CANCELLED
TEST TOURS | Reason | Circumstances
of cancellation | |
| | | |
England to South Africa 1890-91 | Political tension in South Africa | A proposed tour of South Africa
in 1889-90, which would have included Lancashire
professional Johnny Briggs, had come to nothing. Then in February 1890 James
Lillywhite and George Lohmann started to organise a team to tour South Africa
during the next winter. Lillywhite assured the South Africans that the team
'will be much more powerful than Major Warton's'. He continued that tourists
'in all probability … will have been secured' before his letter arrived 'as
possibly an attempt to get a team for Australia might be made'. Yet in
September 1890 the proposed tour was abandoned due to the ongoing political
tension in South Africa. | |
| | In January 1891 Cricket reported
that George Lohmann was again making preparations to take a powerful side and
the South African Cricket Association had voted in of such a tour. However,
on 26 February it was announced that the project had been abandoned having
'passed out of the scope of practical politics'. From 'The
Beau Ideal' (Ric Sissons). Rival W W Read took his own English side in
1891-92. | |
South Africa to England 1911 Australia to England 1913 | The Triangular Tournament | To accommodate the Triangular Tournament, South Africa deferred its visit in 1911 to
1912 while Australia
brought forward its visit to England
from 1913 to 1912. The 1912-13 series
between South Africa and Australia
was dropped. | |
Australians to South Africa 1914-15 (link) | Outbreak of the First World War. | A touring party had already been chosen to go under Warwick
Armstrong’s captaincy, but after the declaration of war on Germany, the South African Cricket Association
sent a cable on 13 August to Sydney Smith, secretary of Australia’s Board
of Control, advising that the tour should be pushed back. They requested for
it to be held in 1915-16 instead, in the hope that the Great War would be
quickly over but, because the Australians planned to invite M.C.C. in that
summer, this was never likely. | |
Six wartime series | First World War | 1915 South Africa to England 1915-16 England (M.C.C) to Australia 1916 Second
triangular contest 1916-17 South Africa to Australia 1917 Australia to England 1917-18 England (M.C.C.) to South Africa | |
Australia to England 1920 | | In February 1919 the Australian Board of Control inquired whether
the Marylebone Cricket Club (M.C.C.) would send an English team to Australia in 1920-21 if the Australians sent a
team to England.
M.C.C. considered the question of hosting an Australian team but decided it
was unable to do so but might obtain the English counties’ agreement to a
tour in 1920. | |
Postponed I.C.C. tours
in the 1920s | Postponed | The Imperial Cricket Conference set down a programme of Test
tours at its meeting on 6 June 1921: 1923 South Africa to England 1923-24 England to Australia 1925 Australia to England All three tours were subsequently deferred for one year. At its
meeting (at Lord’s) on 1 June 1926 it set down a further programme of Test
tours, one of which (South Africa to England 1928) was subsequently deferred
for one year to 1929 to allow new ICC member West Indies to tour England | |
| | | |
South Africans to India 1929 | | Anthony De Mello (who became Indian Board secretary) and the
Board’s first chairman R.E..Grant-Govan were in England
in 1928 making plans for tours to India
by South Africa in 1929
and by England
in 1930-31. Meanwhile so little progress was made forming an Indian Board of
Control that by the time it was done in 1929, the momentum had gone, and South Africa never went to India until 1992 (for a one-day
series) or 1996 (for Test matches) | |
Rearranged I.C.C. tours in the 1930s | Postponed to accommodate a full Indian tour of England | The ICC meeting at The Oval in 1929 drew up a programme of tours New Zealand and possibly India to England 1931 : the
Indian tour was deferred to 1932 West Indians to England 1932
was deferred to 1933 South Africa to England 1933 was deferred to 1935 | |
England (M.C.C) to India 1930-31 | Civil disturbances | M.C.C. was forced to put off
its visit to India
in 1930-31 in the face of civil disturbances arising from the independence
movement. The Maharajkumar (Prince)
‘Vizzy’ organised a replacement team, Vizianagram’s XI. “The cancellation of
the M.C.C. tour gave the greatest disappointment to Indian cricketers,” he
said. “I was fired with a passion to compensate India.” His team included Jack
Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe, who had earlier declined a tour of India
with Gilligan in 1926-27. | |
Indians to England
1931 | Postponed | After cancelling its visit to
India in 1930-31 because
of civil disturbances, M.C.C. decided instead to invite an Indian team to England
in 1931 but a postponement until 1932 to allow more time for arrangements to
be made meant the tour was not confirmed until 31 August 1931. | |
England to India 1939-40 (link) | Outbreak of the Second World War | For what would have been England's
second Test tour of India,
three Test matches - at Bombay, Calcutta and Madras - were
arranged, but Britain was
moving closer to war with Germany On 25 July 1939 M.C.C.
