This is a list of Wisden Trophy Test cricket series played between England and West Indies which dates back to 1963. It was usually played alternately in England and West Indies, although early series were predominantly played in England. "The Wisden Trophy" series varied between three and six Tests.

In the series' 57-year history, the trophy changed hands on seven occasions (1968, 1973, 2000, 2009 (twice), 2019 and 2020). The West Indies won the first Wisden Trophy in 1963 and held the cup until 1968. England then held the trophy for a brief period between 1968 and 1973. After the 1973 series the West Indies retained the trophy for 27 years. This included a 16-year period (1974–1990) where the West Indies did not lose a Test. The new millennium proved to be the turning point in the series as England won the 2000 Wisden Trophy 3–1 to regain the trophy after West Indies went 1–0 up. They have been largely successful against the West Indies at test-level since then, with the latter only being successful in two series since; in 2009 and 2019. To put the recent dominance by England into perspective, since the Millennium, West Indies have won only 7 Tests, to England's 23, and that was after the West Indies won the very first Test of the new Millennium at Edgbaston in 2000.

The last Wisden Trophy series took place in England in 2020 and consisted of three Test matches. The Wisden Trophy will be replaced by the Richards–Botham Trophy, named in honour of Viv Richards and Ian Botham, for future series. Overall, a total of 28 Wisden Trophy series were played, of which the West Indies won fourteen times, England won ten and there were four drawn series.

List of Test series

Series Years Host First match Tests Drawn Result Holder Ref 1 1963 5 1 3 1 2 1966 5 1 3 1 3 1967–68 19 January 1968 5 1 0 4 4 1969 12 June 1969 3 2 0 1 5 1973 26 July 1973 3 0 2 1 6 1973–74 2 February 1974 5 1 1 3Drawn 7 1976 3 June 1976 5 0 3 2 8 1980 5 June 1980 5 0 1 4 9 1980–81 13 February 1981 4 0 2 2 10 1984 14 June 1984 5 0 5 0 11 1985–86 21 February 1986 5 0 5 0 12 1988 2 June 1988 5 0 4 1 13 1989–90 24 February 1990 4 1 2 1 14 1991 6 June 1991 5 2 2 1Drawn 15 1993–94 19 February 1995 5 1 3 1 16 1995 8 June 1995 6 2 2 2Drawn 17 1997–98 29 January 1998 6 1 3 2 18 2000 15 June 2000 5 3 1 1 19 2003–04 11 March 2004 4 3 0 1 20 2004 22 July 2004 4 4 0 0 21 2007 17 May 2007 4 3 0 1 22 2008–09 4 February 2009 5 0 1 4 23 2009 6 May 2009 2 2 0 0 24 2012 17 May 2012 3 2 0 1 25 2014–15 13 April 2015 3 1 1 1Drawn 26 2017 17 August 2017 3 2 1 0 27 2018–19 23 January 2019 3 1 2 0 28 2020 8 July 2020 3 2 1 0

Results +Totals up to and including the 3rd Test of the 2020 series in England. Played Won byEngland Won byWest Indies Drawn All Tests 120 36 (30.0%) 48 (40.0%) 36 (30.0%) Tests in England71 26 (36.6%) 28 (39.4%) 17 (24.0%) Tests in West Indies 49 10 (20.4%) 20 (40.8%) 19 (38.8%) All series 28 10 (35.7%) 14 (50.0%) 4 (14.3%) Series in England 17 8 (47.0%) 7 (41.2%) 2 (11.8%) Series in West Indies 11 2 (18.2%) 7 (63.6%) 2 (18.2%)

List of captains The table below is a list of cricket captains for each team in the Wisden Trophy. The list is in chronological order of appearance.

England captains West Indies captains Number Captain Year(s) Tests in series Total Tests Number Captain Year(s) Tests in series Total Tests 1 Ted Dexter 1963 1–5 5 1 Frank Worrell 1963 1–5 2 Mike Smith 1966 1 1 2 Garry Sobers 1966, 1967–68, 1969 1–5, 1–5, 1–3 13 3 Colin Cowdrey 1966, 1967–68 2–4, 1–5 8 4 Brian Close 1966 5 1 5 Ray Illingworth 1969, 1973 1–3, 1–3 6 3 Rohan Kanhai 1973, 1973–74 1–3, 1–5 8 6 Mike Denness 1973–74 1–5 5 7 Tony Greig 1976 1–5 5 4 Clive Lloyd 1976, 1980, 1980–81, 1984 1–5, 1–5, 1–4, 1–5 19 8 Ian Botham 1980, 1980–81 1–5, 1–4 9 9 David Gower 1984, 1985–86 1–5, 1–5 10 5 Viv Richards 1985–86, 1988, 1989–90, 1991 1–5, 1–5, 1 and 3–4, 1–5 18 10 Mike Gatting 1988 1 1 11 John Emburey 1988 2–3 2 12 Chris Cowdrey 1988 4 1 13 Graham Gooch 1988, 1989–90, 1991 5, 1–2, 1–5 8 14 Allan Lamb 1989–90 3–4 2 6 Desmond Haynes 1989–90 2 115 Michael Atherton 1993–94, 1995, 1997–98 1–5, 1–6, 1–6 17 7 Richie Richardson 1993–94, 1995 1–4, 1–6 10 8 Courtney Walsh 1993–94 5 1 9 Brian Lara 1997–98, 2003–04, 2004 1–6, 1–4, 1–4 14 16 Nasser Hussain 2000 1 and 3–5 4 10 Jimmy Adams 2000 1–5 5 17 Alec Stewart 2000 2 1 18 Michael Vaughan 2003–04, 2004, 2007 1–4, 1–4, 2–4 11 19 Andrew Strauss 2007, 2008–09 1 and 1–5 6 11 Ramnaresh Sarwan 2007 1 1 12 Daren Ganga 2007 2–4 3 13 Chris Gayle 2008–09 1–5 5

Wisden Trophy records

Team records

Higher innings totals were scored outside The Wisden Trophy era. In the 1930 timeless Test England scored 849 on their first innings at Sabina Park. Other high scores include West Indies 681/8 declaration in 1954 at the Queen's Park Oval.

