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

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 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.[2] 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."[3]

In 1966 they beat the touring West Indies cricket team by 21 runs, with Compton making 43 and Trevor Bailey taking 3/41,[4] and again by 7 wickets, with Dexter taking 2/42 and making 104,[5] and in 1969 they defeated New Zealand by 38 runs.[6] 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.[7]

Players

Famous International Cavaliers Source
NameCountry
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

  • 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

Notes

  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. p243, Simon Hughes, And God Created Cricket, Black Swan 2009
  3. p241, Simon Hughes, And God Created Cricket, Black Swan 2009
  4. "The Home of CricketArchive".
  5. "The Home of CricketArchive".
  6. "The Home of CricketArchive".
  7. p242, Simon Hughes, And God Created Cricket, Black Swan 2009
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