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When a Welshman took England to India

Lillian Thomson

Hall of Fame Member
Who's David Taylor? I remember following this tour at the time. A very strange England team. Tony Lewis as captain was a nonsense. In those days India wasn't a good place to tour. It was easy to get ill, the hotels were unhygienic and on the field the umpiring to the Indian spinners was creative to say the least. Christopher Martin-Jenkins blamed this tour for David Steele's non selection four years later. Barry Wood was chosen after playing in the final Test of the 72 Ashes and scoring enough runs to warrant selection, but he struggled against the spinners. Four years later they decided to omit David Steele fearing the same thing would happen.
 

wpdavid

Hall of Fame Member
Who's David Taylor? I remember following this tour at the time. A very strange England team. Tony Lewis as captain was a nonsense. In those days India wasn't a good place to tour. It was easy to get ill, the hotels were unhygienic and on the field the umpiring to the Indian spinners was creative to say the least. Christopher Martin-Jenkins blamed this tour for David Steele's non selection four years later. Barry Wood was chosen after playing in the final Test of the 72 Ashes and scoring enough runs to warrant selection, but he struggled against the spinners. Four years later they decided to omit David Steele fearing the same thing would happen.
Illingworth, Boycott and Edrich all opted out of the tour. I suppose Denness may have been a better bet as skipper as at least he was broadly in the frame as a test player and was captaining a very successful Kent side. At least I think he was in 1972. Greig was probably deemed too inexperienced and may not even have been captaining Sussex in 1972.
 

Lillian Thomson

Hall of Fame Member
Illingworth, Boycott and Edrich all opted out of the tour. I suppose Denness may have been a better bet as skipper as at least he was broadly in the frame as a test player and was captaining a very successful Kent side. At least I think he was in 1972. Greig was probably deemed too inexperienced and may not even have been captaining Sussex in 1972.
Denness had only just taken over from Cowdrey that summer and Greig had only played 5 Tests (5 more than Lewis of course) and wasn’t captain of Sussex yet. Fletcher was the only really established batsman in the team and he wasn’t a County captain yet either. Perhaps Lewis was the only England qualified captain available if they deemed captaincy experience to be vital.
 
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fredfertang

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
I think they might have. He was the reigning captain having captained England in the first ODI Series against Australia after the 72 Ashes.
I completely forgot about that, but it seems he wasn't asked - according to Swanton MJK Smith was asked after Illingworth, and that after he turned it down the choice was between Lewis and (also at that time uncapped) Mike Brearley - can't see anything in Close's autobiography about it
 

Lillian Thomson

Hall of Fame Member
I know most people will find this 70's stuff boring, but mention of MJK Smith who retired from cricket for a few years and was then recalled by England in 1972, plus the likes of Brearley and Lewis shows that we didn't produce any young batsman of genuine quality for a very long time until the Gower/Gatting era.
 

Borges

International Regular
Keith Fetcher was a good batsman, after his first fifteen or so test matches.
From the Madras test in Jan 1973 (which is the only time I have seen him; still remember his majestic 97*) to the end of his career, he averaged a shade above 50.
 

wpdavid

Hall of Fame Member
Keith Fetcher was a good batsman, after his first fifteen or so test matches.
From the Madras test in Jan 1973 (which is the only time I have seen him; still remember his majestic 97*) to the end of his career, he averaged a shade above 50.
That astonishes me. Maybe they just didn't pick him against anyone above medium-fast, because I always regarded him as hopeless against bowlers who were even a bit lively. Good against the spinners though.

EDIT
Looks like I was a bit harsh there. He actually scored well against the 1973 & 1974 WI attacks, for whom Boyce & Julien were reasonably lively, if not as fearsome as the guys that followed. Obviously he struggled against the mid-1970s Australians, but so did nearly everyone. He enjoyed a really good period from January 1973 to August 1974; 22 tests when he averaged 65 against WI, India, Pakistan and NZ. After being dropped due to said struggles against Aus, he was actually pretty meh when brought back to tour India in 1976/77 and 1981/82. But credit where due. His overall average of 39.9 was fairly respectable in those days.
 
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Lillian Thomson

Hall of Fame Member
That astonishes me. Maybe they just didn't pick him against anyone above medium-fast, because I always regarded him as hopeless against bowlers who were even a bit lively. Good against the spinners though.

EDIT
Looks like I was a bit harsh there. He actually scored well against the 1973 & 1974 WI attacks, for whom Boyce & Julien were reasonably lively, if not as fearsome as the guys that followed. Obviously he struggled against the mid-1970s Australians, but so did nearly everyone. He enjoyed a really good period from January 1973 to August 1974; 22 tests when he averaged 65 against WI, India, Pakistan and NZ. After being dropped due to said struggles against Aus, he was actually pretty meh when brought back to tour India in 1976/77 and 1981/82. But credit where due. His overall average of 39.9 was fairly respectable in those days.
He obviously wasn't a truly great batsman but for a three year period before being destroyed by Lillee and Thomson he Greig and Knott at 5,6,7 dug England out of a hole on quite a few occasions.
 

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