quoted at the time saying: From the Australian point of view, I can become the all-rounder. I don't bat and bowl but I bat and wicket-keep... Hopefully this tour will see the start of me becoming a specialist wicket-keeper. I realise I'm under enormous pressure, but I really believe I can prove I am as good as any specialist wicket-keeper in the country. Phillips was generally held to have done a good job on the tour and also throughout the 1984–85 summer, despite an injury which saw him miss several games. In the first test against the West Indies he made 22 (Australia's top score) and 16. In the second he made 44 (again Australia's top score) and 54. He was one of the few batsmen seen to be taking on the West Indies bowling. Phillips dislocated a finger and missed the last three tests. He was replaced by Steve Rixon but resumed his position at the end of the summer when he was better. He was also selected on the 1985 Ashes. At the end of the summer it was revealed that in November 1984 Phillips had signed to go on the rebel tours to South Africa over the 1985–86 and 1986–87 seasons. The tours were organised by former test batsman, Bruce Francis, who later wrote that Phillips: Disliked keeping and would have preferred to play for Australia as a top-order batsman. By the time the tour was being put together, he had become fed up with the pressures of the modern game and was determined to make as much money as he could, as quickly as he could, and then retire. It was a revelation to me that such a fine player could be so unenthusiastic about the game. However Phillips, along with Dirk Wellham and Graeme Wood, changed his mind after a financial inducement from Kerry Packer. (Murray Bennett changed his mind of his own accord.) For a time it was unsure whether the rest of the Australian players would agree to tour with Wellham, Phillips and Wood, but this was cleared up and the players were allowed to go to England. Phillips was one of the few Australian players to return home with his reputation enhanced during the 1985 Ashes tour, which Australia lost 3–1. An innings of 91 in the first Test came close to saving the game for Australia, and in the second he