Richard
Cricket Web Staff Member
The thing that always comes to my mind first in these matters is England in West Indies in 1990, the First Test (and it would've been the same in the Second too but for rain, which makes it even more remarkable). West Indies hadn't been beaten in a Test series for 14 years (though they'd looked more vulnerable in the preceding 3-and-a-half than the previous 10) and England hadn't won so much as a single Test for 17.
Now factor in the fact that England's last 42 Tests had produced 3 victories (2 in Australia and 1 at home to Sri Lanka, the only three teams with any case whatsoever to be called weaker), the last 2 home summers had been probably the most depressing in memory (flattened 4-0 by West Indies, 4-0 by Australia, and but for rain it could easily have been 6-0 too). What's more, for the second time a breakaway had shamed the English game as players took the rand ahead of morality and decency. Unlike in 1982, it did not overtly weaken the side, as that would've been difficult anyway. But England travelled with a side no-one with an ounce of cricketing sense would have given a prayer to.
In those first two Tests, the big three in the batting (just about the only players of any prior note left in the side) all fired, Lamb and Smith in the First Test, Gooch in the Second. And two young bowlers, Angus Fraser in the First, Devon Malcolm in the Second, decimated the hosts' order and England totally outplayed the biggest boys in the park.
Sadly, rain at Trinidad denied England from taking an unbeatable 2-0 lead (the scheduled Second Test had been washed-out, reducing a five-Test series to four) and West Indies stormed back and won the last 2. At worst, though, that series would have been 2-2 if any justice whatsoever had been done.
The good work was not entirely wasted, though, as England's performances for the next 2 years under Gooch's captaincy (the injury-decimated Ashes tour the following winter aside) were uplifting. They beat New Zealand and India the following summer, managed to get the 2-2 draw they should have had in 1990 in 1991, won in New Zealand, and were within a miracle 9th-wicket partnership of beating another powerful Pakistan side in 1992. Things unravelled again for the next year, but that victory in 1990 took England from disgrace to honourable once again.
). Its actually part of the Asian Test Championship tournament they held in 1999. Its just that they played it right after the India vs. Pakistan test series in India which ended 1-1.
But anyway, that test in itself is famous for the disgraceful fan behaviour, and the match ending with the stadium literally empty. Plus its probably the largest attended test match ever.
