West Indian cricket team in England in 1988
The West Indian cricket team played 16 first-class cricket matches in England in 1988, under the captaincy of Viv Richards. The West Indies enjoyed tremendous success during the tour, while England endured a "disastrous summer" of continuous change.
England easily won the initial three-match One Day International series, retaining the Texaco Trophy and raising expectations for a successful summer in the five-match Test series to follow. However, the West Indies comfortably retained the Wisden Trophy by winning the Test series 4–0. This tour has become known in cricketing circles as the "summer of four captains" as England used four different captains in the five Test matches.
West Indian team
By the summer of 1988, the West Indies had experienced nearly ten years as the best Test team in world cricket, including a streak of winning 10 of 11 Test series they played from 1980 to 1985–86. However, the West Indies side that had enjoyed this considerable recent success was beginning to show signs of ageing. The experienced batsmen Viv Richards, Gordon Greenidge, Jeff Dujon, and Desmond Haynes were aged 36, 37, and 32 respectively at the start of the Test series, and bowlers Michael Holding and Joel Garner and batsman Larry Gomes had recently retired. As a result, the squad arrived with an inexperienced group of pace bowlers: supporting Malcolm Marshall, a veteran of 53 Tests, were relative newcomers Courtney Walsh, Patrick Patterson, Winston Benjamin, Curtly Ambrose and Ian Bishop.The West Indies' most recent series had been a hard-fought 1–1 draw at home against Pakistan, but their previous two Test series against England had both resulted in 5–0 victories. The first of these, in England in 1984, was the first whitewash England had suffered since the 1920–21 season when England toured Australia, while the second occurred in the Caribbean in 1985–86. These two one-sided victories by the West Indies became known as "blackwashes".
English team
By contrast, the English team had suffered a run of bad performances spanning several years, winning only seven of their previous 52 Tests. The England side had most recently toured Australia, drawing the Bicentennial Test and losing the only One Day International played, and New Zealand, drawing all three Test matches and sharing the ODIs 2–2. Before this, they had endured a "hostile" and highly controversial tour of Pakistan, during which an argument between captain Mike Gatting and umpire Shakoor Rana had led to a diplomatic incident. The three match series was lost 1–0, but the "teasing, taunting... bemusing" performance of leg-spinner Abdul Qadir, who took 30 wickets in three Tests, was unlikely to be repeated, given that the West Indies' only specialist spinner was Roger Harper, an off-break bowler.Despite having lost 5–0 to the West Indies in each of the two most recent series, including a so-called "Blackwash", England had grounds for optimism leading up to the Test series: the West Indian team was ageing and lacked a leg-spinner; and the England team had home advantage. England's morale was also surging following good performances in the shorter form of the game: the team had reached the World Cup Final the previous year, losing to Australia, and were expected to do well in One Day International cricket, even against the West Indies.
England's "summer of four captains"
As the series unfolded, England were dominated by the West Indians in "the crazy summer of 1988". Wisden was moved to comment "The morale and reputation of English cricket has seldom been as severely bruised as it was during the 1988 Cornhill Insurance Test series against West Indies".The significance of there being four captains in just five Test matches can better be understood with context. The captain of a cricket team performs a vital role. Unlike many other team sports, the captain makes crucial decisions regarding on-field tactics, and may also have an important say in team selection. Traditionally, captains of international teams are not changed frequently – for example, between 1977 and 1988, only seven different men captained England, yet there were four captains in just a few weeks in the summer of 1988.
| Captained | Name | Age | County | Tests as captain |
| First Test | Mike Gatting | 31 | Middlesex | 23 |
| Second Test | John Emburey | 36 | Middlesex | 2 |
| Third Test | John Emburey | 36 | Middlesex | 2 |
| Fourth Test | Chris Cowdrey | 30 | Kent | 1 |
| Fifth Test | Graham Gooch | 35 | Essex | 34 |
The many changes of captain over the summer reflected uncertainty in the English cricketing establishment as to how to respond to the drubbing the team was receiving from the West Indies; the selectors "did not seem to know where to turn, either for a new captain or for a settled team".
