The West Indian cricket team in England in 1991 played three one day internationals and five Tests, under the captaincy of Viv Richards, as part of an extensive tour in which they also played first-class matches against 11 first-class county teams, the combined Minor Counties, the Combined Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and a World XI to finish, plus 55-over one-day matches against one more first-class county (Gloucestershire) and the Duchess of Norfolk's Invitation XI. Of the non-international matches, West Indies defeated Kent, Middlesex and Leicestershire in the longer matches, and Gloucestershire over 55 overs, and lost only the opening match against the Duchess of Norfolk's XI: all the other matches were drawn, although some were close to a finish. England, by contrast with the previous disastrous tour of 1988, were a far more settled side, and gave a far better account of themselves under the captaincy of Graham Gooch.
The ODI series was won 3-0 by England: the Test series was drawn 2-2.
West Indian squad
The West Indies of 1988 had been thought to be quite a mixture, of aging batsmen with only Hooper as a real newcomer, and younger bowlers with only Marshall as a veteran. The basic core of the squad was almost the same, three years later: Gordon Greenidge promising that this time really would be his final tour, as did Viv Richards and wicketkeeper Jeff Dujon, while Desmond Haynes was also aging but would hang around a few years yet, Gus Logie had the intention to do likewise, Richie Richardson had matured into one of the best batsmen in the world - throughout the tour he fought with England's Gooch and Smith over this designation, the actual ranking changing hands several times - and Carl Hooper also now sure of his place. Phil Simmons, the reserve opening batsman who had suffered a serious head injury in a county match three years before, was hoping to get a chance most likely in the county or one-day matches, and Brian Lara, the only left-hander in the squad, was already being talked about as the next big thing in West Indian batting. Reserve wicketkeeper David Williams was there mainly to be tried out in the county matches, with a view to taking over after Dujon's retirement. For the bowlers, Malcolm Marshall was already planning to join Richards, Greenidge and Dujon in retirement after the tour, but Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh, both fairly new in 1988, were now seasoned regulars with many more years in the side ahead of them. But after those three, the picture was less clear. Pat Patterson, fast but erratic, had never quite cemented a place in the team: but Winston Benjamin, often his rival for the last position, had been left behind. Instead, the last three places had gone to Ian Bishop, brilliant but as it turned out injury-prone (he was forced to pull out of the tour before it set off), and to two rookies, Ian Allen and Hamish Anthony - both fairly unproven even at first-class level. There had been some talk of giving a place to Ezra Moseley, who had played when England toured the West Indies in 1989-90; if Moseley, as one of the rebel tourists of South Africa in the early 1980s, could be forgiven, then a case could have been made to invite another such rebel tourist, Franklyn Stephenson. Stephenson was now regularly producing brilliance with both bat and ball for Nottinghamshire, but the selectors decided that both were aging, and opted for youth. They also did not select a specialist spin bowler in the squad, deciding that Hooper and the aging Richards would be most likely all the spin bowling they would need.
England players
England had, if not a fully settled team, then at least a much more solid nucleus of regulars since the 1988 series. Graham Gooch, although nearly 40, was captain, opening batsman, and in the form of his life: having only the previous year scored 333 against India. His long search for a reliable opening partner seemed to have been ended by the emergence of Michael Atherton, who had made the position his own over the previous year with centuries against New Zealand, India and Australia. In the middle order, Allan Lamb was still highly regarded as a fine player of fast bowling, and his record against the West Indies ensured him a place in the team at the start of the summer: while Robin Smith, the only one of many debutants in the disastrous 1988 series to emerge with credit, was utterly fearless against fast bowling, and already recognised as world-class. Internal squabbles - and a belief that, despite having a better average than many of his competitors, he was still definitely aging (although younger than Gooch) - kept David Gower out of the side: but at the younger end of the scale, two highly regarded newcomers were coming through. Graeme Hick, Zimbabwean-born and having gone through a long residency qualification, had not only been breaking records all over the place in county cricket, but had thumped a magnificent 172* off the full West Indian attack for Worcestershire the only time he had faced them in 1988, was now qualified for England, and was rushed into the side: and not far behind his county record, came Mark Ramprakash of Middlesex. In the one-day matches they would be joined by Neil Fairbrother, regarded as a brilliant specialist in the shorter format but not quite technically sound enough for Tests. Jack Russell, equally eccentric in manners and mannerisms