George Francis (cricketer) - Tests in The West Indies and Australia

Tests in The West Indies and Australia

The next stages in the elevation of West Indies to Test status were that a team was sent to the Caribbean in 1929-30 by Marylebone Cricket Club to play a series of four Test matches and, the following season, a West Indian side travelled to Australia for the first Test series between those sides: Francis featured in matches in both seasons. The England side of 1929-30 was composed partly of Test-class players – a second tour of similar standing was organised by MCC to another of the new Test nations, New Zealand, at the same time, and some established Test players opted out of both of them. The West Indies' Test team for this series was selected match-by-match by the individual countries' cricket authorities, and Francis played in only one Test, the third match, played at Georgetown, British Guiana; this was the West Indies' first Test victory, and though the batting, led by George Headley with a century in each innings and by Clifford Roach with a double-century in the first innings, took credit in the Wisden report, Francis took six wickets in the match and, with Constantine taking nine, ensured the England side was bowled out twice. Francis' first-innings figures of four for 40 were the best innings figures he achieved in Test cricket.

The following winter, Francis, with Griffith and Constantine, formed a three-man fast bowling attack in the first-ever series between the West Indies and Australia, although, as in England in 1928, the team's success was limited. In three of the first four Test matches, the West Indies side was beaten by an innings, but in the fifth and final Test, all three fast bowlers contributed to a narrow victory; Francis took four wickets for 48 runs in Australia's first innings. In the series as a whole, he took 11 wickets at an average of 31.81.