International Cavaliers

The International Cavaliers were an ad hoc cricket team made up of famous cricketers in order to encourage local cricket. Their teams included many prominent cricketers from the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s and 1970s as many retired veterans and talented young players were in the team at one point or another. International tours were arranged to South Africa in 1960–61, Africa and India in 1962–63 and the West Indies in 1964–65, 1965–66 and 1969–70.[1] These were usually made up of Test players whose countries were not touring that season (a more common occurrence at the time) or who were not required for their Test side.

History

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In England from 1965 to 1968 Denis Compton and Godfrey Evans arranged 40-over one-day games for the International Cavaliers made up of international and local players against county teams on Sundays, which at the time were always rest days in Test matches and the County Championship. The BBC (Brian Moore (commentator) presented the first match before Frank Bough took over)[2] showed the games on television, providing extra revenue, and the games allowed spectators to see a wide range of famous players at county grounds. In the first season they drew 280,000 spectators, compared to 327,000 on the other six days of the week.[3] Ted Dexter wrote, "We had such an amazing side – Sobers, Compton, Graeme Pollock – I was only able to creep in at 6 or 7. When we went to Lord's for the first time we told them to be ready, there'd be a big crowd. They said 'No, no, there won't'. They sold out of everything by twelve. We took the place by storm."[4]

In 1966 they beat the touring West Indies cricket team by 21 runs, with Compton making 43 and Trevor Bailey taking 3/41,[5] and again by 7 wickets, with Dexter taking 2/42 and making 104,[6] and in 1969 they defeated New Zealand by 38 runs.[7] They also played various other teams, such as the Rest of the World XI, Duke of Norfolk's XI, F.S Trueman's XI, E.R. Dexter's XI and Oxford University Past and Present. They were a financial success and their popularity with the fans led to the increase of limited overs cricket in England. As a result the MCC devised their own limited overs competition, but as the BBC were happy showing the Cavaliers they had to ban county cricketers from playing to get the television rights and a sponsor. After several lawsuits the John Player County League began in 1969, and the Cavaliers were disbanded in 1970.[8]

Players

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Famous International Cavaliers Source
Name Country
Neil Adcock   South Africa
Dennis Amiss   England
Trevor Bailey   England
Eddie Barlow   South Africa
Ken Barrington   England
Richie Benaud   Australia
Geoff Boycott   England
Mike Brearley   England
Basil Butcher   West Indies
B. S. Chandrasekhar   India
Brian Close   England
Denis Compton   England
Bevan Congdon   New Zealand
Colin Cowdrey   England
Mike Denness   England
Ted Dexter   England
John Edrich   England
Godfrey Evans   England
Keith Fletcher   England
Roy Fredericks   West Indies
Lance Gibbs   West Indies
Tom Graveney   England
Tony Greig   England
Charlie Griffith   West Indies
Alvin Corneal   West Indies
Wes Hall   West Indies
John Hampshire   England
Ray Illingworth   England
Rohan Kanhai   West Indies
Alan Knott   England
Jim Laker   England
Denis Lindsay   South Africa
Clive Lloyd   West Indies
Brian Luckhurst   England
Colin McDonald   Australia
Garth McKenzie   Australia
Colin Milburn   England
Hanif Mohammad   Pakistan
Arthur Morris   Australia
Deryck Murray   West Indies
Mushtaq Mohammad   Pakistan
Seymour Nurse   West Indies
Chris Old   England
Norm O'Neill   Australia
The Nawab of Pataudi   India
Pat Pocock   England
Graeme Pollock   South Africa
Peter Pollock   South Africa
John Reid   New Zealand
Barry Richards   South Africa
Lawrence Rowe   West Indies
Saeed Ahmed   Pakistan
Bobby Simpson   Australia
M. J. K. Smith   England
John Snow   England
Gary Sobers   West Indies
Brian Statham   England
Bert Sutcliffe   New Zealand
Bob Taylor   England
Fred Titmus   England
Fred Trueman   England
Frank Tyson   England
Derek Underwood   England
Willie Watson   England
Everton Weekes   West Indies

Further reading

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  • Ted Dexter and Ian Wooldridge, The International Cavaliers' World of Cricket, Purnell, 1970
  • Terence Crosby, "The International Cavaliers 1965–1968", The Cricket Statistician, Summer 2018, pp. 14–21

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-11-06. Retrieved 2017-10-30.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. ^ Kelner, Martin (2013). Farewell To Sport. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 109. ISBN 9781408158746.
  3. ^ p243, Simon Hughes, And God Created Cricket, Black Swan 2009
  4. ^ p241, Simon Hughes, And God Created Cricket, Black Swan 2009
  5. ^ "The Home of CricketArchive".
  6. ^ "The Home of CricketArchive".
  7. ^ "The Home of CricketArchive".
  8. ^ p242, Simon Hughes, And God Created Cricket, Black Swan 2009