1977 English cricket season

Last updated

1977 English cricket season
1976
1978

The 1977 English cricket season was the 78th in which the County Championship had been an official competition. It was played out in the aftermath of the Kerry Packer affair. Geoffrey Boycott returned to Test cricket and managed to score his 100th career century in the Headingley Test. An Australian team that was clearly affected by Packer proved to be no match for an England side that stayed together despite the controversy. The County Championship title was shared for only the third time in history after Middlesex and Kent finished on the same points.

Contents

Honours

Test series

Cumulative record - Test wins1876-1977
England 74
Australia 88
Drawn68

County Championship

Gillette Cup

Benson & Hedges Cup

Sunday League

Leading batsmen

1977 English cricket season leading batsmen by average
NameInningsRunsHighestAverage100s
Geoffrey Boycott 30170119168.047
Viv Richards 352161241*65.487
Gordon Greenidge 32177120861.066
Greg Chappell 251182161*59.105
Graham Roope 31143111555.035
1977 English cricket season leading batsmen by aggregate
NameInningsRunsHighestAverage100s
Viv Richards 352161241*65.487
Gordon Greenidge 32177120861.066
Ken McEwan 37170221851.578
Geoffrey Boycott 30170119168.047
Zaheer Abbas 361584205*52.805

Leading bowlers

1977 English cricket season leading bowlers by average
NameBallsMaidensRunsWicketsAverage
Bob Woolmer 805502891915.21
Mike Hendrick 337618910686715.94
Wayne Daniel 309714212337516.44
Sarfraz Nawaz 292013012467317.06
Richard Hills1293605663317.15
1977 English cricket season leading bowlers by aggregate
NameBallsMaidensRunsWicketsAverage
Mike Procter 4665226196710918.04
Ian Botham 399514919838822.53
Geoff Miller 393422415518717.82
John Shepherd 443221617348719.93
Dilip Doshi 570528824428229.78

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">County Championship</span> First-class cricket competition in England and Wales

The County Championship is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It became an official title in 1890. The competition consists of eighteen clubs named after, and representing historic counties, seventeen from England and one from Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kent County Cricket Club</span> English cricket club

Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Kent. A club representing the county was first founded in 1842 but Kent teams have played top-class cricket since the early 18th century, and the club has always held first-class status. The current Kent County Cricket Club was formed on 6 December 1870 following the merger of two representative teams. Kent have competed in the County Championship since the official start of the competition in 1890 and have played in every top-level domestic cricket competition in England. The club's limited overs team is called the Kent Spitfires after the Supermarine Spitfire.

John Ernest Emburey is a former English first-class cricketer who played for Middlesex, Northamptonshire, Western Province, Berkshire and England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wayne Daniel</span> West Indian cricketer

Wayne Wendell Daniel is a former cricketer, who played as a right arm fast bowler. Daniel featured for the West Indies, Middlesex, Barbados and Western Australia in his cricketing career. He was the first person to hit a six and take a wicket on the last ball of his test career.

Clive Thornton Radley is an English former cricketer, who played eight Test matches and four One Day Internationals for England. He was selected as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1979.

1904 was the 15th season of County Championship cricket in England. Lancashire went through the season unbeaten and clinched the Championship title. Lancashire drew ten games, but their 16 wins were still more than any other team could muster. Defending champions Middlesex fell to fourth place, losing two successive matches to Kent and Nottinghamshire in June to have a negative percentage five games into the season. They did eventually win nine games, though, which was enough to take them past everyone bar Yorkshire and Kent. Yorkshire were two losses from sharing the Championship with Lancashire, and drew with the Champions on both occasions; despite Lancashire following on in their match at Headingley, Johnny Tyldesley made an unbeaten century from number three to draw the game. However, even a win in this match could not have given Yorkshire the title.

The 1997 cricket season was the 98th in which the County Championship has been an official competition. The season centred on the six-Test Ashes series against Australia. England won the first, at Edgbaston, by the decisive margin of nine wickets, and the rain-affected second Test at Lord's was drawn, but any English optimism was short-lived. Australia won the next three games by huge margins to secure the series and retain The Ashes, and England's three-day victory in the final game at The Oval was little more than a consolation prize. It was the 68th test series between the two sides with Australia finally winning 3-2 The three-match ODI series which preceded the Tests produced a statistical curiosity, with England winning each match by an identical margin, six wickets.

