The

West Indies cricket team The West Indies cricket team, nicknamed the Windies, is a multi-national men's cricket team representing the mainly English-speaking countries and territories in the Caribbean region and administered by Cricket West Indies. The players on ...

toured

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

from November 1979 to January 1980 and played a three-match Test series against the

Australia national cricket team The Australia men's national cricket team represents Australia in men's international cricket. As the joint oldest team in Test cricket history, playing in the first ever Test match in 1877, the team also plays One-Day International (ODI) a ...

. The West Indies won the Test series 2–0, retaining the

Frank Worrell Trophy The Frank Worrell Trophy is awarded to the winner of the West Indies– Australia Test match series in cricket. The trophy is named after Frank Worrell who was the first black captain of the West Indies. It was first awarded at the end of the 1 ...

. The series was notable for several major events in cricket history. This was the first time that

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

played their original "fearsome foursome" of fast bowlers, consisting of Andy Roberts,

Michael Holding Michael Anthony Holding (born 16 February 1954) is a Jamaican former cricketer and commentator who played for the West Indies cricket team. Widely regarded as one of the greatest pace bowlers in cricket history, he was nicknamed "Whispering Dea ...

Joel Garner Joel Garner (born 16 December 1952) is a former West Indian cricketer, and a member of the highly regarded late 1970s and early 1980s West Indies cricket teams. Garner is the highest ranked One Day International bowler according to the ICC bes ...

and

Colin Croft Colin Everton Hunte Croft (born 15 March 1953) is a former West Indian international cricketer. Cricket career Croft was (along with Andy Roberts, Michael Holding and Joel Garner) part of the potent West Indian quartet of fast bowlers from ...

, in an official Test match. It was also notable for

Viv Richards Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards (born 7 March 1952) is an Antiguan retired cricketer who represented the West Indies cricket team between 1974 and 1991. Batting generally at number three in a dominant West Indies side, Richards is widely ...

' dominant batting display of 396 runs in 4 innings at an average of 96.50, with a lowest score of 74. His overall aggregate in that tour in international matches was of 881 runs at an astonishing batting average of 97.88. Viv Richards' performance was rated by Australian media as one of the finest ever in Australia. The performance of Viv Richards was even more remarkable considering that he was suffering from a groin, leg and back injury throughout the tour. ''

Wisden ''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 ...

'' described Viv's batting as West Indies won their first Test series on Australian soil. It also marked the beginning of West Indies' dominance in world cricket, as they remained unbeaten for the next 15 years (1980-1995) until eventually losing to Mark Taylor's Australia in 1995. The scheduling of the Test matches was unusual, in that Australia alternated between playing Tests against West Indies and against England. This format was not repeated in subsequent years when two teams toured Australia in the same season. In addition to the Test series, the teams played in a triangular Limited Overs International (LOI) tournament which also involved the England team. West Indies won this tournament, defeating England in the final.

Squads

Tour Matches

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Test series

First Test

Second Test

Third Test

Benson & Hedges World Series Cup

The Benson & Hedges World Series Cup was a tri-nation (ODI) series held in Australia from 27 November 1979 to 22 January 1980. It was held between

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. The tournament was played in Round-robin format in which England and West Indies reached the finals where West Indies won the series 2-0. Vivian Richards scored the most runs in the tournament with 485 runs (7 innings) at an average of 97.00. His highest score came against Australia where he scored 153* at

MCG The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as "The 'G", is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadium in the Southern Hem ...

, While

Dennis Lillee Dennis Keith Lillee, (born 18 July 1949) is Australian retired cricketer rated as the "outstanding fast bowler of his generation".

topped the bowling list with 20 wickets (8 innings) at an average of 12.70.

References

External links

When the four-man apocalypse hit Australia

ESPNcricinfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a d ...

, 8 December 2015 {{DEFAULTSORT:West Indian cricket team in Australia in 1979-80 1979 in Australian cricket 1979 in West Indian cricket 1979–80 Australian cricket season 1980 in Australian cricket 1980 in West Indian cricket International cricket competitions from 1975–76 to 1980 1979-80