Tour of India 2008-09                    Captain :  Kevin Pietersen           

England’s 95th Test tour

(November - December 2008)

Fifteenth Test-playing tour of India by England     

   (previous tour  2005-06)

England were 5-0 down in the one-day series and on their way to the next game when news came through about the terrorist attack on the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai and the team was hurriedly brought home. The E C B immediately accepted the Indian Board’s request to return and play the Test series. Persuaded by a combination of making a humanitarian gesture, the promise of ‘presidential levels of security’ and the obligations of being contracted, the England players soon agreed that it was their duty to the game to return to India.

The first Test was relocated to Chennai, at a safer distance from the scene of the terrorism. Strangely, the second was rescheduled at Mohali, relatively close the Pakistan border, which turned out to be an unsuitable venue in any case because of poor light at this time of year.

Andrew Strauss scored a century in each innings at Chennai and India were set a 4th innings target of 386 runs, which had never before been reached in a Test in India. But Sachin Tendulkar’s innings of 103* snatched a great victory for India, a powerful symbol of defiance to the terrorists. The second Test at Mohali was drawn as too much time was lost to bad light and fog, so India held the RBS Cup by winning the two-Test series 1-0.

Other England tours

Previous Test tour

New Zealand 2007-08

Next Test tour

West indies 2008-09

Next tour of  India

2012-13

Members of the Test tour party (16)

Opening batsmen:  Alistair Cook, Andrew Strauss,

Middle-order batsmen Ian Bell, Keven Pietersen, Paul Collingwood, Owais Shah

Wicket-keepers: Matt Prior, Tim Ambrose

All-rounders:  Andrew Flintoff, Luke Wright

Slow bowlers: Graeme Swann, Monty Panesar, Adil Rashid (non-playing)

Fast bowlers: Stuart Broad, James Anderson, Amjad Khan, Steve Harmison

On 9 September 2008 the ECB had announced centrla contracts to :

James Anderson,  Ian Bell,  Stuart Broad,  Paul Collingwood,  Alastair Cook,  Andrew Flintoff,  Steve Harmison,  Kevin Pietersen,  Monty Panesar,  Ryan Sidebottom,  Andrew Strauss,  Michael Vaughan.

County representation:

Dm - Durham (2)

Ex  -  Essex (1)

Ha - Hampshire (1)

Kt  -  Kent (1)

La - Lancashire (2)

Mx - Middlesex (2)

Nth - Northamptonshire (1)

Nt - Nottinghamshire (2)

Sx - Sussex (1)

Wk - Warwickshire (2)

Yo - Yorkshire (1)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(11 December 2008): 

    27 yrs  7 months.

Test Appearances made before the tour

⋆ Tour Officials

During the one-day series Phil Neale flew home for knee surgery, Reg Dickason taking over his role.

Selectors

Geoff Miller (chairman of selectors),  Peter Moores (coach),   Ashley Giles,  James Whitaker and Kevin Pietersen (captain).

Selection

One-day squad announced:   9 September 2008 (for both the “Stanford Super Series” in Antigua and ODI matches in India)

Not considered:   Michael Vaughan (to take a break from international cricket).

Test Tour Party Announced  : 29 September 2008.

Not selected:  Ravi Bopara,  Tim Bresnan.

Withdrawn:.  Ryan Sidebottom (back injury).  Amjad Khan was added to the squad on 7 December, as was Adil Rashid  to gain experience as a non-playing squad member.

Time between selection and departure from England

   42 / 36 days

 (9/29 September -

            21 October/ 4 November)

Travel

Antigua  Q  London   Q  Mumbai

London  Q  Dubai   Q  Chennai

The England one-day side first flew to Antigua on 21 October to compete in the Stanford Super Series tournament.

The one-day squad flew from Antigua (where they had lost the Stanford millions match on 1 November) via London (where there was a 12-hour stopover) and arrived in Mumbai on 6 November.

On 4 December the Test players arrived in Abu Dhabi  for a practice and training camp while security arrangements in India were checked. Nine Performance Squad players (Ravi Bopara,  Mark Davies, Robbie Joseph, Sajid Mahmood, Samit Patel, Liam Plunkett, Ollie Rayner, Alan Richardson) had also flown to Abu Dhabi to be on stand-by.

The team departed for India in two batches, one from Abu Dhabi and one from Dubai, on Monday, and the players touched down in Chennai on 8 December.