The England team had not suffered such uncertainty since the West Indies tour of England in 1966, where the selectors chose 23 different players and three different captains and England lost the five-Test series 3–1. Coincidentally, Peter May was on the Board of Selectors for the 1966 series, while he was chairman of the board of Selectors for the 1988 series.
Statistical summary
Before the Test series began, the West Indian cricket team played three One Day Internationals against England in May 1988. All of the ODIs were won by England, largely thanks to disciplined, economical bowling by Gladstone Small, Phil DeFreitas and Derek Pringle throughout and good batting performances from Gatting in the First and Third ODIs. England retained the Texaco Trophy.| ODI | Ground | Result | Date | |
| First | Edgbaston | England won by 6 wickets | 19 May | |
| Second | Headingley | England won by 47 runs | 21 May | |
| Third | Lord's | England won by 7 wickets | 23, 24 May |
The ODIs were followed by five Test matches. The First Test was drawn, and the remaining four Tests were all won convincingly by the West Indies.
| Test | Ground | Result | Dates | |
| First | Trent Bridge | Match drawn | 2–7 June | |
| Second | Lord's | West Indies won by 134 runs | 16–21 June | |
| Third | Old Trafford | West Indies won by an innings and 156 runs | 30 June – 5 July | |
| Fourth | Headingley | West Indies won by ten wickets | 21–26 July | |
| Fifth | The Oval | West Indies won by eight wickets | 4–8 August |
The West Indies played 11 first-class matches, in addition to the five Tests,
defeating Somerset in May and Kent in June. The other nine first-class matches, and the First Test, were all drawn:
Sussex,
Gloucestershire,
Worcestershire,
Lancashire,
Northamptonshire,
Leicestershire,
Glamorgan,
Nottinghamshire,
and Essex. During the match against Gloucestershire at Bristol, immediately after the ODI series, Phil Simmons suffered a horrific injury, receiving a ball to the head from bowler David Lawrence. Not wearing a helmet, the blow caused his heart to stop and he had to be taken to hospital where he underwent emergency brain surgery. He missed the rest of the tour, but made a full recovery in time for the 1991 West Indies tour of England.
In addition to the One Day Internationals, there were four other non-first-class fixtures. West Indies beat Lavinia, Duchess of Norfolk's XI in a 40-over match, Hampshire in a 50-over match and a combined Oxford and Cambridge Universities team over three days; they also drew with Minor Counties in a two-day match.
One Day Internationals
England won the Texaco Trophy 3–0.1st ODI
England dropped Hemmings, Athey and Radford from their team. They won the toss and elected to put the West Indies in to bat. Simmons and Greenidge made a first-wicket partnership of 34 before the former was caught by Lamb off the bowling of Dilley. Bowling alternate overs, Pringle and Small then dismissed Greenidge, Richards and Richardson, leaving the West Indies on 72 for four. Logie and Hooper were restricted to singles as the England captain Gatting kept a tight in-field. Hooper made his half-century before being dismissed one run later, caught by Emburey off the bowling of Small. Logie fell to Small 11 runs later, caught behind, with the score on 180 for six. The West Indies tail-enders provided little resistance to England, and the innings concluded with the visitors being dismissed for 217 off the last ball.In reply, Gooch and Broad had a confident start and made an opening partnership of 70 before Broad was caught by Greenidge off Marshall's bowling. With the West Indies focus on restricting Gatting, Gooch was able to progress relatively unhindered but was dismissed for 43 by Ambrose, caught by Harper, and England were 119 for two. Then, described by Mike Selvey, writing in The Guardian, as a "loony period of kamikaze running", Lynch was run out on his debut while both Gatting and Lamb narrowly avoided a similar fate. The latter was bowled by Hooper on 11, with England then 153 for four. Gatting, partnered by Pringle, made his fifty, and guided England to the total required with five overs to spare, winning the match by six wickets. Small was named man of the match for what Selvey described as "inspired bowling".
