West Indian cricket team in England in 1923

The West Indies cricket team toured England in the 1923 season. The team played 28 matches between 19 May and 5 September 1923 of which 20 were regarded as first-class. This was the 3rd West Indian tour following those of 1900 and 1906.

West Indian cricket team in England in 1923
Part of 1923 English cricket season
Date	19 May 1923 – 5 September 1923
Location	United Kingdom
Result	No representative matches played
Teams Captains Most runs Most wickets

The early weather was disappointing and little useful practice was possible before the tour started. 3 of the first 5 matches were lost but the remainder of the tour was much more successful and only 4 of the remaining 23 matches were lost. Because of the early poor results and the lack of representative matches public interest was rather limited.

George Challenor was by far the best batsman scoring twice as many runs as any other player at an average of over 50. He scored 6 of the 8 first class centuries scored by the team and 2 of the 3 in minor matches. George Francis led the bowling with 82 first class wickets at an average of just over 15. George John, Cyril Browne and Victor Pascall also made useful contributions with the ball. The fielding was generally regarded as of high standard with Learie Constantine's cover point fielding being particularly commented on.

The performances of the team were sufficiently well regarded by the experts of the time to pave the way for West Indies to be accepted into membership of the Imperial Cricket Conference and thereby attain Test Match status with effect from their next tour of England in 1928, in particular their reduction of a powerful H D G Leveson-Gore XI to 19-6 when requiring only 28 runs to win in the final match of the tour at Scarborough.

Touring team

1923 West Indies Team

Harold Austin seems to have taken a large part in organising the tour after the 1922–23 Inter-Colonial Tournament in September 1922. He seems to have selected the Barbados, British Guiana and Trinidad tourists. Little was known of the Jamaica players and they were allocated just 3 places.

The 16 players that made up the team consisted of:

Name
H.B.G. Austin (c)	Barbados
C.R. Browne	British Guiana
G. Challenor	Barbados
L.N. Constantine	Trinidad
G.A.R. Dewhurst	Trinidad
M.P. Fernandes	British Guiana
G.N. Francis	Barbados
J.K. Holt	Jamaica
C.V. Hunter	British Guiana
H.W. Ince	Barbados
G. John	Trinidad
R.K. Nunes (vc)	Jamaica
V.S. Pascall	Trinidad
R.L. Phillips	Jamaica
J.A. Small	Trinidad
P.H. Tarilton	Barbados

Despite being 17 years since the last tour, two of the tourists, Austin and Challenor, had been part of the 1906 team. Learie Constantine was the son of Lebrun Constantine who had toured in 1900 and 1906. Victor Pascall was the uncle of Learie Constantine.

R.H. Mallett was the manager. Austin was chosen as captain and Nunes as vice-captain.

The professionals Francis and John were black as were Browne, Constantine, Holt, Pascall and Small amongst the amateurs.

Preliminaries

Except for the Jamaica representatives the team sailed on the steamship Intaba, which left British Guiana on 9 April and, sailing via Trinidad and Barbados, reached Southampton on 30 April. The Jamaican players had arrived two days earlier.

The players practised at Lord's and practice matches were arranged including a match against the Indian Gymkhana but the weather was very cold.

Matches

Status

Of the 28 matches 8 were not regarded as first-class. These were the matches against Durham, Northumberland, Cheshire, Wiltshire, Lord Harris's XI, Dublin University, Northern Cricket Union, and Norfolk. These are shown in italics below.

Match 1 v Cambridge University

19, 21 May
	West Indians 117	v	Cambridge University 179	Lost by 9 wickets Cambridge
	208		89/1

Match 2 v Sussex

23, 24 May
	West Indians 213	v	Sussex 190	Won by 26 runs Hove
	75		72

Match 3 v M.C.C.

26, 28, 29 May
	M.C.C. 228	v	West Indians 121/8	Drawn Lord's

Match 4 v Hampshire

May 30,31
	Hampshire 143	v	West Indians 112	Lost by 144 runs Southampton
	252/8 (dec)		139

Match 5 v Middlesex

2, 4, 5 June
	Middlesex 337	v	West Indians 264	Lost by 70 runs Lord's
	82		75

Match 6 v Oxford University

6, 7, 8 June
	Oxford University 390/6 (dec)	v	West Indians 388	Won by 8 wickets Oxford
	178		183/2

Match 7 v Essex

9, 11, 12 June
	Essex 148	v	West Indians 289	Won by 3 wickets Ilford
	233		93/7

Match 8 v Durham

13, 14 June
	West Indians 125	v	Durham 63	Won by 180 runs Darlington
	192		74

Match 9 v Northumberland

15, 16 June
	West Indians 286	v	Northumberland 118	Won by an innings and 9 runs Newcastle
			159

Match 10 v Derbyshire

20, 21, 22 June
	West Indians 97	v	Derbyshire 75	Drawn Buxton
	36/2

Match 11 v Northamptonshire

23, 25, 26 June
	West Indians 324/5 (dec)	v	Northamptonshire 229	Drawn Northampton

Match 12 v Lancashire

23, 25, 26 June
	Lancashire 405	v	West Indians 215	Drawn Old Trafford
	121/5		309

