Australian cricket team in the West Indies in 1990–91

The Australian cricket team toured the West Indies in the 1990–91 season to play a five-match Test series against the West Indies.

The West Indies won the series 2–1 with two matches drawn. The West Indies therefore retained the Sir Frank Worrell Trophy.

Australian squad

Australia had just defeated England 3–0 at home during the 1990–91 season. The team has recovered from the defeats of the mid 80s and there was hope the team could beat the West Indies in a series for the first time since 1975–76. Wisden wrote that the tour "began with exalted expectations of an epic contest between arguably the two strongest teams in the game."^[1]

The Australian squad was as follows:

Batsmen – Allan Border (captain), Geoff Marsh (vice-captain), David Boon, Dean Jones, Mark Taylor, Mark Waugh, Steve Waugh, Mike Veletta (also back up keeper)
Fast bowlers – Terry Alderman, Craig McDermott, Mike Whitney, Merv Hughes, Bruce Reid
Spinners – Greg Matthews, Peter Taylor
Wicketkeeper – Ian Healy

Tests

The West Indies won the second and fourth tests easily. Australia won the fifth test.

1st Test at Sabina Park, Kingston – match drawn
2nd Test at Bourda, Georgetown – West Indies won by 10 wickets
3rd Test at Queen's Park Oval, Port of Spain, Trinidad – match drawn
4th Test at Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados – West Indies won by 343 runs
5th Test at Antigua Recreation Ground, St John's – Australia won by 157 runs

Controversy

A book was written about the tour, Calypso Cricketers by Roland Fishman, in which some Australian cricketers were quoted bragging about how many women they slept with.^[2] This was seen as a breach of the unspoken agreement between players and journalists for the latter not to report on the former's private lives, and embarrassed Greg Matthews, who was a friend of Fishman's, and who helped him get access to the players. Matthews:

Fishman lied to me. He bludged my money, my clothes, my bed and he told me he was writing a story about cricket in the Caribbean and the way of life. It was anything but that. He deceived me to the max. I haven’t seen him since and next time I see him I’ll be spitting in his face.^[3]

References

↑ Australian Cricket Team in West Indies 1990–91 at Wisden
↑ Peter Badel, "The party's over for playboys of sport", The Sunday Mail (Qld) December 06, 2009 accessed 19 December 2012
↑ Andrew Webster, "What's the Go, Mo?", Inside Sport accessed 19 December 2012

External links

Australian cricket team in the West Indies 1990–91 at Cricket Archive
Australian cricket team in the West Indies 1990–91 at Cricinfo

International cricket tours of the West Indies

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