said "While none of the arrangements for the tour of India this winter have been cancelled, views
are being exchanged at present between M.C.C. and the Indian Cricket Board of
Control to ascertain if a postponement of the tour of India to the winter of 1941 might
be desirable." On 2 August M.C.C. decided
not to alter its plans at present, and announced the names of those invited
to tour. But War was declared on 3 September 1939, and the tour was finally
cancelled next day. | |
Australians to New Zealand 1939-40 | Second World War | The Australian Cricket Board of Control was understood to be
planning a full tour of New
Zealand as soon as 1939-40 but the
outbreak of the Second World War put paid to the proposal. A team was sent to
New Zealand
as soon as feasible after the War in 1945-46. | |
Eight other wartime series | Second World War | An Imperial Cricket Conference meeting at Lord’s on 14 June 1939
between representatives of all the six Test-playing nations had announced the
following programme of future Test series: 1940 South Africa in England 1940-41 England ( M.C.C.) in Australia 1942 Australia in England 1942-43 England ( M C C) in West
Indies 1943 India in England 1943-44 England ( M C C) in South Africa 1944-45 England ( M C C) in Australia 1945 South Africa in England | |
Postponed I.C.C. tours in the 1940s | Postponed | On 15 January 1946 the Imperial Cricket Conference met at Lord’s
to draw up the programme for the next 8 years which happened except 1946-47 West Indies to India (deferred to 1948-49) 1949-50 England
to India 1952 Australia
to England (swopped with India 1953) | |
Australia to West Indies 1948-49 | | Australia did not
accept an invitation from the West Indian Board to tour in the spring of
1949. Firstly, difficulties with
obtaining return passages from England in 1948 compelled shifting domestic
first-class matches to the second half of the 1948-49 Australian season, so
that the cricketers who toured England could participate. Secondly, it was known that the leading players would be absent
for the whole 1949-50 season in South Africa, meaning the top players would
not not have been seen playing in Australia for two years. | |
England (M.C.C.) to India 1949-50 | To reduce player workload | In July 1948 M.C.C. cancelled their 1949-50 tour of India.
This was a first step in reducing the number of tours made abroad by
M.C.C. India arranged a replacement
series of five unofficial Tests against a Commonwealth team made up largely
of players from the league cricket (notably Frank Worrell, Bill Alley,
skipper Jock Livingston and George Tribe). | |
India to Pakistan 1950-51 | | The first Asian Cricket Conference was held in Bombay on 6 March 1948. Delegates from India, Pakistan,
Ceylon and Burma
attended. The conference agreed a programme including an Indian visit to Pakistan
in 1950-51 but this did not take place until January 1955. The Pakistanis’
first Test tour of India
was arranged for 1951-52 but was later postponed by one year. | |
Australia to New Zealand 1951-52 | | At the Australian Board of Control annual meeting in September
1949, there was an offer to send an Australian side of Test staus to New Zealand
in February 1952, in addition to the non-Test party being sent in
1949-50. There might also be a New Zealand visit to Australia in
1953-54 but neither of these tours materialised. | |
West Indians to India 1965-66 (link) | Foreign exchange | The Indian Cricket Board was already questionning West Indies' financial demands for its forthcoming
series but, fatally, on 3 June 1965 the Indian government rejected the Indian
Board’s plan to invite them. The Finance Ministry gave a ruling that it was
impossible to release $168,000 of foreign exchange. The Indian Board
attempted to lower their costs by reducing the three-month programme to an
eight-week tour beginning on 22 December 1965 but the West Indies Board
rejected that idea. The tour was ultimately cancelled because of unsettled conditions | |
West Indians to Pakistan 1965-66 | War | The government of Pakistan
had also been unable to sanction foreign exchange for a tour by West Indies and that part of the visit had been
cancelled on 31 August. When the new Indian eight-week tour was rejected, West Indies’
Board then hoped to re-arrange a tour limited to Pakistan in 1965-66; but only two days later on 4 October it,
too, had to be called off because of the India-Pakistan War. | |
England (M.C.C.) to South Africa 1968-69 (link) | England
team not accepted | Firstly, the customary two matches in Rhodesia were dropped from the
tour itinerary on British government advice because of Rhodesia Unilateral
Declaration of Independence (UDI). On 17 September 1968 the South African Prime Minister, John Vorster,
announced that he would not accept Basil d'Oliveira as a member of the M.C.C.
