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Australian cricket team in West Indies in 1983–84


The Australian cricket team toured the West Indies in the 1983–84 season to play a five-match Test series against the West Indies.

The West Indies won the series 3–0 with two matches drawn. The West Indies therefore retained the Sir Frank Worrell Trophy.

Wisden said that Australia "were outplayed in every department of the game, sometimes embarrassingly so." The West Indies did not lose a single second innings wicket in any of the five Tests and were only once dismissed for fewer than 300. Australia made more than 300 only once.

The series was enormously successful for Allan Border who was top scorer in half his ten Test innings and scored more than twice as many as anyone else in the team. It also saw the establishment of Wayne Phillips as Australia's first-choice wicketkeeper after Roger Woolley initially looked like taking the job. However veteran Australian players such as Geoff Lawson, Rodney Hogg, Kim Hughes and David Hookes performed poorly.

Australia had just defeated Pakistan 2–0 at home during the 1983–84 season. However this was the first tour the team had undertaken since the retirement of Greg Chappell, Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh.

The original squad selected were as follows:

The selection of the side was generally uncontroversial – all the players had been in good form over the Australian summer, and those that did not play test cricket had played one day games for Australia.

West Australian all rounder Ken MacLeay had been thought a possible tourist but his form had fallen away during the summer. Spinner Murray Bennett was considered unlucky to not be picked, having played in the Australian squad against Pakistan that summer. Jeff Thomson was overlooked despite an excellent domestic season.

Former test bowler turned journalist Bill O'Reilly thought Bob Holland, then Australia's leading leg spinner, should have been taken because of the success of leg spinners on West Indian wickets. Holland had a better domestic record than Matthews that summer but was not as skilled with the bat. (The bowling of Bennett and Holland would later deliver Australia a rare test victory over the subsequent Australian summer.)


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