Test Cricket Tours - West Indies to South Africa 1998-99
Tour of South Africa 1998-99Captain: Brian Lara
43rd West Indies Test
tour
First official Test-playing tour by West Indies to South Africa
(November 1998 - January 1999)
The
first Test tour to South Africa
by a West Indies team that was official -
those led by Lawrence Rowe in the ‘eighties were rebel tours - was of great
cultural significance. A black Caribbean
side, including the world’s greatest batsman, playing in post-apartheid times
was intended to tie sporting bonds between the two.But a major dispute broke out between the skipper
and his vice-captain and the West Indies Board over fees, which the Board maintained
had already been agreed with the West Indies Players Association.
Board
president Pat Rousseau sacked Brian Lara and Carl Hooper, captain and
vice-captain, from their posts. Other team members who supported their
skipper and would not proceed to South Africa were fined.
The
South Africans were desperate for the tour to go ahead. Ali Bacher reminded
the West Indian team that "generations
of black cricketers and cricket followers
had taken inspiration of the performances of WestIndies teams.” Even
the South African president Nelson Mandela became involved, writing
individually signed letters to each of the sixteen players to persuade them
to come. Sponsors and TV companies as well as the public demanded to see a
full-strength side.
The tour
fees were not increased but compromise was eventually reached when the
dispute was glossed over as “a misunderstanding”, and the West Indies Board announced
a restructuring of future payments for experienced
players. When the tourists finally began their tour programme the
distraction of the week-long discord had its effect and the tour party was
never unified.
In
playing terms it was a disaster. Manager Clive Lloyd described his team's
batting as abysmal and blamed the players for their lack of discipline and
professionalism. Too often their wickets were surrendered meekly or to
irresponsible shots.The younger bowlers
strived, while Walsh, Rose
and Ambrose produced occasional withering spells before they broke down with
injury. But with support in the field deteriorating as the tour went on, the
bowlers could not sustain pressure on South Africa’s batsmen.
It
became the first series in which a West Indian Test side had lost all five
matches.
Unavailable: Vasbert Drakes was ineligible because he had
not played in the Caribbean in the previous
season.
Tour Party Announced :14 August
1998.
Withdrawn : Curtley Ambrose was given permission to miss
the Wills tournament in Bangladesh
to repair his house, which had been damaged by Hurricane George.Reon King replaced him.
Not selected : Sherwin Campbell,Roland Holder, Ian Bishop (suffering from
back problems).
When Lara and Hooper were sacked, the selectors chose
Keith Arthurton and Sherwin Campbell to take their places but
Time between selection and departure from West
Indies
70 days
(14 August to 23 October)
Travel
Trinidad QLondonQDhaka
DhakaQLondon
LondonQJohannesburg
The 14-man one-day squad left Piarco
Airport, Trinidad, for London on Friday 23 October, arriving in Bangladesh to
play a week-long one-day international tournament, the Wills Cup, on 25
October.
After losing in the final, seven players flew from the tournament in Bangladesh
to South Africa on 3 November. They were Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Mervyn Dillon, Ridley Jacobs,
Clayton Lambert, Nixon McLean, Philo Wallace and Stuart Williams.
But Brian Lara and Carl Hooper, who were selected
along with the seven other players for both the Wills Cup and the Test
series, abruptly departed from the Dhaka - Johannesburg
flight at a transit point in Bangkok and flew
instead to London.
Arrangements had been made for the other Test team
members to arrive in Johannesburg
in two batches, but they did not turn up.Jimmy Adams, Darren Ganga, Junior Murray, Dinanath Ramnarine and Franklyn
Rose were scheduled to leave London for Johannesburg on Sunday
1 November, but stayed there. Curtly Ambrose and Courtney
Walsh, who left the Caribbean for London on Sunday and were due to arrive in
South Africa on 4 November, also remained in London, staying at a hotel near
Heathrow Airport.. All seven were fined.
