West Indian cricket team in England in 1906

Infobox cricket series
series=West Indian cricket team in England in 1906
partof=1906 English cricket season
date=11 June, 1906 – 18 August 1906
place=United Kingdom
result=No representative matches played
team1=cr|West Indies
captain1=HBG Austin
runs1= LS Constantine (776)
G Challenor (684)
PA Goodman (607)
wickets1= SG Smith (66)
RC Ollivierre (58)
OH Layne (34)

The West Indian cricket team toured England in the 1906 season. The team played 19 matches between 11 June and 18 August 1906 of which 13 were regarded as first-class.

A somewhat more formal selection process seems to have been followed than for the 1900 tour but the team was still selected by representatives from Barbados, British Guiana and Trinidad. The team was perhaps a little stronger than that of 1900 but two tours to the West Indies in 1901-02 and 1904-05 had showed again that the combined West Indies team was of quite a modest standard compared to English first-class counties. Despite this the same mistake was made as in 1900 and an overly ambitious tour programme was arranged. This included 19 matches, mostly against first-class counties. As in 1900 they suffered a series of heavy defeats early on but later in the tour had some success, particularly in heavily defeating Yorkshire. The first-class teams fielded somewhat weakened sides to make the matches more competitive but unfortunately the early defeats had again limited the public interest.

Sydney Smith was the star all-rounder of the team in the early matches but he later lost form, especially his batting. He was particularly effective against the minor teams. Richard Ollivierre and Oliver Layne also performed as useful all-rounders. Percy Goodman, Bertie Harragin, Lebrun Constantine, George Challenor and Harold Austin all batted well on occasions. Harragin missed a number of matches through injury. Austin was perhaps a disappointment. As in 1900 the Jamaican players did little.

Tommie Burton left the tour early. No reason for this is given in contemporary publications but it is reported that his tour "ended in acrimony when he was sent home after refusing to carry out menial duties for white members of the side. cite web|url=http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/ci/content/player/51417.html |title=Cricinfo - Tommie Burton |accessdate=2007-05-15 |date=2007 |publisher=Cricinfo ]

Touring team

Since the first tour to England in the summer of 1900 there had been two further tours by English teams to the West Indies. These were the tours captained by Richard Bennett in 1901-02 and by Lord Brackley in 1904-05. The selection of the West Indies team took place after the 1905-06 Inter-Colonial Tournament in January 1906. The team was selected by two representatives from each of the three competing colonies; Jamaica, Grenada and St. Vincent being unrepresented. Charles Ollivierre was now playing for Derbyshire and so was unavailable.

The 15 players that made up the team consisted of:

Ollivierre bowled 3 wides, Smith 2 no balls and 12 wides, Morrison 2 no balls, Cumberbatch 3 wides, Parker 2 wides.

In all 19 matches SG Smith took 116 wickets. RC Ollivierre was second highest wicket taker with 71.

References

External sources

* [http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Seasons/ENG/1906_ENG_West_Indies_in_England_1906.html CricketArchive]

Annual reviews

* Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 1907 (pages 440 to 462)

Further reading

* "Cricket" magazine – "A Weekly Record of the Game", 1906
* L S Smith, "West Indies Cricket History and Cricket Tours of England 1900, 1906 and 1923", 1923
* Peter Wynne-Thomas, "The Complete History of Cricket Tours at Home & Abroad", 1989