team, and a week later the South African tour was called off. The M.C.C had made it clear in public statements that the touring
side would be picked on merit and there could be no restrictions on who would
be selected but behind the scenes Lord Cobham and Alec Douglas-Home strived
not to force the issue, which could cause South Africa’s isolation from
sporting contact with the rest of the world. They hoped that, if D’Oliveira made
himself unavailable by taking a coaching job, the tour could go ahead. When the touring squad was announced and Basil D’Oliveira was
omitted, despite scoring 158 for England in the Oval Test match,
it was regarded as deeply suspicious. However, the tour would have gone ahead
but for Tom Cartwright withdrawing and D’Oliveira receiving a call-up as his
replacement. Vorster’s response was that South Africa was not prepared to
receive a team thrust upon it by people with political objectives, saying it
was not the MCC team but that of the anti-apartheid movement. | |
England (M.C.C.) to India 1968-69 | Foreign exchange | Replacing the South African tour, M.C.C. hoped to play one
three-day match and three Tests against India
in a four-week period, and then the same programme in Pakistan. This was agreed at the
end of September but on 24 November the Indian section of the tour was
cancelled. Guarantees of £6000 for each Test and £2.000 for the other match
were needed and the Finance Ministry, responsible for granting the foreign
exchange, would not release it. | |
West Indians to Pakistan 1969-70 | Financial guarantees | The tour was agreed at the annual meeting of the International Cricket Conference at Lord’s
on 12 July 1968 but on 27
March 1969 the West Indies Cricket
Board of Control announced that its Pakistan tour plan had broken
down. Peter Short, the Board secretary, said the Pakistan cricket authorities had
failed to agree to the required financial guarantee. The proposed return visit by Pakistan
to West Indies in 1971 also fell through and instead India were invited to tour the Caribbean in 1970-71. | |
Australia to Pakistan 1969-70 | Financial terms | The Australian Board was negotiating to take in India on its 1969-70 tour of Pakistan, but it was the Pakistan section that was
cancelled. The Test matches against Pakistan which would have followed a Test
series in India
were called off in December 1968 because agreement could not be reached on
financial terms. As soon as this was known, the Australian Cricket Board of
Control wrote to the South African Cricket Association (SACA) about making a
short tour of South Africa
instead. Having lost their M.C.C tour a year ago, SACA readily agreed. | |
South Africans to England 1970 (link) | Threatened disruption by
anti-apartheid protesters | Despite the D’Oliveira affair
a few months before, on 23 January 1969
the M.C.C. committee voted to
invite South Africa
to tour in 1970. On 20 May the Cricket Council voted for the tour still to go
ahead but pressure was maintained on them to abandon the tour until two days
later on 22 May 1970 when the Home Secretary, James Callaghan, directed that
the tour should be cancelled. John
Vorster, South African Prime Minister, accused the British government of caving
in to blackmail. | |
Amended I.C.C. tours programme in the 1970s | To bring more Test matches to India,
Pakistan and the West Indies. | The annual meeting of the
International Cricket Conference at Lord’s on 12 July 1968 authorised an
increased programme of cricket tours to bring more Test matches to India, Pakistan
and the West Indies. These included : 1971: Pakistan
to West Indies (subsequently cancelled). 1973-74: England
(MCC) to West Indies (brought forward by two years) 1977-78: England (MCC) to India
and Pakistan
(brought forward by four years) In the original
schedule England would
make a full tour of India
and Pakistan
every ten years, ie 1951-52, 1961-62, 1971-72, 1981-82. Thus the 1977-78
proposal brought the tour forward by 4 years, but was then advanced by a
further year. . | |
South Africa to Australia & NZ 1971-72 (link) | Threatened disruption by
anti-apartheid protesters | The New
Zealand part of the tour was cancelled
first, as leading South African players said they would not be available. When it became clear that political groups, the church and trades
unions would boycott the Australia visit or deprive the tourists of the use
of facilities, the Australian Cricket
Board decided on 8 September 1971 “with great regret” to cancel the
forthcoming tour of Australia.The reasons given included that it would create
internal bitterness and provoke vociferous disruption from minority groups,
as well as place extreme demands upon the police force. | |
England to India
& Pakistan
1971-72 | State of emergency | In late July 1971 M.C.C. postponed the tour for a year until
1972-73 because of the political situation in Pakistan. | |
| | The annual meeting of the