Dr Ali Bacher, chief executive of South
Africa’s United Cricket Board, and tour manager Clive
Lloyd flew from Johannesburg to London on the night of 5
November to meet the players’ representatives.
Next day the seven who were already in South
Africa flew back to Heathrow, apart from Mervyn Dillon who
remained in South Africa
with team coach Malcolm Marshall because he was unable to find his travel
documents.
A
week-long training camp in Johannesburg
was abandoned, and a one-day match against a Nicky Oppenheimer XI due to be
played at Randjesfontein was cancelled, which cost the beneficiaries (the
United Cricket Board development programme) 100 000 rand.
Once Brian
Lara was reappointed as West Indian captain, and the dispute was resolved, the
team caught a South African Airways flight leaving London
at 9 pm and flew into Johannesburg
on Tuesday morning 10 November 1998.
Curtley
Ambrose and Courtney Walsh missed the flight and arrived the next day.
The first match was played at Soweto on 11 November. Pat Rousseau, president of
the West Indies Cricket Board of Control, who handled the pay dispute, was
robbed at gunpoint and his car stolen on a visit to the Soweto Cricket Oval.
Time spent in South
Africa
90 days
(10 November - 8 February)
On-tour selection panel
Not Lloyd- see below;
Reinforcements
F L Reifer
B
26
LHB
ODI(S)
Floyd Reifer was a replacement for Jimmy Adams. Adams
cut the tendons of a little finger on his right hand with a plastic bread knife
while on the flight to Johannesburg.Reifer, who was with the West Indies
"A" team in Bangladesh,
joined the senior side in Johannesburg
on Saturday 14 November. In the end
the tendons healed slowly and Adams had to
return home without playing.
R N Lewis
W
24
LBG
ODI (W)(S)
Rawl Lewis was a replacement for Dinanath
Ramnarine whose shoulder injury ruled him out of the rest of the tour. Lewis was rushed from Pune on the West Indies A tour to Mumbai,
and on to Johannesburg in time for the first
Test. Ramnarine returned home to Trinidad and then flew to New York for treatment.
Colin Croft : “When it was found early in the tour that he [Ramnarine] was not fit enough and should
not have even boarded the airplane at Piarco, another supposed leg-spinner,
Rawl Lewis, was called up from India to take his place. At least
he was fit, but he too was useless.” (from http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/story/91099.html)
Philo Wallace had glandular
fever and could not be considered to play in mid-tour.
O D Gibson
B
29
RFM
R D King
G
23
RF
ODI (W)(S)
When Walsh (hamstring) and Ambrose
(knee) were injured, and Franklin Rose
returned home early with a shoulder injury, Ottis Gibsonwas
called up from playing with South African side, Kimberley, for the fourth Test.Ambrose was unable to play in the final
Test, so Reon King who was due to join the squad for the one-day series
was rushed across and played shortly after landing.
The tour management wished to
retain Merv Dillon and add him to the squad for the one-day series but he
returned home at the end of the Test matches
Fixtures/Results
§Dhaka
Pakistan(ICC Wills Trophy)
Won
30 r
§Dhaka
India(ICC Wills Trophy)
Won 6
w
§Dhaka
South Africa(ICC Wills Trophy final)
Lost
4 w
†
Randjesfontein
Nicky
Oppenheimer XI
cancelled
† Soweto
Gauteng
No
result
Kimberley
Griqualand
West
Drawn
Bloemfontein
Free State
Lost
2 w
JOHANNESBURG
SOUTH AFRICAFirst Test
LOST 4 w
† Zwide,
Port Elizabeth
Eastern
Province XI(50 overs)
Lost
3 r
East London
Border
Drawn
PORT ELIZABETH
SOUTH AFRICASecond Test
LOST 178 r
† Chatsworth,
Durban
Natal
XI(40 overs)
Won 8
w
Pietermaritzburg
South Africa A
Drawn
DURBAN
SOUTH AFRICAThird Test
LOST 9 w
CAPE TOWN
SOUTH AFRICAFourth Test
LOST 149 r
ϯ
Langa, Cape Town
Western
Province XI (50
overs)
Won
33 r
Paarl
Boland
Drawn
CENTURION
SOUTH AFRICAFifth Test
LOST 351 r
§ Johannesburg
South Africa(1st ODI)
Lost
2 w
§
East London
South Africa(2nd ODI)
Won
43 r
§ Durban
South Africa(3rd ODI)
Lost
55 r
§ Port Elizabeth
South Africa(4th ODI)
Lost
99 r
§ Cape Town
South Africa(5th ODI)
Lost
89 r
§ Bloemfontein
South Africa(6th ODI)
Lost
114 r
§
Centurion
South Africa(7th ODI)
Lost
50 r
† not first-class
§one-day international
Time spent in South Africa
before First Test:
16 days
(10 November - 26 November)
Test appearances on tour
5-Chanderpaul,Hooper,Jacobs,Lara.