The 1996 English cricket season was the 97th in which the County Championship had been an official competition. England hosted tours by India and Pakistan, who each played three Tests and three ODIs. Against India, England were unbeaten, winning the Test series 1–0 and the ODI series 2–0. However, against the Pakistanis England lost 2–0 in the Tests, and had to console themselves with a 2–1 ODI series victory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1919 English cricket season</span>

1919 was the 26th season of County Championship cricket in England and the first since 1914. The authorities had doubted if cricket would remain popular after a four-year break and the strain of war. It was decided that County Championship matches should be reduced from three days' duration to two, but cricket had not lost its popularity and the two-day experiment was a failure. Yorkshire finished the season as champions, topping the table by four percentage points. No Test cricket was played but an Australian Imperial Forces team toured England, playing matches from mid-May until mid-September. Andy Ducat, Patsy Hendren, Percy Holmes, Herbert Sutcliffe and Ernest Tyldesley were named in the 1920 edition of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack as the Five Cricketers of the Year for their 1919 performances.

1921 was the 28th season of County Championship cricket in England. Australia emphasised a post-war superiority that it owed in particular to the pace duo of Gregory and McDonald. Having won 5–0 in Australia the previous winter, the Australians won the first three Tests of the 1921 tour and then drew the last two to retain the Ashes. It was the 29th test series between the two sides.

The 2002 English cricket season was the 103rd in which the County Championship had been an official competition. Surrey were crowned champions but 2001 county champions Yorkshire were relegated. Yorkshire did, however, win the C&G Trophy. India and Sri Lanka toured England to compete in a Test series with England. England drew with India 1-1 and beat Sri Lanka 2-0.

The 2001 English cricket season was the 102nd in which the County Championship had been an official competition. Yorkshire won the County Championship for the first time since 1968. In limited overs cricket, a change of sponsor meant that the NatWest Trophy became the C&G Trophy. The Second XI Trophy was inaugurated as a limited overs knockout competition. Australia again won the Ashes, this time largely due to some fine performances by Adam Gilchrist. It was the 70th test series between the two sides with Australia winning 4-1. Pakistan also toured England with the series ending in a 1–1 draw.

The 1987 English cricket season was the 88th in which the County Championship had been an official competition. Nottinghamshire achieved a Championship and NatWest Trophy "double". John Player ended their sponsorship of the Sunday League after an eighteen-year spell and the competition sponsorship was taken over by Refuge Assurance. Pakistan defeated England in the Test series with one win and four draws.

The 1974 English cricket season was the 75th in which the County Championship had been an official competition. The recent pattern of joint tours continued with India and Pakistan again playing three Tests each against England. Worcestershire won the County Championship.

The 1976 English cricket season was the 77th in which the County Championship had been an official competition. Clive Lloyd adopted a new approach to Test cricket as a battery of pace bowlers was used to intimidate the England batsmen. Lloyd adopted the tactic after his own team's experiences against Jeff Thomson and Dennis Lillee the previous year. England's batsmen were no match for Andy Roberts and Michael Holding, but even more worrying was a dearth of effective England bowlers and it was West Indian batsmen like Viv Richards and Gordon Greenidge who were the real stars of a long, hot, dry summer. Middlesex won the County Championship.

The 1949 English cricket season saw the 1949 County Championship being shared for the first time since the official competition began in 1890. New Zealand toured England to compete in a test series where all four matches were drawn.

1889 was the 103rd season of cricket in England since the foundation of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). The number of balls per over was increased from four to five. The four-ball over had been used since time immemorial.

<i>The Best Loved Game</i> 1978 book by Geoffrey Moorhouse

The Best Loved Game is a book written by Geoffrey Moorhouse. Written during the summer of 1978, and published the following year, the book describes the 1978 English cricket season through a series of essays based around matches Moorhouse attended. Each chapter features a specific match. Moorhouse attended a range of games from school and village level to Test matches, thus covering both amateur and professional cricket. The book therefore describes different types of cricket and the different levels at which it is played, providing a picture of its place in English society at that time. The descriptions are also set against the backdrop of the Packer Crisis, which was affecting cricket at that time, with a number of professionals joining the so-called 'Packer Circus', an unofficial series of matches funded by Australian tycoon Kerry Packer. This resulted in a number of senior players being banned from international cricket, and lengthy court cases to resolve the resulting disputes.

The 2016 cricket season was the 117th in which the County Championship has been an official competition. The season began in March with a round of university matches, and continued until the conclusion of a round of County Championship matches in late September. Three major men's domestic competitions were contested: the 2016 County Championship, the 2016 Royal London One-Day Cup and the 2016 NatWest t20 Blast. Women's domestic cricket saw the launch of the Women's Cricket Super League, a new franchise competition, and the contesting of the Women's County Championship and Women's Twenty20 Cup.

Kent County Cricket Club's 1910 season was the 21st season in which the County competed in the County Championship. Kent played 29 first-class cricket matches during the season, losing only five matches overall, and won their third Championship title. They finished well ahead of second place Surrey in the 1910 County Championship.

References

    External sources

    Annual reviews