england tour of india 1984

England tour of India (1984)

RESULT . England tour of India . TEST

MATCH DRAWN

WON BY AN INNINGS AND 59 RUNS

INDIA WON BY 8 WICKETS

RESULT . England tour of India . ODI

ENGLAND WON BY 4 WICKETS

ENGLAND WON BY 8 WICKETS

ENGLAND XI WON BY AN INNINGS AND 121 RUNS

ENGLAND WON BY 1 RUN (REVISED TARGET)

ENGLAND WON BY 9 WICKETS

ENGLAND WON BY 3 WICKETS

INDIA WON BY 3 WICKETS

ENGLAND WON BY 7 RUNS

England tour of India 1984 Squad List

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England's 1984-85 troubled tour to India remembered with affection

F rom a distance it looks as if it must have been a calamitous tour. Within hours of our arrival in Delhi, Indira Gandhi was assassinated so that the team hotel became both a refuge and a prison. Twenty-four hours before the first Test in Bombay Percy Norris, the UK's deputy high commissioner and a cricket lover, who had just entertained the team at his apartment, was also assassinated. After both tragedies everyone thought the tour would be called off and that is what most of us wanted to happen. It did not feel safe.

Yet to general consternation we stayed on – after withdrawing to serene Sri Lanka for a couple of weeks – and now 28 years later all those involved, players and press, look back on the 1984-85 expedition with special affection. In a recent book, Can Anyone Hear Me, Test Match Special's former producer, Peter Baxter, has written a chapter on that trip, entitled "The Best Tour".

No doubt future historians will pore over that chapter as well as the 1985 publication Marks out of XI for more enlightenment. Someone has kindly noted that this book is worth every penny before adding that in fact it now only costs a penny.

The 1984-85 tour was a throwback. Press and players all formed one party in a manner unimaginable now. There was no Ian Botham (who was taking a winter off) so there was no need for news hounds. Moreover, the incidents that punctuated the trip – there was also the terrible Bhopal disaster – bound both groups together whether on the team bus in the morning, or in the bar of the team hotel in the evening.

The images come back: of peering out of our Delhi hotel on the first morning at the flumes of smoke from burning buildings after the news of Gandhi's assassination had spread; of the manager Tony Brown brandishing Allan Lamb's passport at a team meeting, challenging him to take it if he really wanted to go home; of Graham Morris, the photographer, deciding to test the security system at Bombay on the first day of a Test no one expected to start. Wearing a jacket crammed with hardware he asked a gateman in his best Irish accent: "Excuse me, I'm from the IRA could you direct me towards the England dressing room please?" The official politely obliged.

There was Graeme Fowler admitting to an odd sensation a few hours later: a pang of relief upon his dismissal since he was now out of the firing line. Unsurprisingly England lost that Test despite Mike Gatting hitting his first Test century.

In Delhi the second match seemed to be meandering to a draw when Kapil Dev holed out to Pat Pocock and from nowhere England snatched a victory, which I witnessed from behind a microphone in the TMS commentary box for the first time. They (the BBC) were desperate – young Selvey was ill, Abbas Ali Baig was at a wedding – and so the producer popped his head around the dressing room door in search of volunteers.

There was a bore draw in Calcutta where Kapil Dev was sensationally dropped; then a brilliant English victory in Madras, fashioned by Fowler and Gatting, who both hit double centuries, and Neil Foster, who took 11 wickets in the match. So all that England required from the last game in Kanpur was a draw. Surprisingly the pitch was good for batting (there was a rumour that the groundsman was a cousin of an opening batsman peremptorily dropped by Sunil Gavaskar, India's captain, so he was never going to oblige with the turning pitch that the home side craved). Thus England managed to hang on.

Are there any lessons for 2012? David Gower's side were not one of the best to leave these shores. Apart from Botham's absence, Graham Gooch and John Emburey were banned from international cricket after their forays to South Africa. But they were a united side. Somehow the tour party refused to be weighed down by the mayhem around them and all the ensuing insecurities, or by the odd bit of dodgy umpiring or the occasional very basic hotel. The dreaded siege mentality, the greatest pitfall for all tourists, was avoided.

On the field under Gower's usually calm leadership the side were patient – even the two most fidgety – and gifted – of spinners, Phil Edmonds and Pocock, were patient. At the top of the order Tim Robinson, Fowler and Gatting batted for hours. Meanwhile, an elderly India side could not hide a few internal divisions. There may be a few parallels here this time around. If any more details are required, you know where to look.

• England in India 2012-13
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• Indira Gandhi

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Match Centre

Match details, eden gardens, kolkata, series result, match number, scorecard summary, india 437/7d ( 200 overs) 1st innings.

