When England and the West Indies play Test cricket, they compete for the Richards-Botham Trophy, named after icons from both nations.
The first edition of the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack came out in 1864. In anticipation of the centennary, the Wisden Trophy was awarded to the winner of England-West Indies Test series from 1963. It became the third-oldest trophy for a bilateral Test series, after The Ashes and the Frank Worrell Trophy.
Frank Worrell’s West Indians won it that summer, and retained it in England under Garry Sobers in 1966. England won in 1967/68 and 1969, but the West Indies held on to the trophy until 1997/98 (this included the West Indies’s consecutive 5-0 clean sweeps, in England in 1984 and at home in 1985/86). England regained it in 2000 and more or less held on to it since then, barring two occasions when the West Indies won it back, with home series wins in 2008/09 and 2018/19.
Meanwhile, there were calls for the trophy to be renamed. Former England captain Michael Atherton, a regular feature in England-West Indies Test matches throughout the 1990s and a bit, pointed out that John Wisden, while being a remarkable professional of the 19th century and founder of the almanack, had little relevance in England-West Indies contests.
Atherton suggested the name of Learie Constantine, a stellar figure in the history of both nations. An early giant of West Indian cricket in their Test-playing days, Constantine had a long stint as a professional for the Lancashire club, Nelson. His impact transcended the field of cricket: he played a key role in the passing of the Race Relations Act in Britain in 1965, and became the Britain’s first black peer.
Interestingly, it was Constantine who had reached out to the authorities at Wisden in the 1960s for a trophy for England-West Indies Test cricket. Wisden, in turn, consulted the MCC, and the trophy was coined.
The trophy underwent a change of name during the West Indies’ 2020 tour of England, which also marked the return of Test cricket after the Covid-19 pandemic. Ahead of the third Test match, both boards announced that the next edition, to be played in 2021/22 in the West Indies, would be named after Viv Richards and Ian Botham.
It was a curious choice. While Richards made 2,869 runs against England with eight hundreds (his best record against any nation in Test cricket), Botham’s numbers against the West Indies (792 runs at 21.40, 61 wickets at 35.18) remains a rare weak point for a cricketer of his class.
At the same time, it cannot be argued that Richards and Botham, Somerset colleagues whose friendship is part of cricket folklore (Botham even left the club after their alleged harsh treatment of Richards), were cricketing icons throughout their careers.
The 2024 Richards-Botham Trophy begins on July 10 at Lord's, also set to be the final Test match for another legendary cricketer, James Anderson.
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