1976 English cricket season
The 1976 English cricket season was the 77th in which the County Championship had been an official competition. Clive Lloyd adopted a new approach to Test cricket as a battery of pace bowlers was used to intimidate the England batsmen. Lloyd adopted the tactic after his own team's experiences against Jeff Thomson and Dennis Lillee the previous year. England's batsmen were no match for Andy Roberts and Michael Holding, but even more worrying was a dearth of effective England bowlers and it was West Indian batsmen like Viv Richards and Gordon Greenidge who were the real stars of a long, hot, dry summer. Middlesex won the County Championship.
Honours
- County Championship – Middlesex
- Gillette Cup – Northamptonshire
- Sunday League – Kent
- Benson & Hedges Cup – Kent
- Minor Counties Championship – Durham
- Second XI Championship – Kent II
- Wisden – Mike Brearley, Gordon Greenidge, Michael Holding, Vivian Richards, Bob Taylor
Test series
After two drawn games in the first two tests, the West Indians won the remaining three test matches to convincingly win the series 3–0.
County Championship
Gillette Cup
Benson & Hedges Cup
Sunday League
Leading batsmen
| 1976 English cricket season – leading batsmen by average | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Innings | Runs | Highest | Average | 100s | |
| Zaheer Abbas | 39 | 2554 | 230* | 75.11 | 11 | |
| Viv Richards | 25 | 1724 | 291 | 71.83 | 6 | |
| Geoffrey Boycott | 24 | 1288 | 207* | 67.78 | 5 | |
| Dennis Amiss | 38 | 2110 | 203 | 65.93 | 8 | |
| Clive Lloyd | 26 | 1363 | 201* | 61.95 | 3 | |
| 1976 English cricket season – leading batsmen by aggregate | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Innings | Runs | Highest | Average | 100s | |
| Zaheer Abbas | 39 | 2554 | 230* | 75.11 | 11 | |
| Dennis Amiss | 38 | 2110 | 203 | 65.93 | 8 | |
| Gordon Greenidge | 38 | 1952 | 134 | 55.77 | 8 | |
| Ken McEwan | 38 | 1821 | 156 | 49.21 | 6 | |
| Brian Davison | 41 | 1818 | 132 | 56.81 | 6 | |
Leading bowlers
| 1976 English cricket season – leading bowlers by average | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Balls | Maidens | Runs | Wickets | Average | |
| Michael Holding | 2037 | 111 | 791 | 55 | 14.38 | |
| Norman Featherstone | 2511 | 141 | 901 | 57 | 15.80 | |
| Asif Iqbal | 418 | 12 | 214 | 13 | 16.46 | |
| Peter Sainsbury | 3435 | 228 | 1236 | 66 | 18.72 | |
| Vanburn Holder | 2342 | 109 | 1004 | 52 | 19.30 | |
| 1976 English cricket season – leading bowlers by aggregate | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Balls | Maidens | Runs | Wickets | Average | |
| Geoff Cope | 5500 | 288 | 2245 | 93 | 24.13 | |
| Mike Selvey | 3867 | 130 | 1913 | 90 | 21.25 | |
| Phil Edmonds | 5321 | 286 | 2029 | 88 | 23.05 | |
| Robin Jackman | 3382 | 120 | 1760 | 85 | 20.70 | |
| Sarfraz Nawaz | 3836 | 143 | 1867 | 82 | 22.76 | |