The West Indies cricket team toured

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

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 international cricket. Along with England, it is the joint oldest team in Test cricket history, playing and winning the first ever Test match in 1877; the team also plays One ...

. 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. It was the first Australian season after the rapprochement between the

Australian Cricket Board Cricket Australia (CA) is the governing body for professional and amateur cricket in Australia. It was originally formed in 1905 as the 'Australian Board of Control for International Cricket'. It is incorporated as an Australian Public Company ...

and

Kerry Packer Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer (17 December 1937 – 26 December 2005) was an Australian media tycoon, and was considered one of Australia's most powerful media proprietors of the twentieth century. The Packer family company owned a controlling ...

World Series Cricket World Series Cricket (WSC) was a commercial professional cricket competition staged between 1977 and 1979 which was organised by Kerry Packer and his Australian television network, Nine Network. WSC ran in commercial competition to established ...

. This was the first time that

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

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 De ...

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. He was a member of the squad which won the 1979 Cricket World Cup. Cricket career Croft was (along with Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, and Joel ...

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

Viv Richards Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards (born 7 March 1952) is a retired Antiguan cricketer who represented the West Indies cricket team between 1974 and 1991. Usually batting 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. Richards' performance was rated by Australian media as one of the finest ever in Australia. Richards' performance was even more remarkable considering that he was suffering from groin, leg and back injuries 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" (or variations thereof) has been applied to ''Wi ...

'' described Richards' batting as follows: 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 tournament, the "World Series Cup", 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, between

and

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. The tournament was played in a round-robin format in which England and West Indies reached the finals, and West Indies won the matches 2–0.

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

scored the most runs in the tournament with 485 runs (from 7 innings) at an average of 97.00, with his highest score coming against Australia where he scored 153* at the MCG.

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

took the most wickets with 20 (in 8 innings) at an average of 12.70.

References

{{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