Derrick Robins

Derrick Robins

Derrick Harold Robins, often known as D. H. Robins was an English cricketer and sports promoter, at one time chairman of Coventry City Football Club. He was born in Bexleyheath, Kent....

 assembled a cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

 team to tour Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

 in October 1977, playing one first-class and one limited overs match versus the Sri Lanka Board President's XI in Colombo

Colombo

Colombo is the largest city of Sri Lanka. It is located on the west coast of the island and adjacent to Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte, the capital of Sri Lanka. Colombo is often referred to as the capital of the country, since Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte is a satellite city of Colombo...

 and an additional first-class match versus the Central Province Cricket Association President's XI in Kandy

Kandy

Kandy is a city in the center of Sri Lanka. It was the last capital of the ancient kings' era of Sri Lanka. The city lies in the midst of hills in the Kandy plateau, which crosses an area of tropical plantations, mainly tea. Kandy is one of the most scenic cities in Sri Lanka; it is both an...

.

Both of the first-class matches were drawn while the tourists won the limited overs game.

The team was captained by Mike Denness

Mike Denness

Mike Denness is a former Scottish cricketer who played for England, Scotland, Essex and Kent. Scotland did not have a representative international team at the time of Denness' career, so he could only play for England at Test and ODI level. Denness became the first Scotsman to captain England...

 and included several well-known players such as David Gower

David Gower

David Ivon Gower OBE is a former English cricketer who became a commentator for Sky Sports. Although he eventually rose to the captaincy of the England cricket team during the 1980s, he is best known for being one of the most stylish left-handed batsmen of the modern era. Gower played 117 Test...

, Peter Willey

Peter Willey

Peter Willey is a former English cricketer, who played as a right-handed batsman and right-arm offbreak bowler. In and out of the England team, he interrupted his international career for three years by taking part in the first of the England players' South African rebel tours in 1982...

, Harry Pilling

Harry Pilling

Harry Pilling, born Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire on 2 February 1943, played first-class and List A cricket for Lancashire between 1962 and 1982.Standing just tall he has the distinction of being the shortest English cricketer of modern times.-References:...

, Intikhab Alam

Intikhab Alam

Intikhab Alam Khan is a retired Pakistani cricketer who played in 47 Tests and 4 ODIs from 1959 to 1977. He also played in English county cricket for Surrey between 1969 and 1981....

, Roger Tolchard

Roger Tolchard

Roger William Tolchard is an English former cricketer, who played in four Tests and one One Day International for England in the late 1970s.-Life and career:Tolchard was a wicket-keeper...

, John Lever

John Lever

John Lever MBE is an English former cricketer, who played in twenty one Tests and twenty two ODIs for England from 1976 to 1986...

, Phil Carrick

Phil Carrick

Phillip Carrick was an English first-class cricketer, who played for Yorkshire County Cricket Club between 1970 and 1993.Carrick was born in Armley, Leeds, Yorkshire, England, and began his first-class career in 1970...

, Geoff Howarth

Geoff Howarth

Geoffrey "Geoff" Philip Howarth OBE is a former New Zealand cricketer, who remains the only New Zealand captain to have positive win-loss records in both Test cricket and ODI cricket. Howarth played some Test cricket with his elder brother, Hedley Howarth, but most of his 47-Test career did not...

, John Wright

John Wright (cricketer)

John Geoffrey Wright is a former international cricketer representing - and captaining - New Zealand, and, following his retirement in 1993, coaching the Indian national cricket team from 2000 to 2005. He made his international debut in 1978 against England...

, Chris Cowdrey

Chris Cowdrey

Christopher Stuart "Chris" Cowdrey is an English former cricketer. Cowdrey played for Kent, Glamorgan and England as an all-rounder...

 and John Emburey

John Emburey

John Ernest Emburey is a former English cricketer, who played for Middlesex, Northamptonshire, Western Province, Berkshire and England....

.

External sources

CricketArchive