Stuart Broad remained in England for physiotherapy on his strained hamstring and flew out to Chennai in time to be considered for the second Test

Time spent in India

    23 + 16 = 39 days

(6 November -  29 November)

(8 December - 24 December

On-tour selection panel

-

Reinforcements

Ryan Sidebottom needed a scan on his back before the third ODI and did not play again on tour, and had to withdraw from the Test side. Amjad Khan and Sajid Mahmood were about to reinforce the one-day side when the last two matches were cancelled and the players returned home.

Fixtures/Results

† not first-class

§  one-day international

The Test teams were competing for the RBS Cup

Time spent in India before First Test:   22  +  3  days

(6 to 28 November/8  to 11 December)

Test appearances on tour

2  -   Anderson,  Bell,  Collingwood,  Cook,  Flintoff,  Panesar,  Pietersen,  Prior,  Strauss,  Swann

1  -   Broad,  Harmison.

0  -   Ambrose,  Amjad Khan,  Shah   (Rashid was a non-playing member of the squad)

Match appearances

T  Test match

o  one-day international 

x other match 

⊕ T/20 international

W won  L lost  D drawn  T  tied

N no result   A abandoned

u unknown result  C cancelled

Highlights

•  Andrew Strauss hit a hundred in each innings (123 and 108) at Chennai in his first match for six weeks.

•  Strauss and Alastair Cook (52) shared a century opening partnership of 118 at Chennai

•  Paul Collingwood added another century in the second innings to set India the challenging target of 387 to win

•  Kevin Pietersen scored 144 while nursing a broken rib in the second Test at Mohali

•  Graeme Swann on debut was leading wicket-taker with 8 in the two Test matches but at a cost of 39 runs each

Tour Summary

F  Fixtures   W  Won   L  Lost   D Drawn   T  Tied  Canc  Cancelled  Aban  abandoned

Return to England

Delhi  Q  London

The one-day squad left their northern base of Bhubaneshwar for Bangalore to find flights to return home. They arrived back at Heathrow Airport in London on Saturday 29 November.

They flew to Abu Dhabi on Thursday 4 December, awaiting the seculrity consultant, Reg Dickason’s report on safety arrangements at Chennai.

Return to England from Mohali :  arrived back in London on 24 December. 

Time away from England

  23 + 20 days  

(6 November - 29 November)

(4 December - 24 December)

Finances

The England team donated half their match fees from the first Test against India to a fund for victims of the attacks in Mumbai.

Accounts of the tour

Postscript

M S Dhoni thanked the England team for returning to India, to reassure everyone that it was a safe place.

Peter Moores, the coach, and Kevin Pietersen, the captain, had not seen eye to eye but when the press began to shed light on the rift between them, they could no longer work cooperatively together. The E C B  was unable to achieve a reconciliation and dispensed with both of them.

With the tour of West Indies only weeks away, Hugh Morris, managing director of English cricket, called on Andrew Strauss to take over the captaincy, while batting coach Andy Flower was appointed interim coach.

Other Test tours in 2008-09

Acknowledgements

To general reading of The Times newspaper digital archive (Gale Group);  Jamaica Gleanor archive;  National Library of Australia Trove; Papers Past NZ.

From former British Newspaper Library, Colindale and online:  The Age, Melbourne Argus, Bangladesh Daily Star, Barbados Advocate, Canberra Times, Daily Telegraph, Dawn, Eastern Daily Press, The Hindu, The Independent (Dhaka), Indian Express, The Island (Lanka), Lahore Times, New Nation, New Zealand Auckland Herald, Sri Lanka Daily News, Stabroek News, Straits Times, Sydney Morning Herald, The Telegraph (Calcutta), Times of India , The Tribune Chandigarh, Trinidad Guardian, The West Australian.

cricketweb.net;  ESPN cricinfo;  cricket archive; www.cricketcountry; www.coverpoint

Magazines/periodicals including Australian Cricket, B & H West Indies Annual, The Cricketer International, Cricketer Quarterly, Indian Cricket, Indian Cricket Field Annual, Playfair Cricket Monthly, Shell Cricket Almanack of New Zealand, Wisden Cricket Monthly, Wisden Book of Test Cricket, Wisden’s Cricketers’ Almanack.

Men In White, A History of Australian Cricket (Harte), A History of Indian Cricket (Bose), A History of West Indies Cricket (Manley)

Biography and tour books (own collection and at the M.C.C. Library at Lord’s Ground)                     ALL CONTENTS OF THE TEST-CRICKET-TOURS.CO.UK WEBSITE  ARE COPYRIGHT