Famous Cricketers No 93 - Keith Fletcher O.B.E.

1981/82 – England in India and Sri Lanka After an absence of four and a half years from the Test arena Keith Fletcher led England on a tour to India and for an inaugural Test versus Sri Lanka. The tour was in doubt up until days before the sixteen strong side left for India, as in the sixteen were two players who had recently played in South Africa. Fortunately no further trouble of a political nature arose but for all that the tour was not to be the happiest for the captain. He relied erroneously on the belief that pace would defeat the Indians, only to find the pitches prepared were the deadest one could imagine. His inflexibility, not a trait normally found in Fletcher’s cricket, left the side defeated 1-0 in the Test series, with five Tests drawn, and 2-1 in the one-day internationals. The team then went on to level the one-day series in Sri Lanka 1-1 and finished the tour with a victory in the inaugural Test versus Sri Lanka, by seven wickets. Fletcher finished the tour scoring 581 runs at 48.41, with 297 runs in the seven Teats at 37.12. He was not to play Test cricket again. Own Team O M R W Opp Ct Total Total 565.$ England XI v India Under-22 XI, Pune, November 13, 14, 15 (England XI won by six wickets) * not out 56 219-1d - - - - 339-7d did not bat - 303-4 2 0 9 0 180-2d 566. England XI v India Board of Control President’s XI, Nagpur, November 17,18, 19 (England XI won by five wickets) * c D.B.Vengsarkar b Kirti Azad 2 243 202 1 not out 35 136-5† 176 567. England XI v West Zone, Baroda, November 21, 22, 23 (Match drawn) * not out 39 278-4d 179 did not bat - 171-2d 197-4 568. ENGLAND v INDIA, Wankhede Stadium, Bombay, November 27, 28, 29, December 1 (India won by 138 runs) * lbw b D.R.Doshi 15 166 179 1 lbw b Madan Lal 3 102 227 569.$ England XI v South Zone, Hyderabad, December 4,5, 6 (Match drawn) * did not bat - 186-0d 247-9d lbw b N.S.Yadav 108 223-4† 20 0 82 1 M.V.Narasimha lbw 241-7d 570. ENGLAND v INDIA, Bangalore, December 9, 10, 12, 13, 14 (Match drawn) * c S.M.H.Kirmani b R.J.Shastri 25 400 428 1 not out 12 174-3d 571.$ ENGLAND v INDIA, New Delhi, December 23, 24, 26, 27, 28 (Match drawn) * b S.M.Patil 51 476-9d 487 1 did not bat - 68-0 572.$ ENGLAND v INDIA, Calcutta, January 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 (Match drawn) * lbw b Madan Lal 69 248† - - - - 208 1 not out 60 265-5d 3 1 6 1 D.B.Vengsarkar c C.J.Tavaré 170-3 573. ENGLAND v INDIA, Madras, January 13, 14, 15, 17, 18 (Match drawn) * b D.R.Doshi 3 328 - - - - 481-4d 1 0 9 0 160-3d 574. England XI v Central Zone, Indore, January 22, 23, 24 (Match drawn) * c Vedraj Chauhan b G.Sharma 32 436-7d 1 0 10 0 311 did not bat - 210-1d 575. ENGLAND v INDIA, Kanpur, January 30, 31, February 1, 3, 4 (Match drawn) * b Kapil Dev 14 378-9d 2 1 5 0 377-7d 1 576. England XI v Sri Lanka Board President’s XI, Kandy, February 9, 10, 11 (Match drawn) * c sub b J.R.Ratnayeke 12 360 273-5d 125-6 577. ENGLAND v SRI LANKA, Colombo, February 17, 18, 20, 21 (England won by seven wickets) * c B.Warnapura b G.R.A.de Silva 45 223 218 1 not out 0 171-3 175 2 51