International Cricket Conference at Lord’s on 12 July 1968 authorised an
increased programme of cricket tours and this tour was provisionally agreed
but in the end India
toured West Indies instead. | |
Australia
to Pakistan
1973-74 | Player allowances | Australia planned
to make a tour of Pakistan
in 1973-74 but it was cancelled on 6 March 1973 because of a disagreemant
with the Pakistan Board over inadequate players' allowances. In its place the
Australians made their first tour of New Zealand since 1946. | |
South Africans to England 1975 (link) | South African team still chosen
on racial grounds | Having cancelled the South African tour of England in May 1970, the Cricket Council said
that England would no
longer play Test matches against South Africa until multi-racial
cricket was introduced. The 1975 tour
was formally cancelled by the Cricket Council on 11 September 1973. The South
African board was disappointed that what they regarded as progress in making
cricket multi-racial was insufficient. At its two-day meeting in July 1974, the International Cricket
Conference approved a programme of tours including the next South African
visit to England
scheduled for 1980, but contingencies were already being made for its
cancellation. | |
Australians to South Africa 1975-76 (link) | South African team still chosen on racial grounds | On 18 February 1975 the Australian Cricket Board withdrew its
invitation to South Africa
in the face of pressure from the federal government which was opposed to Australian sports teams playing teams
from other countries selected racially. After withdrawing from the invitation to tour, the Australian
Board held discussions with its counterparts in India, Pakistan, New Zealand
and the West Indies about touring there instead, or them making a tour of
Australia, and in the end West Indies came to Australia for a six-Test tour. | |
England (M.C.C.) to South
Africa 1976-77 (link) | (South African team still being
chosen on racial grounds | The Cricket Council called off the M.C.C. (in reality England) tour
visiting South Africa in 1976-77 after a meeting at Lord’s on 12 September
1975. It acknowledged the progress made towards multi-racial cricket but
regretted that “our requirements for the resumption of Test cricket with South Africa
have not yet been fully met”. The ICC tours schedule drawn up in 1968 had England visiting
India and Pakistan in 1977-78 so the Indian section of the tour was now brought
forward by one year to 1976-77 and Tony Greig took a side there. | |
Indians to West Indies 1979-80 (link) | Financial | The tour was planned for the Spring of 1980 with the Indians due
to reach West Indies on 4 March and return
on 5 May. Financial difficulties put the tour into difficulty from the
start. The Indian Board wanted guarantee money for each of the four Test
matches planned, but the West Indies Board could afford to pay only
expenses. The W.I. Board had suffered
considerable losses over the Australian tour in 1978 and the Packer court
case settlement. On 3 January Mr
Harold Burnett, secretary of the W.I.Board announced that the tour had been
cancelled. Yet Ghulam Ahmed, on behalf of the Indian Board, denied this,
saying that the tour plans would be complete in a week's time. The Indian Board approached the Government
to release foreign exchange and and meet the expenses of the trip. But, to
the general relief of those who considered the Test programme as already
overcrowded (India
had played 13 Test matches in the space of five months), the West Indian
Board finally cancelled the tour on 6 February 1980. Because tours have to be on a reciprocal basis, and the Indian
Board wanted the West Indies to return soon to India
where they were always a popular draw, it was planned to send a team out to
the Caribbean as soon as possible, which
turned out to be in Spring 1983. | |
New Zealanders to West Indies 1981-82 | Springbok rugby tour | A planned New Zealand tour, of the West Indies in 1982
was cancelled as a result of the tour of New Zealand by the Springbok
South African rugby union team in 1981. Despite the New Zealand prime
minister appealing to the NZ Rugby Union not to invite the Springboks, and
the NZ Cricket Council dissociating themselves from the rugby tour, the West
Indies Cricket Board of Control said it was was unable to host the New Zealanders | |
Australians to Sri Lanka 1987-88 (link) | Threat of terrorist activities
in Sri Lanka. | This three week-long tour of Sri
Lanka was to be made en route to the World Cup
competition in India and Pakistan, but
was cancelled on 14 August 1987. (Andrew
Zesers had postponed his wedding, which was to be held on 20 September,
before he learned that the tour was cancelled). The tour was re-scheduled for April 1988 – provided the island
was peaceful – and this arrangement was subsequently cancelled, too, by the
Australian Cricket Board in February 1988.