+Most runs in an innings Rank Runs Team Year 1 751/5 (dec) (202 overs) West Indies 2004 2 749/9 (dec) (194.4 overs) West Indies 2009 3 692/8 (dec) (163 overs) West Indies 1995 4 687/8 (dec) (182.5 overs) West Indies 1976 5 652/8 (dec) (168.4 overs) West Indies 1973 6 606 (143 overs) West Indies 1984

+Fewest runs in a completed innings Rank Runs Team Year 1 46 (19.1 overs) England 1994 2 47 (25.3 overs) West Indies 2004 3 51 (33.2 overs) England 2009 4 54 (26.4 overs) West Indies 2000 5 61 (26.2 overs) West Indies 2000 6 71 (32.5 overs) England 1976

Batting records Brian Lara is the record holder in the Wisden Trophy for most runs with 2983 runs. Garry Sobers did make 3214 runs against England however his first 1069 runs occurred before the Wisden Trophy was established meaning he has only scored 2145 runs in the Wisden Trophy. Andy Sandham scored 325 runs against the West Indies in 1930 (which at the time was a world record) but this was before the inception of the Wisden Trophy and is therefore not a Wisden Record.

+Most runs in series Rank Runs Player Period 1 2983 (51 inns.) Brian Lara 1994–04 2 2969 (50 inns.) Viv Richards 1976–91 3 2392 (59 inns.) Desmond Haynes 1980–94 4 2318 (48 inns.) Gordon Greenidge 1976–90 5 2205 (53 inns.) Geoffrey Boycott 1966–81

+Highest individual score Rank High score Player Year 1 400* (582) Brian Lara 2004 2 375 (538) Brian Lara 1994 3 302 (430) Lawrence Rowe 1974 4 291 (386) Viv Richards 1976 5 291 (452) Ramnaresh Sarwan 2009

Other batting feats include: Viv Richards 56 ball century in the fifth Test of the 1985–86 series is the fastest Test century (in terms of balls faced). Andy Roberts scored 25 runs in one over in the first Test of the 1980–81 series. This is the fourth most runs in a single over at Test level. The over went 46266L.

Bowling records

Sobers took 102 wickets against England, however 18 of these wickets occurred before the Wisden Trophy was instituted and therefore meant that he only took 84 wickets in Wisden Trophy matches. Alf Valentine claimed 33 wickets (from 422.3 overs) for the West Indies in the 1950 tour against England before the Wisden Trophy was established.

+Most wickets Rank Wickets Player Period 1 164 (8284 balls) Curtly Ambrose 1988–00 2 145 (8818 balls) Courtney Walsh 1986–00 3 127 (5790 balls) Malcolm Marshall 1980–91 4 100 (8841 balls) Lance Gibbs 1963–74 5 96 (4486 balls) Michael Holding 1976–86

+Most wickets in series Rank Wickets Player Year 1 35 (203.1 overs) Malcolm Marshall 1988 2 34 (220.2 overs) Courtney Walsh 2000 3 34 (236.4 overs) Fred Trueman 1963 4 32 (223.5 overs) Charlie Griffith 1963 5 30 (205.5 overs) Curtly Ambrose 1997–98

Other bowling feats include: Dominic Cork's hat-trick in the fourth Test of the 1995 series dismissing Richie Richardson (bowled), Junior Murray (lbw) and Carl Hooper (lbw). Matthew Hoggard's hat-trick in the third Test of the 2003–04 series dismissing Ramnaresh Sarwan (caught), Shivnarine Chanderpaul (lbw) and Ryan Hinds (caught). The over finished 000WWW. Andy Caddick's four-wicket over in the fourth Test of the 2000 series. This was the sixth time this had occurred at Test level. In the over he dismissed Ridley Jacobs (lbw), Nixon McLean (bowled), Curtly Ambrose (bowled) and Reon King (bowled) and the over finished W0WW0nbW.

Captaincy records John Goddard won five Test matches as captain for West Indies but this occurred between 1948 and 1957 before the Wisden Trophy was established.

+Most matches played as captain Rank Most Test matches Player Period 1 19 Clive Lloyd 1976–84 2 18 Viv Richards 1985–91 3 17 Michael Atherton 1993–98 4 14 Brian Lara 1997–04 5 13 Garry Sobers 1966–69

+Most wins as captain Rank Most wins Player Period 1 13 (from 18 matches) Viv Richards 1985–91 2 11 (from 19 matches) Clive Lloyd 1976–84 3 10 (from 11 matches) Michael Vaughan 2003–07 4 5 (from 10 matches) Richie Richardson 1993–95 5 4 (from 17 matches) Michael Atherton 1993–98

See also Cricket statistics

References