FEATURE / PRIDE OF THE ISLANDS
ONE REGION.
SIX TEAMS.
AND A FRENZY
OF FAST
BOWLING
HOLDING v RICHARDS, ROBERTS v
HAYNES, WALSH v GREENIDGE: WHILE
WEST INDIES FORGED A TEAM OF WORLD
BEATERS AND BRIDGED DISPARATE ISLANDS
IT WAS A DIFFERENT STORY WHEN THESE
GREAT PLAYERS CAME FACE TO FACE IN
DOMESTIC CRICKET. TONY COZIER LOOKS
BACK AT AN ERA OF FIERCE RIVALRIES
AND BATTLES, PLAYED IN FRONT OF LARGE
CROWDS WITH REGIONAL PRIDE AT STAKE
38 / thecricketer.com
he late sports
columnist Ian
Wooldridge once told
me that West Indies
cricket was “one of the
wonders of the world”.
Wooldridge was bemused
by how a group of separate,
minuscule former British
colonies scattered across the
Caribbean Sea could produce
such a profusion of great
players and could unite into
such powerful teams, none
more so than those led by
Clive Lloyd and Viv Richards
that did not lose a Test series
between 1980 and 1995.
There was a straightforward
answer. Such strength was not
in spite of the limitations but
largely because of them.
Tiny populations meant
PHILIP BROWN (2), GETTY IMAGES
On the head, son:
Jeffrey Dujon
avoids a bouncer
from Wayne Daniel;
Courtney Walsh
leaps (far left)
that talent was concentrated at
school, club and first-class level.
Competition for selection in the few
regional teams, and ultimately for
West Indies, was as intense as the
rivalry between the insularly proud
territories themselves and made still
more acute by the shortest first-class
season of them all. Techniques were
tested as much by the quality of the
bowling as by that of the pitches that
varied from one ground to another.
It was the formula for the
universally envied excellence of the
eighties and it was based primarily
on the grounding of an exceptionally
strong domestic first-class
tournament, known in its heyday as
the Shell Shield.
As one half of the partnership
with Gordon Greenidge that laid
solid foundations for both Barbados
and West Indies for a dozen years,
Desmond Haynes is qualified to rate
the domestic game against Tests. He
considers his clashes against the
Combined Islands (the Leewards
and Windwards), “with Andy Roberts
bowling like lightning”, and Jamaica
to have been “just as hard as, if not
harder than, Test cricket”.
“There was certainly no difference
in the intensity,” says Haynes.
“Everyone always came hard at
Barbados because of our record over
the years. And while you had a rest
day after three days in Tests, Shell
Shield matches went four straight
days in the hot sun. It was hard all
right. Don’t forget that we played only
four or five Shield matches a year.
If you failed to perform in a couple,
there was always somebody to take
your place [for West Indies].”
Fierce, long-established interterritorial hostility fuelled the
competitive juices; they were
accentuated by the unique situation
of players representing the separate
lands of their birth.
These divisions generated a
cricketing xenophobia dating back to
the annual tournaments of the first
three decades of the 20th century
between the then colonies Barbados,
British Guiana and Trinidad (Jamaica
was so far north as to make their
participation impractical). They
were the equivalent of Tests prior to
elevation to international status.
Flash points were inevitable. Young
Learie Constantine, on his first trip
with the Trinidad team in 1920,
was bemused to find some players
leaving for Georgetown armed with
revolvers. They had been forewarned
of potential trouble. It duly arrived
when an angry mob, protesting the
decisions of a Trinidadian umpire
SOME PLAYERS
LEFT FOR
GEORGETOWN
ARMED WITH
REVOLVERS,
FOREWARNED
OF TROUBLE
thecricketer.com / 39
feature / pride of the islands
against three hometown favourites,
stormed the hotel where Constantine
and his team-mates were staying.
Police patrols were needed to keep
the peace, revolvers at the ready.
Sixty years on such antagonism had
long since passed but the fervour
remained. “As the West Indies, we
were a tight-knit group,” says Michael
Holding, who regularly devastated
Test opponents over a career
spanning a dozen years. “But when a
tour in Australia or New Zealand was
coming to an end and we were to go
back home for the Shell Shield, a lot
of banter would start. ‘Wait til I catch
you in Barbados.’ ‘We’ll sort out you
pacers on our flat pitches.’ That sort
of thing. And it was serious. Certainly
there was no holding back because
you might have been someone’s roommate on tour.”
Holding, who had stints with
Derbyshire and Lancashire in
England, Tasmania in Australia and
Canterbury in New Zealand, always
had “a special feeling” bowling for
Jamaica. “I think it means more than
just going out and playing another
cricket match. You’re representing
your people. They were there to see
you. That was always on my mind.”