| |
Australians to West Indies 1987-88 | (Assume) to avoid too much
cricket against the West Indies with ten Test
matches in one calendar year. | The tour was cancelled on 8 January 1987. The chief executive of the Australian Cricket Board, Mr David
Richards, said the West Indian Board had called it off but undisclosed
sources said that West Indian officials were most disappointed the tour would
not go ahead. The sources suggested that, with the Windies scheduled to tour Australia in 1988-89, the Australian Cricket
Board was reluctant to have Border's young side exposed to the West Indies in ten Test matches in one calendar
year. Australia
had won only one of the past 10 Tests against the West
Indies. | |
England to India & Sri Lanka 1988-89 (link) | Sporting links with South Africa | Firstly, the proposed autumn tour of Sri Lanka was called off in June
owing to political unrest on the island. There were already signs that the England team might not be acceptable in India owing
to the South African connections of several English players. Graham Gooch was appointed tour captain on 29 August during the
home Test against Sri Lanka
at Lord's. However, when Indian politicians learned that he needed to obtain
release from a winter contract with Western
Province, the Indian government
accused him of misleading them at the time of the 1987 Reliance World Cup
about his intentions of playing again in South Africa. Consequently, he was regarded as
unacceptable as captain. The tour was probably already doomed by then but the TCCB went
ahead and chose a team. When the names were announced, eight of those
selected including Gooch were on the United Nations 'blacklist' because of
their sporting links with South
Africa.
While Chief Executive Alan Smith admitted he could not see how the
tour could proceed because eight of the team would be refused entry visas,
the TCCB delayed cancelling it for a further two weeks. The tour was finally
cancelled on 7 October. In due course an alternative tour to New Zealand to start in late
February was substituted. The England
party was to remain unchanged, although discussions had taken place about
changing the composition of the original team which had been picked for
Indian conditions. The New Zealand
tour itinerary included two Test matches and a one-day triangular series, for
which the Pakistan Board soon announced it was refusing to let its players
play against England.
This rendered the whole tour financially unviable. On 22 December the New
Zealand Cricket Council called it off.
