The 1970 English cricket season was the 71st in which the

County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It bec ...

had been an official competition. There was controversy when a tour by South Africa was forced to be abandoned because of mounting opposition to the apartheid policy perpetuated by the South African government. Five Tests were scheduled but the tour was officially cancelled at the request of Home Secretary

James Callaghan Leonard James Callaghan, Baron Callaghan of Cardiff, ( ; 27 March 191226 March 2005), commonly known as Jim Callaghan, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1976 to 1980. Callaghan is ...

. Instead, England played a highly successful series of unofficial Tests against a Rest of the World XI which was captained by

Gary Sobers Sir Garfield St Aubrun Sobers, (born 28 July 1936), also known as Sir Gary or Sir Garry Sobers, is a former cricketer who played for the West Indies between 1954 and 1974. A highly skilled bowler, an aggressive batsman and an excellent fielder, ...

and included some of the best South African players such as

Graeme Pollock Robert Graeme Pollock (born 27 February 1944) is a former cricketer for South Africa, Transvaal and Eastern Province. A member of a famous cricketing family, Pollock is widely regarded as one of South Africa's greatest ever cricketers, and as o ...

Eddie Barlow Edgar John Barlow (12 August 1940 – 30 December 2005) was a South African cricketer (an all rounder). Barlow was born in Pretoria, Transvaal, South Africa, and played first-class cricket for Transvaal and Eastern Province from 1959–60 to ...

Mike Procter Michael John Procter (born 15 September 1946) is a South African former cricketer. A fast bowler and hard hitting batsman, he proved himself a colossal competitor in English first class cricket. He was denied the international stage by South Af ...

and

Barry Richards Barry Anderson Richards (born 21 July 1945) is a former South African first-class cricketer. A right-handed "talent of such enormous stature", Richards is considered one of South Africa's most successful batsmen. He was able to play only four ...

. These matches were promoted as Tests at the time, but were not recognised as such by the

International Cricket Conference The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the world governing body of cricket. It was founded as the ''Imperial Cricket Conference'' in 1909 by representatives from Australia, England and South Africa. It was renamed as the ''International C ...

. Alan Jones played for England only in this series, and had the unfortunate experience of thinking that he had played in Tests only subsequently to discover that he had not.

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

won the County Championship title.

Honours

* Gillette Cup -

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

* Sunday League -

Minor Counties Championship The NCCA 3 Day Championship (previously the Minor Counties Cricket Championship) is a season-long competition in England and Wales that is contested by the members of the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), the so-called national cou ...

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council wa ...

*Second XI Championship - Kent II *Wisden - Jack Bond,

Clive Lloyd Sir Clive Hubert Lloyd (born 31 August 1944) is a Guyanese-British former cricketer who played for the West Indies cricket team. As a boy he went to Chatham High School in Georgetown. At the age of 14 he was captain of his school cricket team ...

Brian Luckhurst Brian William Luckhurst (5 February 1939 – 1 March 2005) was an English cricketer, who played his entire county career for Kent County Cricket Club. He played for Kent from 1958 to 1976, usually opening the batting, then in 1985, in an emerge ...

Glenn Turner Glenn Maitland Turner (born 26 May 1947) played cricket for New Zealand and was one of the country's best and most prolific batsmen. He is the current head of the New Zealand Cricket selection panel. Early life Glenn Turner was born in Dune ...

, Roy Virgin

Test series

County Championship

Gillette Cup

Sunday League

Leading batsmen

Leading bowlers

References

Annual reviews

Playfair Cricket Annual ''Playfair Cricket Annual'' is a compact annual about cricket that is published in the United Kingdom each April, just before the English cricket season is due to begin. It has been published every year since 1948. Its main purposes are to review ...

1971 *

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...

1971

External links

CricketArchive – season and tournament itineraries
1970 in English cricket English cricket seasons in the 20th century {{England-cricket-season-stub