M.C.C. Aims To Salvage Prestige

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31561, 26 December 1967, Page 10

M.C.C. Aims To Salvage Prestige

(N.Z P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) LONDON. The fittest and most thoroughly prepared M.C.C. team to leave London will fly to Bridgetown, in Barbados, tomorrow, determined to salvage lost prestige against the cricketers of the West Indies. Convincing victories by the magnificent West Indies elevens in England during 1963 and 1966 still rankle with England’s cricketers. They are determined to redress the balance. M. C. Cowdrey, with the unfortunate controversy over the captaincy behind him, now leads a confident and united side. To enable the Englishmen to spend Christmas at home, the M.C.C. has deserted the traditional “banana-boat” passage and the team will arrive

by air with only 48 hours before the first match.

With no time for a gradual transition from an English winter to the sun-baked West Indian fields, the M.C.C. players have kept themselves in training since the end of the English season nearly four months ago. Their preparations reached a climax last week by intensive indoor net practices coupled with tactical talks. Not for the first time in cricket history, England has banked on experience to see it through—a good bet in the exacting atmosphere of West Indian cricket before the most volatile crowds in the world. Senior Player T. Graveney, at 40, is the senior English player. He first visited the Caribbean with L. Hutton’s 1953-54 side and has returned three times since with unofficial teams. Eight years ago, however, he missed selection for P. May's Graveney made his successful return to test cricket after seven years in the wilderness against the 1966 West

Indians and has always scored heavily against their bowling. It is worth recalling that P. Hendren, the great Middlesex and England batsman, had his forty-first birthday halfway through the M.C.C. 1929-30 tour to the West Indies when he enjoyed the most remarkable record of success by any Englishman overseas.

Hendren scored four undefeated double centuries on that tour finishing with an aggregate of 1765 runs at an average 135.76. Graveney will no doubt be pleased if he does half as well. Ninth Tour

This will be the ninth M.C.C. side to tour the West Indies, although official tests were not played until the fourth M.C.C. team visited in 1929-30 under F. Calthorpe.

The itinerary this time follows the usual pattern with at least one test and matches agains the senior XI and colts in each of the four major cricketing centres. Two tests will be at Port of Spain, in Trinidad.

A new fixture against promising players selected by the president of the West Indies board of control will be played at Bridgetown, and the M.C.C. will also meet the Leeward Islands and the Windward Islands. The latter match is being played at Castries, on St Lucia, which has not been visited by any international side since before the First World War. Five-day Testa

Unlike recent touring sides in the Caribbean, England this time will play five-day tests of five hours and a half each day, instead of six-day games. The final test will be extended to six days if the series has not been decided by the fourth match. For both teams the coming series marks the start of a hectic international programme. England will meet Australia as soon as the team returns home and next October will leave to tour South Africa. About the same time the West Indies will embark for Australia and New Zealand.