The Pakistanis then arranged their own separate tour of New Zealand. The Sri Lankans agreed in principle at the Asian Cricket Conference
in Dhaka to tour India in
place of England but, with
no word from the Indian Board (BCCI), most of the Sri Lankan players took up
ccontracts to play club cricket in Australia,
Zimbabwe and Bangladesh
and became unavailable | |
| | | |
| | | |
New Zealanders to Pakistan 2001-02 (link) | Threat of terrorism | As the world was taking in the enormity of the terrorist attack that
destroyed the World Trade Centre in New York
on 11 September 2001, a New Zealand
team was already on its way to tour Pakistan. The New Zealand Cricket
Board stopped its team from flying beyond Singapore
until it could appraise the risks of touring Pakistan. Of particular concern was playing at Peshawar, venue for the first Test match, in the
North-west Frontier Province which was adjacent to Afghanistan, now identified as Al
Qaeda’s centre of operations. Chief Executive Martin Snedden said the tour was ‘temporarily
postponed’ and the team would go to Pakistan
when the international situation eased but on 27 September, under advice from
New Zealand’s
Department of Foreign Affairs, New Zealand Cricket finally cancelled the
tour. | |
Australians to Zimbabwe 2001-02 (link) | Concerns about safety. | This tour was planned to follow after the one-day series in South Africa. On 20 March the Australian Cricket Board Chief Executive, James Sutherland, was cautious because of
tensions in Zimbabwe
following its presidential elections two weeks before. He said that the
cricket tour of Zimbabwe
would go ahead subject to concerns about safety. A week later, once the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
had issued travel advice warning Australian nationals against visiting Zimbabwe, the
tour was cancelled on 27 March. The Board felt there were unacceptable risks to the players and
officials of encountering political violence, possibly stemming from the
Australian government’s part in having Zimbabwe suspended from the
Commonwealth. The Zimbabwe Cricket Union would not consider rescheduling the
tour in a neutral country as this would amount to admitting that it was unsafe
to tour Zimbabwe - where
World Cup fixtures were to be held in a year’s time - and no other countries
were available to take Australia’s
place. | |
Australians to Zimbabwe 2004 (link) | Players’ safety | Early in May 2004, accommodation, transport, training facilities
and fixtures were all in place and Cricket Australia expressed its
confidence that the tour would proceed.
The selected players had been briefed on the human rights situation in
the country, as well as the refusal by fifteen Zimbabwe Test players to participate
because of their opposition to the selection system. Because of this the Test matches would
inevitably be a huge mis-match. Stuart MacGill was alone in deciding not to take part in the
tour, saying that he didn't feel he could go with a clear conscience. Cricket Australia
said it would carry out its obligations to the ICC's Future Years Programme,
though spokesman Peter Young dismissively described completing the tour as ‘ticking
a box’. Malcolm Speed, chief executive of the International Cricket
Council, flew to Zimbabwe
to urge that it would not be appropriate to afford Test status to the two
scheduled matches. However, the
Zimbabwe Cricket Union would not meet him in person. Meanwhile the ICC
planned to hold a teleconference on 21 May between the cricket boards of the
ten Test-playing nations, to decide whether to proceed with the Test matches
or cancel them or downgrade them to tour matches. Cricket Australia chairman Bob Merriman arrived in Harare ready to brief
the players after the teleconference. When it was clear that the ICC was going to strip the matches of
Test status, the Zimbabwe Cricket Union offered to call them off. The ZCU and
Cricket Australia
agreed to postpone the matches but they have never been played. The three
one-dayers were rearranged, all to be played in Harare as soon as possible, and they went ahead
in place of the Tests. | |
| | | |
Zimbabweans to Pakistan 2004 (link) | I C C withdrew Test status | A one-sided mismatch against Sri Lanka in May 2004 brought
pressure on the Zimbabwe Cricket Union to withdraw from Test status. On 10
June the International Cricket Council ruled that Zimbabwe
would lose Test status for the rest of the year and Zimbabwe's visit to Pakistan was cancelled. The Pakistan Cricket Board faced a financial crisis but Sri Lanka offered to fill the gap and play a
three-Test series and a triangular tournament with Zimbabwe who were still allowed
to take part in one-day internationals.
