A Commonwealth XI cricket team of 14 players visited Pakistan between early November and mid-December 1963, playing six

first-class matches First class (or 1st class, Firstclass) generally implies a high level of service, importance or quality. Specific uses of the term include: Books and comics * ''First Class'', a comic strip in ''The Dandy'' (1983-1998) * ''X-Men: First Class' ...

including three five-day matches against

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

. The Commonwealth XI won the match against a Punjab Governor's XI, and the other five matches ended in draws."Commonwealth XI in Pakistan, 1963", ''

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" (or variations thereof) has been applied to ''Wi ...

'' 1965, pp. 849–51.

Alf Gover Alfred Richard Gover (29 February 1908 – 7 October 2001) was an English Test cricketer. He was the mainstay of the Surrey bowling attack during the 1930s and played four Tests before and after the Second World War. He also founded and ran ...

"The 1963 Commonwealth Tour"
''

The Cricketer ''The Cricketer'' is a monthly English cricket magazine providing writing and photography from international, county, club and schools cricket. Overview The magazine was founded in 1921 by Sir Pelham Warner, an ex-England captain turned cric ...

'', February 1964, pp. 24–25.

Team

The team consisted of six players from England, five from the West Indies, and one each from Australia, Pakistan and South Africa. * Peter Richardson (captain, England) *

Bill Alley William Edward Alley (3 February 1919 – 26 November 2004) was a cricketer who played 400 first-class matches for New South Wales, Somerset and a Commonwealth XI. After retiring as a cricketer, Alley continued as a cricket umpire for many yea ...

(Australia) *

Keith Andrew Keith Vincent Andrew (15 December 1929 – 27 December 2010) was an English cricketer who played in two Tests, in 1954–55 and in 1963. Life and career Born in Greenacres, Oldham, Lancashire, Andrew was a fine wicketkeeper who might have pl ...

(England) *

Basil Butcher Basil Fitzherbert Butcher (3 September 1933 – 16 December 2019) was a Guyanese cricketer who played for the West Indies cricket team. He was regarded as a reliable right-handed middle-order batsman in the star-studded West Indian batting line ...

(West Indies) *

Basil D'Oliveira Basil Lewis D'Oliveira CBE OIS (4 October 1931 – 19 November 2011) was an England international cricketer of South African Cape Coloured background, whose potential selection by England for the scheduled 1968–69 tour of apartheid-era Sout ...

(South Africa) *

Tom Graveney Thomas William Graveney (16 June 1927 – 3 November 2015) was an English first-class cricketer, representing his country in 79 Test matches and scoring over 4,800 runs. In a career lasting from 1948 to 1972, he became the 15th player to scor ...

(England) *

Charlie Griffith Sir Charles Christopher Griffith, KA, SCM (born 14 December 1938) is a West Indian former cricketer who played in 28 Tests from 1960 to 1969. He formed a formidable fast bowling partnership with Wes Hall during the 1960s, but experienced a ...

(West Indies) *

Rohan Kanhai Rohan Bholalall Kanhai (born 26 December 1935) is a Guyanese former cricketer of Indo-Guyanese origin, who represented the West Indies in 79 Test matches. He is widely considered to be one of the best batsmen of the 1960s. Kanhai featured on ...

(West Indies) *

Khalid Ibadulla Khalid "Billy" Ibadulla (20 December 1935 – 12 July 2024) was a Pakistani-New Zealander cricketer, cricket coach and umpire who later worked as a cricket commentator for TVNZ. He represented Pakistan four times at Test match level between 1 ...

(Pakistan) * John Murray (England) *

Seymour Nurse Seymour MacDonald Nurse (10 November 1933 6 May 2019) was a Barbadian cricketer. Nurse played 29 Test matches for the West Indies between 1960 and 1969. A powerfully built right-hand batsman and an aggressive, if somewhat impetuous, shotmaker, ...

(West Indies) *

Ken Palmer Kenneth Ernest Palmer (22 April 1937 – 23 July 2024) was an English cricketer and umpire, who played in one Test match in 1965, and umpired 22 Tests and 23 One Day Internationals from 1977 to 2001. He was born in Winchester, Hampshire. Pla ...

(England) * Doug Slade (England) * Chester Watson (West Indies) The team was managed by

The tour

There were six first-class matches. Individual

centuries A century is a period of 100 years or 10 decades. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. A ...

and

five-wicket haul In cricket, a five-wicket haul (also known as a "five–for" or "fifer") occurs when a bowler takes five or more wickets in a single innings. This is regarded by critics as a notable achievement, equivalent to a century from a batter. Takin ...

s are included in the scores below. *

BCCP Biotin carboxyl carrier protein (BCCP) refers to proteins containing a biotin attachment domain that carry biotin and carboxybiotin throughout the ATP-dependent carboxylation by biotin-dependent carboxylases. The biotin carboxyl carrier protein ...