“Everybody knew that cricket was
being played,” says Haynes. “It was
the topic of discussion wherever you
went. It was on the radio. It was up
there with Tests matches. There was
no television coverage so they had to
come out to watch. And they did – in
big numbers.”
Once there, they were never short
of advice or criticism. It was often
downright denigration. Wayne
Daniel, the Bajan fast bowler,
more than once found himself on
the receiving end of such censure.
“They were supposed to be our
home supporters at Kensington but
they wouldn’t accept any average
performance,” he says. “If you were
bowling rubbish the barrackers
gave you hell. I once got so much
stick after a poor match against the
Windwards that I was dropped. I’m
sure that was the crowd’s selection.”
In 12 seasons with Middlesex
Daniel had created mayhem on the
county circuit. According to Haynes,
those who knew him as an outand-out tearaway weren’t overly
impressed by the adjustments he
made in England when he came back
for the Shell Shield. “One season
40 / thecricketer.com
The King dethroned:
Winston Benjamin
(top) took 15 wickets
in the 1987 series,
propelling Leeward
Islands to the final;
Viv Richards falls
to Wayne Daniel in
1983 (above)
Wayne was bowling what we call an
English line and length, pitching the
ball up fuller than he normally would
in the West Indies,” Haynes says.
“After he was hit for a few boundaries
some joker in the crowd bellowed
out, ‘You now a mini-moke or what,
Daniel? You being driven all over
the place.’”
n
n
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It followed that Lloyd’s formula
of pure pace, devised after the
humiliation he and his young team
endured from Lillee and Thomson on
the 1975-76 tour of Australia, would
be applied to domestic cricket. And
so it was the response to the physical
threat of lethal fast bowling that
identified emerging players with the
bottle to make it.
Jeffrey Dujon played 81 Tests
as wicketkeeper and a middle-
order batting stylist during West
Indies’ formidable run. Dujon was
toughened by the experiences of
his apprenticeship on getting there.
His school, Wolmer’s in Kingston,
had already produced seven Test
players when his potential became
evident. He followed his father into
the Jamaica team in 1975 but was
still waiting for a call from the West
Indies selectors when he fronted
up for the 1980 Shell Shield match
against the mighty Barbados at
Kensington Oval.
His 113 four years earlier at the
same venue, made against the coming
pace duo of Daniel and Joel Garner,
had not been enough to convince
the selectors; now he knew a couple
of reasonable scores against the
colossus of the day would clinch a
place in a team that under Lloyd was
already growing into its prolonged
period of invincibility.
“Barbados had an awesome
pace combination stronger than
any, anywhere at the time,” Dujon
maintains, without exaggeration,
bias or fear of contradiction. “All had
been in the Test side. If you weren’t
fending off Sylvester Clarke and
Wayne Daniel, there would be the
swing of Malcolm Marshall and the
bounce of that giant, Joel Garner,
coming at you.”
Dujon managed 8 (bowled Garner)
and 16 (lbw Marshall), Jamaica were
beaten by an innings within three
days and it took another hundred
against Barbados in 1981 finally
to earn Dujon his inclusion on the
subsequent tour of Australia. “How
you did against Barbados, especially
on their hard, fast pitches, was then
the selectors’ yardstick for judging
batsmen,” Dujon says. “It was tough –
so tough that it prepared you for Test
cricket, made the transition easier. I
always got a similar buzz waking up
on the morning of a match against
Barbados as for a Test in Australia.”
The Barbados storm troopers led
the way to nine championships
between 1976 and 1991. They were
at their most fearsome between
1980 and 1983, when the average
opposition score at Kensington was
222; there were only two totals over
300, Lloyd scoring 104 of Guyana’s
420 in 1983.
Holding recalls a match against
Barbados when a Jamaican batsman,
terrified at the prospect of facing up
Playing
for their
country
West Indies began to
assert their dominance
of world cricket after
their 5-1 humbling by
Australia in 1975-76.