2nd ODI
The second ODI, at Headingley, saw the West Indies win the toss and elect to field. They dropped Harper to play four fast bowlers, yet Gooch and Broad made a steady start, scoring 17 off the first three overs. Scyld Berry described the subsequent period of batting as "one awful struggle against the fast bowlers" and compared it to Test match play. When Gatting was caught by Richards off Marshall's bowling, England were 64 for two, Lynch, Lamb and Gooch all failed to make an impression as their team collapsed to 83 for five. Pringle and Downton then put on a sixth-wicket partnership of 66 before the former was caught behind by Dujon. Berry noted that Richards' insistence on bowling himself denied "his best bowlers" six overs. Downton made 30 before falling to Bishop with England on 154 for seven, but with DeFreitas making 15, supported by Emburey and Small, England concluded their innings on 186 for eight.The West Indies made a poor start to their reply, losing Simmons, Richardson and Greenidge to be 38 for three. Despite some resistance from their captain Richards, he was bowled by Small after making a quick 31, and with Logie with Lynch catching from Dilley's bowling, the visitors were 67 for five. Dujon made 12 before being bowled by Pringle, and Marshall was by Gooch for 1. Hooper made 12 before being caught leg before wicket by Pringle, and despite a 28-run ninth wicket partnership between Ambrose and Walsh, the West Indies were bowled out in the 47th over, on 139, to lose the second ODI by 47 runs. Pringle, scoring 39 with the bat and with bowling figures of 3 for 30, was named man of the match.
3rd ODI
The third ODI, at Lord's, saw Radford replace Dilley for England, the latter suffering from a "viral complaint". The match was disrupted several times by rain: a single ball was bowled by England, who had won the toss and elected to field, before the first weather delay of the day curtailed play. A first-wicket partnership of 40 between Greenidge and Haynes was followed by poor innings from Richardson, Logie and Richards, whose wicket fell after making 13 runs from 46 deliveries, with the West Indies on 95 for five. Hooper was then run out on 12 before the innings was brought to an early close due to poor weather, on 125 for six, with five overs remaining. The following morning, Marshall and Dujon took the attack to England and scored 53 runs in the final overs, ending the West Indies innings on 178 for seven. Gooch and Broad made a 71-run opening partnership before the former was stumped off Hooper's bowling. Broad was dismissed with England on 108 for two, but Gatting and Lynch, then Lamb, saw England reach the total with relative ease, winning by seven wickets with five overs to spare. The West Indies conceded the highest number of extras in the ODI format, conceding 42 runs mainly from leg byes and no balls.DeFreitas was named man of the match as England whitewashed the one-day series against the West Indies for the first time ever.
Test matches
First Test
Gatting was the incumbent England captain for the First Test at Trent Bridge. England won the toss and elected to bat, making 220 for five on the first day, with an opening partnership of 125 between Gooch and Broad. Marshall picked up four wickets, including England's top three, with Ambrose claiming the fifth wicket. Play was extended by thirty minutes due to the slow over rate of the West Indies. The West Indies dominated the second day, with Ambrose and Marshall taking the remaining five wickets for 22 runs, the latter taking 6 wickets for 69 runs. In reply, Greenidge and Haynes made a first-wicket partnership of 54 against the bowling of Dilley and DeFreitas, before Greenidge was caught behind from the bowling of Jarvis. Richardson was then caught by Gatting off Emburey for 17. Richards entered the field and between him and Haynes, took the West Indies to 125 for two by close of play. Day three was rain-affected, with England managing to take the wickets of Richards and Haynes, but only after both had made half-centuries. Play closed early due to the inclement weather with the West Indies on 264 for 4, holding a lead of 19 with six wickets remaining. A rest day followed the third day, and on day four, the West Indies extended their lead over England. With 80 from Hooper, and an eighth-wicket partnership of 91 between Ambrose and Marshall, Richards declared on 448 for 9, a lead of 203, with less than four hours of the day's play remaining. England made slow progress for the remainder of the day, making it to 67 for one after 31 overs, with opener Gooch not out on 38. On day five, Gooch continued to dominate the West Indian bowlers, and partnered first by Gatting and then Gower, he scored 146 as England ended the day on 301 for three and securing the draw.Before the Second Test, Gatting was sacked for an alleged off-field indiscretion with a barmaid. The tabloid media made allegations of "shenanigans" in his room; he "admitted taking... into his room but denied anything untoward had happened". During the previous winter, Gatting had been involved in an on-field altercation with umpire Shakoor Rana in Pakistan that snowballed into a diplomatic disaster with the third day of the second Test in Faisalabad being abandoned and accusations of cheating. His recently published autobiography Leading From The Front "...was banned in all shops on county grounds. Gatting was good enough to lead Middlesex and England, but spectators couldn't buy his book at Lord's". This proved to be Gatting's last match as captain. He had captained England in 23 Test matches since taking charge against India in 1986, but won only two.
