A Commonwealth XI cricket team toured

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

and

Ceylon Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

from 1 October 1950 to 6 March 1951 and played 27 first-class matches including five unofficial "test matches" against an All-India XI and one against an All-Ceylon XI. The team was nominally captained by

Les Ames Leslie Ethelbert George Ames (3 December 1905 – 27 February 1990) was a wicket-keeper and batsman for the England cricket team and Kent County Cricket Club. Born at Elham, Kent, Ames began his first-class cricket, first-class career with h ...

but he had injury problems and often had to hand over to his deputy

Frank Worrell Sir Frank Mortimer Maglinne Worrell (1 August 1924 – 13 March 1967), sometimes referred to by his nickname of Tae, was a Barbadian West Indies cricketer and Jamaican senator. A stylish right-handed batsman and useful left-arm seam bowler, ...

. The team was judged to be stronger than the England team which was concurrently (and disastrously) touring Australia. There were numerous problems with health and injury issues which caused early withdrawals but it included

Jim Laker James Charles Laker (9 February 1922 – 23 April 1986) was an English professional cricketer who played for Surrey County Cricket Club from 1946 to 1959 and represented England in 46 Test matches. He was born in Shipley, West Riding of Yorks ...

Sonny Ramadhin Sonny Ramadhin, CM (1 May 1929 – 27 February 2022) was a West Indian cricketer, and was a dominant bowler of the 1950s. He was the first of many West Indian cricketers of Indian origin, and was one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year ...

, Derek Shackleton,

Jack Ikin John Thomas Ikin (7 March 1918 – 15 September 1984) was an English cricketer, who played in eighteen Test matches from 1946 to 1955. A "calm, popular left-hander who also bowled leg spin", Ikin played most of his cricket for Lancashire. He wa ...

Harold Gimblett Harold Gimblett (19 October 1914 – 30 March 1978) was a cricketer who played for Somerset and England. He was known for his fast scoring as an opening batsman and for the much-repeated story of his debut. In a book first published in 1982 ...

, Fred Ridgway,

Dick Spooner Richard Thompson Spooner (30 December 1919 – 20 December 1997) was an English cricketer who played for Warwickshire and England. A latecomer who did not play first-class cricket until he was 28, Spooner was a quick-witted left-handed batsman ...

George Tribe George Edward Tribe (4 October 1920 – 5 April 2009) was an Australian cricketer who played in three Test matches from 1946 to 1947, as well as an Australian rules footballer with the Footscray Football Club in the VFL. Cricket career Tri ...

, Les Jackson,

Bruce Dooland Bruce Dooland (1 November 1923 – 8 September 1980) was an Australian cricketer who played in three Test cricket, Test matches for the Australian national cricket team during the late 1940s. During the war Dooland was in an Australian Command ...

, George Emmett, Laurie Fishlock, Harold Stephenson, Ken Grieves, Ray Dovey and Billy Sutcliffe. The Commonwealth XI were unbeaten on the tour. They won the second match against India at Bombay's Brabourne Stadium by ten wickets. This was the only one of the unofficial "tests" in which Jim Laker could take part (he went home soon after this match for health reasons) and he took eight wickets in the match. The Commonwealth XI won the fifth match against India by 77 runs thanks to Worrell, who scored 116 and 71 not out, and Ramadhin, who took nine wickets in the match. The other three matches against India were drawn as was the international in Colombo against Ceylon. Worrell played a magnificent innings of 285 but Ceylon managed to hold on for a draw with their last pair together when time ran out. Ramadhin took eight wickets in the match.

References

External links

Commonwealth in India, 1950/51
at

Cricinfo ESPNcricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a Sports journalism, sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including Liveblogging, liveblogs and sco ...

Commonwealth in Ceylon: Feb 1951
at

Commonwealth XI in India and Ceylon 1950/51
at

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1951 in Ceylon 1950 in Indian cricket 1951 in Indian cricket Indian cricket seasons from 1945–46 to 1969–70 International cricket competitions from 1945–46 to 1960 Sri Lankan cricket seasons from 1880–81 to 1971–72 Multi-national cricket tours of India Multi-national cricket tours of Sri Lanka {{India-cricket-tour-stub