• Mohammad Azharuddin 110 ( 322 )
• Ravi Shastri 111 ( 357 )
• Norman Cowans 3 / 103 ( 41 )
• Phil Edmonds 3 / 72 ( 47 )

ENGLAND 276 ( 100.3 OVERS) 1ST INNINGS

• Graeme Fowler 49 ( 133 )
• Allan Lamb 67 ( 102 )
• Chetan Sharma 4 / 38 ( 12.3 )
• Shivlal Yadav 4 / 86 ( 32 )

INDIA 29/1 ( 18 OVERS) 2ND INNINGS

• Manoj Prabhakar 21 ( 56 )
• Ravi Shastri * 7 ( 50 )
• Allan Lamb 1 / 6 ( 1 )
• Tim Robinson 0 / 0 ( 1 )

No commentary available

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Mike Gatting shares tales of England's tour of India in 1984-85

India vs england: ahead of the four-match test series, former england captain mike gatting spoke about his memories of visiting the country..

The India vs England series is just around the corner. Purely on the basis of the talents on display and the rich history between the two sides, an India-England Test series should qualify as one of the most awaited encounters after the Ashes and India vs Australia series.

The lone spot up for grabs – New Zealand have already qualified - in the World Test Championship final makes matters more interesting. Ahead of the four-match Test series, former England captain Mike Gatting spoke about his memories of visiting the country.

Gatting played 13 tests in India and averaged over 50 - scoring two centuries during England's successful visit in 1984-85. England arrived in India during a tense time, but stayed on.

Indira Gandhi was assassinated when England arrived. They then flew down to Sri Lanka, a trip during which a bomb went off not too far away from their hotel. As they then prepared for the first Test at Bombay (as Mumbai was known then), they learnt of the assassination of Percy Norris, the British Deputy High Commissioner.

England then lost the first Test at the Wankhede Stadium but bounced back to win the series 2-1. "Although we lost the Test match, all the things that happened before, by the time we finished (the first Test) everybody was a little bit more comfortable. We had a practice match before the second Test in Delhi. I think there was a good serious conversation. If anything, it brought the team together again," Gatting told in an interview with Niche Sports.

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England's turbulent 1984-85 tour of India - part two

02 march 2024 09:00.

Source: BBC

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Cricket History - England Tour Of India 1984-85

Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India, had been assassinated on October 31, 1984. On November 26, Percy Norris, the British Deputy High Commissioner in Bombay, hosted the touring England team for a d

Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India, had been assassinated on October 31, 1984. On November 26, Percy Norris, the British Deputy High Commissioner in Bombay, hosted the touring England team for a dinner. Norris was shot dead next day, about half a mile away from the team hotel.

The tour went ahead despite the controversies. And despite losing the first Test match, at Bombay, England came back strongly to win the series 2-1. In fact, they became the first team to win a Test series in India after conceding a lead.

Trending Video: Danushka Gunathilaka Given Out 'Obstructing The Field' In 1st ODI

Chris Cowdrey made his debut in the the first match. His father, the great Colin, was listening to live commentary back home while driving. When Chris took a wicket with his fourth ball, Colin Cowdrey was so astonished that he took a wrong turn on a one-way road.

A young leg-spinner called Laxman Sivaramakrishnan demolished the Englishmen in the Test match with 6/64 and 6/117. The Englishmen failed to decipher him. Siva took 6/99 in the first innings of the next Test match, at Delhi, as well, but India's batting let them down.

Sandeep Patil and Kapil Dev were criticised for "irresponsible" shots and were dropped from the next Test match after India lost by eight wickets. Patil did not play again, while this was the only Test match Kapil missed in his entire career.

The next Test was at Calcutta, where there were protests against the decision to drop Kapil. On a slow pitch, the Indians simply refused to accelerate, and Sunil Gavaskar decided to bat on. He was booed for not declaring even after lunch on Day 4 (India were batting first): Wisden wrote that he eventually declared on request of the local police. Gavaskar did not play international cricket at Eden Gardens again.

Cricket Scorecard

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England in India ODI Series, 1984-1985

WI Women won by 1 run

PBKS won by 8 wickets (with 8 balls remaining)

Day 1 - Essex trail by 353 runs.

Day 1 - Surrey trail by 28 runs.

Day 1 - Notts chose to bat.

Day 1 - WORCS trail by 295 runs.

Day 1 - Gloucs trail by 121 runs.

Day 1 - Leics chose to field.

Day 1 - Derbyshire chose to field.

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West Indies A

Match starts in 4 hrs 26 mins

India vs England , 4th Test at Chennai , , Jan 13 1985 - Full Scorecard

England won by 9 wickets

'I wasn't fast-fast, but I could be slippery'

Former England bowler Neil Foster looks back on his Test career, selection in the '80s, and playing with Gooch

'The definition of being positive has changed'

Former England captain Mike Gatting on changes in attacking cricket, the long wait for his first Test hundred, captaining England to an Ashes win, and the 1987 World Cup

England celebrate Pongal

Neil Foster and Graeme Fowler remember England's Test victory in 1985 at Chepauk, which sealed their last series win in India to date

India v England 1984-85

Well-sustained swing bowling by Foster, playing his first match of the series, gave England a grip they were never to lose when India, winning the toss, were dismissed in five hours and twelve minutes