Second Test
Gatting was replaced as England captain by his Middlesex colleague John Emburey. Writing in The Guardian, Mike Selvey suggested that "the England captaincy at present has all the appeal and life expectancy of a South American dictatorship" and suggested that Emburey's position was "more tenuous than most have been at the time of their appointment". Gatting was also dropped from the team, replaced by Yorkshire's Martyn Moxon. DeFreitas was also replaced, by Small, but the tourists were unchanged. England lost the toss and the West Indies opted to bat first. England began the Test with "an inspirational morning session" of fast bowling from Dilley, who took four of the first five wickets to fall to reduce the West Indies to 54/5. At lunch on the first day, Dilley had figures of 4/35, and "he would have taken five had Pringle at first slip caught Logie when he was 10". Logie and Dujon settled in to score 81 and 53 respectively, as the West Indies were eventually all out for 209. In reply, England lost Broad for a duck, and ended the day on 20 for one. Moxon, Gower and Gooch all contributed to getting England up to 112 for two, but from then on, the West Indies seam bowling dominated, with Marshall taking 6/32, and with England all out on 165, helped secure a first-innings lead for the visitors of 44 runs. Greenidge and Haynes then faced 6.3 overs between them before the day's play came to a close.On day three, the touring batsmen completely dominated England's bowlers, adding a further 334 runs, including a century from Greenidge and fifties from Richards and Logie. The West Indies held a 398-run with five wickets in hand as play closed for the day. During the rest day, it was confirmed that Emburey would remain as England captain for the third Test. The fourth day of the second Test match began with England's bowlers taking the remaining five wickets for 43 runs in 11 overs, with the West Indies all out for 397 which set England a target of 442 to win. Logie ended on 95 not out as he ran out of batting partners with both Ambrose and Walsh out for ducks. Other than Lamb who scored 99 not out, England's top order offered little resistance to the West Indies bowling attack, and they ended the day on 214 for seven. The final day saw good innings from a number of the England tail with Downton scoring 27, Emburey 30, Jarvis 29* and Dilley 28, but the final wicket fell soon after lunch. England were all out for 307 and lost the Test match by 134 runs.
Third Test
The England team had a different look for the third Test, with four changes to the team. The 36-year-old Essex off-spinner John Childs made his debut, becoming the oldest England debutant since Peter Smith in 1949. Childs joined the recalled Gatting and DeFreitas, and newcomer David Capel. Small and Paul Jarvis were both unavailable as a result of injury, and Pringle was dropped. Most media attention however was focused on Chris Broad, who was also dropped, "ostensibly for his consistent failure to make runs in home Tests, but there was always a suspicion that he was being disciplined for the incident at Lord's when he was spotted by a television camera mouthing his disappointment at an lbw decision". For West Indies, Haynes was unfit, ending a run of 72 consecutive caps. He was replaced by the spinner Harper, and Patterson was replaced by Benjamin.England won the toss and elected to bat, and were quickly two wickets, on 14 for two. Only Gooch, Lamb and Downton offered any real resistance to the West Indian fast bowling attack, as England were bowled out for 135. No batsman scored more than 33 in England's first innings, as the four quick bowlers shared the wickets. Selvey, in The Guardian, was unforgiving in his criticism: "it was pathetic: a capitulation" and that the "debacle was inexcusable". In reply, the West Indies made it to 242 for five by the end of a rain-affected second day, with Greenidge scoring 45 and Richards 47. up 384/7, again without a century, in a team effort down to and including man-of-the-match Marshall, who scored 43* batting at number eight. Needing 249 to make West Indies bat again, England were dismissed for just 93, Marshall finishing with magnificent figures of 15.4–5–22–7, the best of his Test career. Extras were the third highest scorer, with 12. England were "unable to cope for any length of time with the West Indian fast bowlers" and never gave even a sign of competing in a one-sided affair. With such a huge margin of victory and such a poor performance, England were strongly criticised. After being bowled out for just 93 runs, and a personally very unsuccessful match, Emburey was sacked as England captain and dropped from the team.