Match 13 v Cheshire

27, 28, 29 June
	West Indians 299	v	Cheshire 162	Won by 140 runs Macclesfield
	93/5 (dec)		90

Match 14 v Nottinghamshire

30, 2, 3 June July
	Nottinghamshire 353	v	West Indians 317	Drawn Trent Bridge
	345		219/0

Match 15 v Leicestershire

4, 5, 6 July
	West Indians 385	v	Leicestershire 242	Drawn Leicester
	109/4 (dec)		179/7

Match 16 v Wiltshire

11, 12 July
	West Indians 356/8 (dec)	v	Wiltshire 110	Won by an innings and 34 runs Swindon
			212

Match 17 v Warwickshire

14, 16 July
	Warwickshire 240	v	West Indians 321	Won by 9 wickets Edgbaston
	104		24/1

Match 18 v Lord Harris' XI

20, 21 July
	Lord Harris's XI 117	v	West Indians 80	Won by 3 wickets Belmont
	126		164/7

Match 19 v Dublin University

23, 24 July
	Dublin University Cricket Club 100	v	West Indians 170	Won by 8 wickets Dublin
	118		51/2

Match 20 v Northern Cricket Union

25, 26 July
	West Indians 158	v	Northern Cricket Union 131	Drawn Belfast
	161		142/8

Match 21 v Gloucestershire

28, 30, 31 July
	Gloucestershire 211	v	West Indians 235	Drawn Bristol

Match 22 v Surrey

1, 2, 3 August
	Surrey 87	v	West Indians 305	Won by 10 wickets The Oval
	336		121/0

Match 23 v Glamorgan

4, 6, 7 August
	Glamorgan 115	v	West Indians 201	Lost by 43 runs Cardiff
	324		195

Match 24 v Somerset

8, 9, 10 August
	West Indians 306	v	Somerset 112	Won by 190 runs Weston-super-Mare
	134		130

Match 25 v Kent

18, 19, 20 August
	Kent 205	v	West Indians 154	Lost 171 runs Canterbury
	250/8 (dec)		130

Match 26 v Norfolk

22, 23, 24 August
	West Indians 204	v	Norfolk 94	Won by 231 runs Norwich
	206/4 (dec)		85

Match 27 v Worcestershire

19, 30, 31 August
	Worcestershire 223	v	West Indians 145	Drawn Worcester
	175/8

Match 28 v H.D.G Leveson-Gower's XI

3, 4, 5 September
	West Indians 110	v	H.D.G. Leveson-Gower's XI 218	Lost by 4 wickets Scarborough
	135		31/6

Summary

Of the 20 first-class matches played, 6 matches were won, 7 were lost and 7 were drawn. In all matches 13 were won, 7 were lost and 8 were drawn.

Post Tour

Except for Jamaican players the team returned on board the steam ship "Ingoma" departing Southampton on 9 September and arriving in Barbados on the 21st.

Averages

The following averages are for the 20 first-class matches only.

Batting

Player	P	I	NO	R	HS	Ave	100	50	C/S
G Challenor	20	35	5	1556	155*	51.86	6	8	4
MP Fernandes	11	19	4	523	110	34.86	1	2	6
JA Small	18	27	2	776	94	31.04	–	7	20
HBG Austin	11	16	2	360	76	25.71	–	2	4
PH Tarilton	17	28	2	554	109*	21.30	1	3	2
RK Nunes	15	24	1	455	89	19.78	–	3	-
HW Ince	16	26	3	381	46*	16.56	–	–	3
LN Constantine	20	31	4	425	77	15.74	–	2	15
JK Holt	12	19	0	293	56	15.42	–	2	6
G John	10	13	4	108	44*	12.00	–	–	5
GN Francis	15	22	4	207	41	11.50	–	–	15
CR Browne	18	26	2	258	24*	10.75	–	–	14
VS Pascall	19	28	7	222	40	10.57	–	–	11
GAR Dewhurst	15	23	5	182	52	10.11	–	1	20/5
CV Hunter	2	2	0	10	9	5.00	–	–	-
RL Phillips	1	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	-

In all 28 matches G Challenor was leading run scorer with 1967. JA Small with 1169 also reached 1000 runs.

Bowling

Player	O	M	R	W	BB	Ave	5i	10m
GN Francis	505.5	119	1278	82	6/33	15.58	5	2
G John	363.2	84	956	49	7/52	19.51	2	1
LN Constantine	244.4	39	809	37	5/48	21.86	1	-
CR Browne	696	171	1672	75	7/97	22.29	4	-
VS Pascall	470.5	92	1263	52	6/77	24.28	2	-
G Challenor	17	3	54	2	2/17	27.00	–	-
JA Small	196	28	636	19	5/93	33.47	1	-
JK Holt	25	4	80	1	1/22	80.00	–	-
RL Phillips	7	0	21	0

In all 28 matches GN Francis took 102 wickets. G John took exactly 100 wickets.

Annual reviews

• Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 1924 (Part II pages 422 to 452)

Further reading

• 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

External links

• CricketArchive