Barbados did the same
in the Shell Shield,
winning nine titles
in 16 years of fierce
competition between
1976-91. They could call
on a team of greats who
would have beaten most
Test teams. For the
other islands, Barbados
was the acid Test
Barbados
Champions 1976 (shared
with T&T), 1977, 1978, 1979,
1980, 1982, 1984, 1986
Star players
Gordon Greenidge
batsman
Barbados (1973-91) 49
matches, 3547 runs @ 47.29
West Indies (1974-91) 108
Tests, 7558 runs @ 44.72
Wayne Daniel fast bowler
Barbados (1976-85) 23
matches, 92 wkts @ 23.71
West Indies (1976-84) 10
Tests, 36 wkts @ 25.27
Joel Garner fast bowler
Barbados (1976-88) 29
matches, 136 wkts @ 18.31
West Indies (1977-87) 58
Tests, 259 wkts @ 20.97
Jamaica
Guyana
Star players
Star players
Lawrence Rowe
batsman
Jamaica (1969-82) 53
matches, 3487 runs @ 42.01
v Barbados 11 matches, 342
runs @ 18.00
West Indies (1972-80) 30
Tests, 2047 runs @ 43.55
Clive Lloyd batsman
Guyana (1967-83) 37
matches, 3102 runs @ 66.00
v Barbados 8 matches, 687
runs @ 76.33
West Indies (1966-85) 110
Tests, 7515 runs @ 46.67
Champions 1988, 1989
Michael Holding
fast bowler
Jamaica (1973-89) 34
matches, 90 wkts @ 25.81
v Barbados 7 matches, 16
wkts @ 27.87
West Indies (1975-87) 60
Tests, 249 wkts @ 23.68
Jeffrey Dujon
wicketkeeper
Jamaica (1975-93) 70
matches, 3927 runs @ 40.90;
107 ct, 13 st
v Barbados 14 matches,
144 runs @ 54.47
West Indies (1981-91) 81
Tests, 3322 runs @ 31.94; 267
ct, 5 st
Courtney Walsh
fast bowler
Jamaica (1982-2001) 64
matches, 279 wkts @ 19.50
v Barbados 14 matches, 66
wkts @ 20.78
West Indies (1984-2001) 132
Tests, 519 wkts @ 24.44
Patrick Patterson
fast bowler
Jamaica (1983-92) 23
matches, 83 wkts @ 22.12
v Barbados 5 matches, 17
wkts @ 23.47
West Indies (1985-1993) 28
Tests, 93 wkts @ 30.90
Champions 1983, 1987
Colin Croft fast bowler
Guyana (1972-82) 20
matches, 77 wkts @ 24.57
v Barbados 5 matches, 18
wkts @ 21.44
West Indies (1976-82) 27
Tests, 125 wkts @ 23.30
Roger Harper allrounder
Guyana (1980-96) 57
matches, 2844 runs @ 34.26;
206 wkts @ 22.17
v Barbados 13 matches, 424
runs @ 22.31; 53 wkts @ 20.43
West Indies (1983-94) 25
Tests, 535 runs @ 18.44; 46
wkts @ 28.06
Clyde Butts offspinner
Guyana (1981-94) 61
matches, 274 wkts @ 22.41
v Barbados 13 matches, 39
wkts @ 27.84
West Indies (1986-87) 7
Tests, 10 wkts @ 59.50
Leeward Islands, Trinidad & Tobago
1976 (shared
Windward Islands, Champions
with Barbados), 1985
Combined Islands Star players
Champions 1981
(Combined Islands), 1990
(Leeward Islands)
Star players
Andy Roberts
fast bowler, Antigua
Lee/Com (1970-84) 51
matches, 211 wkts @ 18.90
v Barbados 11 matches, 49
wkts @ 20.67
West Indies (1973-84) 47
Tests, 202 wkts @ 25.61
Viv Richards
batsman, Antigua
Lee/Com (1972-91) 54
matches, 3330 runs @ 39.64
v Barbados 13 matches, 601
runs @ 27.31
West Indies (1974-91) 121
Tests, 8540 runs @ 50.23
Larry Gomes batsman
Trinidad & Tobago
(1972-88) 55 matches,
3819 runs @ 43.39
v Barbados 12 matches,
812 runs @ 40.60
West Indies (1976-87)
60 Tests, 3171 runs @ 39.63
Gus Logie batsman
Trinidad & Tobago
(1979-92) 39 matches,
2220 runs @ 35.23
v Barbados 7 matches,
384 runs @ 29.53
West Indies (1982-91) 52
Tests, 2470 runs @ 35.79
Richie Richardson
batsman, Antigua
Leeward/Windward/
Combined (1982-96) 45
matches, 3092 runs @ 43.55
v Barbados 9 matches, 777
runs @ 48.56
West Indies (1983-95) 86
Tests, 5949 runs @ 44.39
Greats: Joel Garner lifts the
Shield in 1986; Courtney
Walsh bowls to Viv Richards
(below left); Richie
Richardson sweeps during his
176 against Barbados in 1988 –
the highest individual score
of the season (above)
Desmond Haynes batsman
Barbados (1977-95) 63
matches, 4843 runs @ 49.92
West Indies (1978-94) 116
Tests, 7487 runs @ 42.29
Sylvester Clarke
fast bowler
Barbados (1978-82) 20
matches, 68 wkts @ 27.91
West Indies (1978-82)
11 Tests, 42 wkts @ 27.85
Malcolm Marshall
fast bowler
Barbados (1978-91) 37
matches, 180 wkts @ 17.47
West Indies (1978-91) 81
Tests, 376 wkts @ 20.94
thecricketer.com / 41
feature / pride of the islands
to Marshall and Garner, marched to
the wicket without bat or helmet.
