keith Arthurton, Shiv Chanderpaul, Roland Holder, Carl Hooper, Brian Lara.

Wicket-keeper:Junior Murray

Spin bowler: Rajindra Dhanraj.

Fast bowlers: Kenny Benjamin, Barrington Browne, Cameron Cuffy, Anderson Cummins, Courtney Walsh.

Representation of teams:  

B - Barbados (4)

G  - Guyana (3)

Ja  - Jamaica (2)

L - Leeward Islands (2)

T - Trinidad & Tobago (3)

W  - Windward Islands (2)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(18 November 1994) : 26 yrs  10 months

ODI  W Member of squad for Wills World Series Cup squad

Dhanraj and Campbell not in India odi series

Test Appearances made before the tour

Walsh 65,  Hooper 40,  Arthurton 20,  Simmons 19,  Lara 16,  Murray 12,  Adams 9,  K Benjamin 7,  Chanderpaul 4,  Cummins 3,  Williams 1,  Cuffy 0,  Dhanraj 0,  Browne 0,  Campbell 0,  Holder 0 

Tour Officials

Selectors

David Holford (chairman),  Andy Roberts,  Roy Fredericks.

Selection

On 4 August Courtney Walsh was named as captain for the tour.

Unavailable:  Richie Richardson (suffering from exhaustion),  Desmond Haynes (playing in South Africa),  Ian Bishop (back injury),  Winston Benjamin (under suspension until 31 December after an altercation with a Board official during England's Test in Antigua).

Tour Party Announced :    11 August 1994.

Not selected :  Ottis Gibson.

Withdrawal :  On 22 September Curtley Ambrose withdrew. He needed an operation to correct the problem in his damaged shoulder.  His place was taken by Barrington Browne.

Time between selection and departure from West Indies

  60 days

(11 August - 10 October)

Travel

Port of SpainQLondon  Q  Chandigarh

The team was originally scheduled to arrive in India on 6 October but departure was delayed for a week by a pneumonic plague epidemic in Gujarat and then by the two Cricket Boards being slow to agree to a revised itinerary. 

The team assembled at Piarco Airport, Port of Spain, and flew to London on Monday 10 October.

Lara and Hooper were fined $1000 for arriving in London a day late and missing a pre-tour team meeting.

The side reached India on Wednesday 12 October After two more flights the team reached Chandigarh for a practice match.  

Time spent in India

   64 days

(12 October - 15 December)

On-tour selection panel

Courtney Walsh  (captain),  Rohan Kanhai  (coach),  David Holford  (manager).

Reinforcements

Roland Holder sliced his mouth badly while shaving a few days before departure but continued with the tour. “He could not play until a month into the tour, limiting him to one first-class match and virtually putting him out of contention for the three Tests.”

Fixtures/Results

† not first-class

§  one-day international

Time spent in India before First Test:  37  days

(12 October - 18 November)

Test appearances on tour

3  -  Adams,  Arthurton,  K Benjamin,  Hooper,  Lara,  Murray,  Simmons,  Walsh,  Williams.

2  -  Cummins,  Cuffy,

1  -  Chanderpaul,  Dhanraj

0  -  Browne,  Campbell,  Holder.

Match appearances

T  Test match

o one-day international 

x other match 

⊕ T/20 international

W won  L lost  D drawn  

N no result   A abandoned   u unknown result

Highlights

•   

•   

•    Jimmy Adams scored 125 in the second Test match

Tour Summary

Return to West Indies

New DelhiQ  London  Q   ?

The West Indians flew out of New Delhi on approx 15 December 1994

They returned home to their various island destinations on Saturday 17 December

Time away from West Indies    68 days  

(10 October to 17 December)

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Finances

Published accounts of the tour

Postscript

The players had barely three weeks at home before setting off again for New Zealand.