Fourth Test
The England selectors surprised the cricket public with their new appointment as captain, selecting a player who many believed owed his appointment more to his father than his own ability. Chris Cowdrey was the son of Colin Cowdrey, an England captain in the 1960s and later given a knighthood and then life peerage for his services to the sport; Chris Cowdrey was also godson of the chairman of selectors, Peter May. Cowdrey was a successful captain of Kent in county cricket, but had played just five Tests previously, during the 1984–85 tour to India, captained by David Gower. He became only the second son to follow his father as captain of the England cricket team, after George Mann in the 1940s followed Frank Mann in the 1920s.The England side was thoroughly shaken-up following the debacle in the Third Test at Old Trafford. The selectors tried to turn things around with seven new faces in the team, the most extensive change of an England XI during a Test series since seven players were changed for the 1921 Ashes Tests against Australia at Lord's and Headingley. As well as Cowdrey replacing Emburey, the selectors also dropped Paul Downton, Martyn Moxon, Mike Gatting, David Capel, Phil Defreitas and John Childs in favour of Derek Pringle, Neil Foster, Bill Athey, and Jack Richards, with Tim Curtis and Robin Smith making their Test debuts. For the West Indies, both Greenidge and Richardson sat the match out, injured: Haynes returned, and a debut was handed to Keith Arthurton. Jeff Dujon was promoted up the batting order as a makeshift opener.
Apart from Pringle, who played in the First and Second Tests, none of the six new selections had played in the series so far, but the match followed the old pattern, as the England batting again failed twice against the hostile West Indies pace attack, only Lamb and Smith in the first innings and Gooch in the second offering much resistance. The side fell to a relatively facile defeat against a West Indies team whose own batsmen failed to dominate; they had no need. Curtly Ambrose secured his first man-of-the-match award for taking seven wickets at a cost of 98 runs – despite being hampered early on in the match, when a blocked drain resulted in the bowler's run-up area being waterlogged and in some places flooded with overflow rainwater, Ambrose being hapless bowler who was forced to bring the situation to the attention of the umpires so that play could be suspended and the playing area dried out.
An all-rounder with a moderate first class record, Cowdrey's debut as captain in the Fourth Test at Headingley was a disaster. He scored 0 and 5 and took no wickets, as England were crushed by 10 wickets, West Indies again winning at a canter. Worse for Cowdrey, he suffered a minor injury in a county match and was persuaded to step aside for the Fifth Test. He never played for England again.
Fifth Test
In desperation, the England selectors turned to 35-year-old Graham Gooch, stalwart opening batsman, as their fourth captain of the series, for the Fifth Test at The Oval. England also replaced Cowdrey with DeFreitas, dropped Gower for Matthew Maynard, and replaced the injured Allan Lamb with Rob Bailey, a recall and two Test debuts respectively. The tourists replaced the youngster Keith Arthurton with Greenidge, who had recovered from an injury.England won the toss and the new captain received the first ball, but Gooch was soon out with the score on only 12. Some solid top-order play followed, with Curtis, Bailey and Smith all making starts but getting out when well set. From 120/3, England lost their remaining wickets for 85, but that is perhaps less surprising than the fact that off-spinner Roger Harper took three of them. A lion-hearted response by the England bowlers, led by Neil Foster, gave England a chance of a rare win, as the West Indies were dismissed for 183, giving the England team their first first-innings lead of the series, 22 runs ahead.