both on and off the pitch, was widely thought of as one of the best wicket-keepers in the world, as well as being a more than handy nuisance with the bat: an alternative wicketkeeper was Alec Stewart, not as fine a keeper but a good enough batsman to be selected for that alone. For bowling, the picture was considerably less clear: especially because Angus Fraser, far and away England's best bowler of the past two years, had broken down injured on the winter tour of Australia, and would miss the series (and indeed the next two years). Devon Malcolm, as fast a bowler as any of the West Indians but not always reliably accurate - perhaps best compared to Patterson - had mostly cemented a place in the team, although he was being pushed hard for it by the bulky David Lawrence of Gloucestershire - both being regarded as sufficiently risky that there was not room for both in the team. England, unlike West Indies, would at least consider selecting a specialist spin bowler, and the choice was between two slow left-armers: Phil Tufnell who had bowled well in his debut series but had severe off-pitch disciplinary issues, and moreover was a hopeless batsman and fielder, or Richard Illingworth, who spun the ball less but was more accurate on the pitch and reliable off it, and moreover was a fine enough lower-order batsman to have scored first-class centuries. The lively fast-medium swing of Phil DeFreitas had made him a first choice pick in English conditions: Chris Lewis was of similar repute, but untried, as a bowler with pretensions to batting, while the military-medium of Derek Pringle had slowed down recently but become more accurate, and Steve Watkin of Glamorgan had been taking wickets by the hatful in county cricket. The trouble was, as usual, deciding which of them deserved a place above the others, all being good but few having made a truly compelling claim to a permanent position. And waiting in the wings was that old warhorse of an all-rounder Ian Botham, now portly, aging and far slower than he had been, out of the team for two years, but still wanting one last crack at the only team he had never really done himself justice against.
Recent form
After the disasters of the 1988 and 1989 home series against West Indies and Australia, and the loss of a squad of players to the rebel 1989 tour of South Africa, England had rebuilt under Gooch. The 1989-90 tour of the West Indies had surprised everybody, because England won the first match, and were denied a 2-0 lead only by poor light and flagrant time-wasting in the Third Test, before two heavy West Indian victories in the last two matches turned the series around (and even in the first of those, they left it late, a draw having looked odds-on before a brilliant spell by Ambrose in the final session.) England's home summer of 1990 had seen 1-0 victories over India and New Zealand, with Gooch's own batting being particularly magnificent, and Atherton's emergence not far behind. Fraser and Malcolm had been stars with the ball. The 1990-1 Ashes tour of Australia had seen a significant reversal of fortune, with Fraser lost to injury, Malcolm losing his accuracy when asked to bowl long spells in an attack that was one man light, regular middle-order batting collapses undoing good starts, Gower (despite two centuries) and the promising John Morris jettisoned for off-pitch issues: and even the promising start of Tufnell in which his bowling nearly won the 3rd Test at Sydney was undone by disciplinary shortcomings. But still, England expected a better showing back at home. And in one-day matches, they were heavy favourites to beat the Windies, whose form in ODIs had not matched their Test form for several years now: while England had been capable of beating any team in ODIs even when their Test team was falling apart, and were among the favourites for the next winter's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
West Indies, meanwhile, had some creaking at the seams. After the surprisingly narrow victory over England in 1989-90, they had toured Pakistan and finished with their third successive 1-1 series draw against those opponents, followed by a 2-1 home victory over Australia in the months after the Ashes series. But some players had trouble with form, others with fitness, others with discipline: Gordon Greenidge, already saying that the England tour would be his last, almost didn't make the tour, a long spell of poor form with the bat resulting in talk of dropping him, but he saved his place with a double-century in the second innings of the 4th Test against Australia. Ian Bishop, just on the point of making the fourth fast-bowling position his own, broke down injured, missed the Australian series, worked hard to get himself fit for the England tour but broke down injured again: and there were even suggestions that Richards himself was playing more on his past than his present. And while Lara with the bat, and Bishop with the ball - if he could keep fit - were undeniably the class of the next generation, and there were other fine batsmen who had to be left behind, the cupboard was beginning to look a little threadbare for other replacements with the ball and particularly with the keeper's gloves. Nevertheless, West Indies *had* beaten Australia, who had beaten England, so they had some reason to be confident, and they at least were more settled in the choice of their first team than England.
ODI series 1st ODI