Even the most commanding
batsman of the time faltered against
the Bajans. Viv Richards made scores
of 0, 3, 4, 13, 4, 46, 0, 45 and 16 in five
matches against Barbados in the first
half of the 1980s, including a bowled
first ball by Daniel in 1983.
“Bowling at Viv gave you an
adrenaline rush,” Daniel says.
“It wasn’t just that he was such a
great player but you knew he had
something to prove.” The reference
was to the fact that Richards’
Antigua, as one of the Leeward
and Windward Islands, had been
excluded from first-class status until
the inception of the Shell Shield in
1966. Viv’s father, Malcolm, was a fast
bowler and among several talented
‘small islanders’ who never had a
chance of playing for West Indies.
n
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there were
those who
never made it
who would
walk into the
present west
indies team
n
The Barbados monopoly, like that of
West Indies, was gradually eroded.
When the Combined Islands clinched
the Shield in 1981 Roberts’ 25 wickets
in four matches at 9.92 each were
decisive. All but one of them were
taken on slow, featureless pitches
including the Queen’s Park Oval in
Trinidad where, until 1955, matting
pitches had been used over surfaces
made unplayable by soil insects.
Once relaid with turf from the south
of the island they were transformed
into slow turners to which those
Land of the giants: Jamaica take on Barbados at Sabina Park in 1988 on
the way to the title (above); Jamaica’s Patrick Patterson makes things
uncomfortable for Barbados’s Desmond Haynes in 1986 (top)
42 / thecricketer.com
from other territories had to adjust.
Thus Trinidad and Tobago’s title in
1985 owed much to the 45 wickets (at
16.98) taken by the combination of
the legspinner Genesh Mahabir and
orthodox offspinner Rangy Naran,
the captain. Guyana, home of Lance
Gibbs, were similarly dependent on
their slow bowlers, Clyde Butts and
Roger Harper – as well Lloyd’s runs –
to win in 1983 and 1987.
Even in such conditions Tony Gray
and Ian Bishop – two heavyweight
West Indian fast bowlers – emerged
from Trinidad in the mid-80s, while
Colin Croft had surged from the
Guyana ranks a decade earlier.
After a break of 19 years Jamaica
doubled up with titles in 1988 and
1989 based on a trio of formidable
fast men, fronted by Holding along
with his protégé Courtney Walsh
and the fearsome newcomer Patrick
Patterson. The Leeward Islands’ first
championship arrived in 1990 on the
back of a group of Antiguan quicks:
the incomparable Curtly Ambrose,
the Benjamins (Winston and Kenny)
and Eldine Baptiste.
Unlike Haynes, Holding says
that there was a difference in level
between domestic and international
cricket. “I’d say that, overall, it wasn’t
quite Test standard since not every
team had a pool of players of that
calibre. Sure, a few had six or seven
who were in the West Indies team or
close to it. Others, like Trinidad and
Tobago and the Windward Islands,
had just one or two.”
“There were those who never made
it who would walk into the present
team,” says Dujon, reeling off some
of the names: Jim Allen from tiny
Montserrat, where he was rated on
a par with Richards; Ralston Otto,
Richards’ stylish fellow Antiguan;
Lockhart Sebastien, the Windwards
opener who had no chance of
displacing Greenidge and Haynes;
Herbert Chang, a diminutive ChineseJamaican left-hander who played
only one Test in spite of making three
hundreds against Barbados and, like
others who saw no way into the West
Indies side, joined the rebel team to
South Africa in 1983.
Much has changed since the time
when the selectors could ignore
such talent. The public has become
increasingly disenchanted with the
repeated failures. Now Twenty20
rules. For the inaugural Caribbean
Premier League last August stands
were filled as they once were for Test
and domestic matches.
“It bothers me when you see guys
hanging around the changing room at
the ground doing nothing, like they’re
still back at the hotel room,” says
Richie Richardson, a star for the
Leeward Islands and West Indies in
the 1980s and now the team manager.
“As soon as you get on the bus you
need to be ready. The opposition
needs to know you’re serious and
ready for business. You put on your
game face and you’re ready for action,
ready for business, ready to work,
ready to go to war.” Those were the
days.
Tony Cozier has written on West
Indies cricket for more than 50 years