XI v Commonwealth XI,

Niaz Stadium Niaz Stadium is a Cricket field, cricket ground in Hyderabad, Pakistan, Hyderabad, Pakistan. The ground can accommodate 15,000 spectators, and hosted its first test cricket, Test match in 1973. It was established in November 1961 by the then C ...

Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

, 8, 9, 10 November 1963. BCCP XI 293 for 8 dec. and 147 for 4 dec; Commonwealth XI 293 and 36 for 1. Drawn. *

v Commonwealth XI,

National Stadium, Karachi The National Stadium, also known as National Bank Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is an international cricket ground in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan,Previously British India owned by the Pakistan Cricket Board. It is the home ground of the Karach ...

, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20 November 1963. Commonwealth XI 442 (Kanhai 129) and 452 for 8; Pakistan 464 (

Mushtaq Mohammad Mushtaq Mohammad PP (Urdu: مشتاق محمد‎; born 22 November 1943) is a Pakistani cricket coach and former cricketer who played in 57 Tests and 10 ODIs from 1959 to 1979. A right-handed batsman and a leg-spinner, he is one of the mo ...

178). Drawn. * President's XI v Commonwealth XI,

Pindi Club Ground Pindi Club Ground, also known as the Army Sports Ground, is a multi-use stadium in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. It is used mostly for cricket matches. The stadium can accommodate 15,000 people and hosted its first and only international Test match in ...

Rawalpindi Rawalpindi is the List of cities in Punjab, Pakistan by population, third-largest city in the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is a commercial and industrial hub, being the list of cities in P ...

, 22, 23, 24 November 1963. President's XI 205 for 9 dec. and 274 for 7 dec.; Commonwealth XI 281 for 6 dec. and 70 for 6. Drawn. * Punjab Governor's XI v Commonwealth XI, Bohranwala Ground,

Lyallpur Faisalabad, formerly known as Lyallpur, is the List of cities in Punjab, Pakistan by population, second-largest city and primary List of cities in Punjab, Pakistan by population, industrial center of the Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan ...

, 25, 26, 27 November 1963. Punjab Governor's XI 179 and 167; Commonwealth XI 246 (D'Oliveira 115) and 102 for no wickets. Commonwealth XI won by 10 wickets. * Pakistan v Commonwealth XI, Lahore Stadium,

Lahore Lahore ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, second-largest city in Pakistan, after Karachi, and ...

, 29, 30 November, 1, 3, 4 December 1963. Commonwealth XI 630 for 9 dec. (Kanhai 161, Graveney 164) and 250 for 2 (Graveney 107 not out, Ibadulla 103 not out); Pakistan 580 (Mushtaq Mohammad 159; Slade 6 for 126). Drawn. * Pakistan v Commonwealth XI, Dacca Stadium,

Dacca Dhaka ( or ; , ), List of renamed places in Bangladesh, formerly known as Dacca, is the capital city, capital and list of cities and towns in Bangladesh, largest city of Bangladesh. It is one of the list of largest cities, largest and list o ...

, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 December 1963. Commonwealth XI 234 and 344 for 6 dec. (Nurse 126 not out); Pakistan 318 ( Saeed Ahmed 100) and 223 for 4. Drawn. Batsmen dominated on the slow, bare pitches. Eleven of the 14 Commonwealth XI players

averaged In mathematics and statistics, the arithmetic mean ( ), arithmetic average, or just the ''mean'' or ''average'' is the sum of a collection of numbers divided by the count of numbers in the collection. The collection is often a set of results fr ...

30 or more with the bat. Graveney was the leading run-scorer, with 500 runs at an average of 100. Only three of the bowlers took more than seven wickets: Slade took 21 wickets at an

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

of 22.33, Griffith took 15 at 28.93, and D'Oliveira took 13 at 30.08.

References

External links

Commonwealth XI in Pakistan, Nov-Dec 1963
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 XI in Pakistan 1963/64
at

CricketArchive CricketArchive is a sports website that provides a comprehensive archive of records and data for the game of cricket. It was founded in 2003 by Philip Bailey and Peter Griffiths. The website contains data corresponding to 1.5 million players, 8 ...

Team

The tour

References

External links

Further reading