4-Ambrose,McLean,Wallace,Walsh.
3-Dillon,Ganga,
2-Lambert,Lewis,J Murray,Reifer,Williams
1-Gibson,King,Rose.
0-Adams,Ramnarine.
Highlights
•New cap
Ridley Jacobs scored two fifties in the series and topped the averages with 317
runs.
•Franklin
Rose took 7-84 at Durban,
the best bowling figures by a visiting player on that ground.
•Curtley
Ambrose and Courtney Walsh returned figures of 6-51 at Port Elizabeth and 6-80 at Centurion.
Tour Summary
P
W
L
D
Cancelled
Test Matches
5
0
5
0
-
Other first-class matches
5
0
1
4
-
ϯ Minor matches
5
2
1
1
1
§ One-day
internationals in Dhaka
3
2
1
0
-
§ One-day
internationals in South
Africa
7
1
6
0
-
All Matches
25
5
14
5
1
Return to West Indies
JohannesburgQLondonQBridgetown
After
the one-day tournament in Bangladesh Keith Arthurton and Phil Simmons
returned to the West Indies, while Reon King, Rawl Lewis and Neil McGarrell
remained to join the West Indies A tour of Bangladesh.
At the
end of the Test series Dillon, Lambert, Walsh and Williams returned home on
19 January.
The last
match of the South African tour ended on 7 February 1999, and next day the
team flew to London.
Barbadians Philo Wallace
and Floyd Reifer with Guyanese Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Reon King, Keith
Semple and Neil McGarrell also on board, returned on a British Airways flight
from London landing at Grantley
Adams International
Airport, Bridgetown, at 2:30 pm on Tuesday 9 February.
The Jamaicans took a
flight from London to New
York and then to Kingston.
Time away from West Indies
109 days
(23 October - 9 February)
Finances
The WICB
had budgeted to pay the players a total of $555,000 for the tour but the fees
the players were offered wetre 30% less than those paid for the 1996-97 trip
to Australia
- also a five Test series.
Accounts
of the tour
Postscript
Clive Lloyd’s view was that the tour should have been cancelled
and no other country would have proceded after such discord at the beginning
of the tour.
As manager he had in mind the sorts of players who should be used
by West Indies in future, but was not given
any role in selection.
The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) summoned tour captain Lara,
manager Lloyd and coach Malcolm Marshall to a debriefing in Antigua and a
four-man committee began its investigation into the tour.
The committee members were president Pat Rousseau, (chairman of
the cricket committee) Jackie Hendriks and Michael Findlay chairman of
selectors, Stephen
Camacho, CEO of the West Indies Cricket Board
On 23 February 1999, after
all that had happened, the Board ducked its opportunity to demote Brian Lara and
he was reappointed captain for the home series against Australia (albeit
on probation for the first two Tests only). Pat Rousseau kicked the problem
into the long grass, saying he "needed to improve his leadership skills
significantly”.