The I C C ruled that exisiting tour commitments had to be
fulfilled and in November the ECB, facing a £1 million fine and suspension
from the I C C, reluctantly went ahead
with its ODI tour of Zimbabwe. | |
Australians to Pakistan 2007-08 (link) | Concerns about the threat of
terrorist activities | Australia were set to arrive in Pakistan on 29 March 2008 for
three Test matches and five one-day internationals but the four-week tour was
postponed (on 11 March) because of government advice that travelling to Pakistan
was unsafe with recent outbreaks of violence. Rearranging it meant a split
tour was necessary, because of the difficulty of finding a long enough run of
free dates for the entire tour. Five ODIs and a Twenty20 would be played in
April 2009 on the way back from South Africa;
before returning to Pakistan
in August 2010 for the Test matches. In the end the Test matches had to be
played on neutral territory in England. The Pakistan Board had
since 2002 opposed playing on neutral territory because of the loss of
income from spectators and damage to development of the game in Pakistan but
it became unavoidable. Australia had not played in Pakistan
since 1998. | |
West Indians to Pakistan 2008-09
| Security reasons / touring
terms. | In September 2008 Pakistan invited the West Indians for a
two-Test series in Pakistan
in place of the cancelled Champions Trophy. Because of unwillingness by
senior players to go to Pakistan
for security reasons West Indies declined but it was hoped that the two
matches might take place in Abu Dhabi following
three ODIs there between Pakistan
and West Indies. This plan, too, was
scrapped on it 28 October, because the
tour was not part of the official FTP and West Indies Board had insufficient
time to negotiate touring terms with the players. With Australia
having cancelled their tour in March, there was no Test cricket in Pakistan in
2008. | |
Zimbabweans to England 2009 | UK
government would not issue visas to tourists | On 25 June 2008 the England & Wales
Cricket Board severed bilateral ties with Zimbabwe Cricket in response to
government advice. Gordon Brown’s government made clear that, if
the I C C would not “reconsider its rules to allow teams to forfeit tours to
countries, such as Zimbabwe,
where serious human rights abuses are occurring”, it would not issue visas to touring
cricketers from there, and so the
April-May 2009 tour was cancelled. | |
Sri Lankans to England 2009 | To accommodate the Indian
Premier League | The Sri Lankans were lined up to take Zimbabwe’s place and a programme
of fixtures had been agreed, but their board (SLC) had not obtained agreement
from players who were expecting to participate in the IPL and could do so
according to their contracts. The West Indians toured England in 2009 instead. Arjuna Ranatunga voiced disapproval of SLC for withdrawing from
the Test series He was part of a government-appointed body which ran cricket
at the time, but could not influence the decision and later stepped down from
his position. | |
West Indians to England 2010 | Knock-on effect of the 2009 Zimbabwe
tour cancellation | Brought forward to 2009.
When the Sri Lankans withdrew from the tour of England in 2009 the West Indies
Board filled the gap. The West Indians had thereby foregone touring England
in the later, probably warmer part of the summer in 2010 in order to provide
a Test team that would enable the ECB to fulfil their 2009 Sky TV contract. The
tourists’ performances in 2009 in temperatures that at times fell as low as 7°C
during the Chester-le-Street Test suggested they were far from comfortable
with their Board’s decision and they lost the two Test matches heavily. | |
| | | |
Indians to Sri Lanka 2012 (link) | Financial problems | India’s tour
went ahead in July but Sri Lanka Cricket had cancelled the two Test matches
against India.
A series of three one-day internationals and a Twenty20 were substituted,
later becoming five one-dayers and a T20, which would improve revenue
further. SLC badly needed to boost
income following the construction of new stadiums in Pallekele and Hambantota
for the 2011 World Cup. Indian players gained a five-week break after the IPL as a result
of cancelling the Test matches. | |
Sri Lankans to West Indies 2012-13 | To accommodate the Indian
Premier League | Both boards agreed to scrap the two Test matches from Sri Lanka's programme in the West Indies in
May 2013 and instead arranged to play a triangular ODI series involving India.
Thus players from both Sri Lanka
and West Indies would remain available to
appear in the Indian Premier League. | |
South Africans to Sri Lanka 2013 | To accommodate the Sri Lanka
Premier League | Three Test matches were scheduled for July and August 2013 but
Sri Lanka Cricket asked to postpone them in order to host a triangular
one-day series with West Indies and India instead With the Sri Lanka
Premier League starting in early August, the board decided that it would
rather not host the Tests, and CSA agreed to postpone the Test series until 2015,
this arrangement allowing them to manage players’ workload better. But in the
end the SLPL was cancelled for lack of sponsors. Scrapping three Test series in quick succession contrasted with
the 1980s and ‘90s when for five years there
were no Test matches on the island owing to the civil war because other
countries would not visit. | |
| | | |
Sri Lankans to Zimbabwe 2013 (link) | Financial problems | Sri Lanka Cricket confirmed on 23 August 2013 that it would take
part in Test match series in Zimbabwe
in October. However, within a week Zimbabwe Cricket asked for a postponement
of the tour owing to some “challenging issues” the Board was facing (namely,
severe financial problems amounting to $18 million of debt, according to ESPNcricinfo) and could not afford to
mount the Test matches. | |
| | | |