In England's second innings, Gooch played a lone hand. With the exception of Foster, promoted as nightwatchman at the end of day two, no one else passed 15. When Gooch was last man out for 84 on the third day, England had compiled 202. The England bowlers managed to restrain the West Indian batsmen, Childs notably bowling 40 overs for just 79 runs, but, with more than two days left to play, there was little pressure on the West Indies, and they strolled to victory in 91 overs, losing just two wickets, with more than a day to spare.
Aftermath
Gooch had enjoyed a successful series against West Indies as a batsman, and remained in charge for England's next match, against Sri Lanka at Lord's later in 1988, in which he achieved his first victory as captain. England did not tour that winter – in large part due to India's objection to Gooch as England captain thanks to his participation in the 1981 rebel tour of South Africa, and due to other English players having played club cricket in South Africa. Exceptions might have been made for the rank and file players, but for the Indian government, Gooch's appointment as captain of a representative tour party was a step too far. As a result, England's planned tour to India was cancelled, Gooch was dropped from the captaincy, and David Gower returned to the captaincy for the six-match Ashes series at home against Australia in the summer of 1989. England lost 4–0, bringing Gower's long captaincy career to a close. A second "rebel" tour of South Africa, under Gatting – whom some had previously supported for a return to the captaincy, rather than Gower – removed a number of players from the England reckoning halfway through the summer, some of them regulars and most with at least occasional England experience, as no less than 30 players were tried in the six-match series – beating the record of 28, set only the previous summer: the players involved received the same three-year international ban as the 1981 party.Gooch thus took over again as England captain for the tour to West Indies in the winter of 1989–90 with only a couple of veterans in an otherwise almost new-look team: surprising everybody by winning one Test and drawing another before injury forced him out of the team, his hand being broken by fast bowler Ezra Moseley – ironically, Moseley was the only one of West Indies' rebel tourists to play international cricket after their ban was lifted. Gooch was replaced as captain for the remainder of the series by Allan Lamb, who lost both of his matches in charge. Gooch went on to captain England the following summer against New Zealand and India at home, remaining in that position almost exclusively until 1993 and bringing England a degree of success that they had not experienced for almost a decade, at least at home: the 1991 home series against the West Indies, in fact, was a hard-fought 2–2 draw, and England reached the World Cup final for the second successive time the following winter For much of this period, he was also rated as one of the world's leading batsmen. Away from home, though, England were not so strong, losing heavily to Australia in 1990-1 and to India and Sri Lanka in 1992-3, though these were either side of a series victory in New Zealand.
The West Indies team's next opposition was Australia where the team enjoyed a 3–1 Test series win on foreign soil, their only defeat in that series coming on a pitch friendly to spin bowling in which 11 wickets were taken by the occasional left-arm spin of Allan Border. "The West Indians made a slow start to their tour, losing twice to Western Australia before running into form... So effectively, at times irresistibly, did Vivian Richards's West Indian side play in the first three Test matches in Australia that by the New Year they had already retained the Frank Worrell Trophy."
The West Indies went on to record further Test series victories in the next two years, defeating India 3–0 in a four-Test series in the Caribbean in 1988–89, and narrowly beating England once again in the Caribbean in 1989–90. However, the team's long period of pre-eminence was coming to an end. For several of their senior players, the 1991 tour of England was a swansong: Richards, Marshall and Dujon all retired from Tests after the final match, while Greenidge had announced his intention to do likewise but was forced out of the tour by injury before the Tests began, and Logie also played his last Test on the tour. Nevertheless, the West Indies were to remain unbeaten in a Test series for a few more years yet, but never as dominant as they had been: and their 2–1 home defeat by Australia in 1994–95 saw the West Indies relinquish the mantle as the World's best Test cricket side to their visitors, and by the time that the International Cricket Council launched the official Test rankings in 2001, the West Indies were rated as the sixth best team in the world.
Squads
The following players represented England in at least one Test or One-day International during the 1988 tour:The following players represented West Indies on the 1988 tour of England: