West Indies Fast Bowlers of the 1980s!

[Karl]

Brutal compilation - https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...&v=3VOGoiaZlX8

[Muadib]

How the WI Cricket Academy coming along ??

[Karl]

Lawrence George Rowe

Lawrence Rowe - a batsman of class



Rowe


This is the 14th in a series of the 20 greatest Jamaican athletes of the century.

LAWRENCE ROWE (CRICKET)

LAWRENCE George Rowe is not the greatest batsman produced by Jamaica. That distinction belongs to George Headley - no question about that.

There is, however, no challenge for the No. 2 spot. "Yagga" Rowe, the batsman who scored 2,047 runs, including seven centuries, in 30 Test matches at an average of 43.55 is next in line.

In the most spectacular debut in the history of Test cricket, Rowe not only joined the celebrated list of batsmen who started their careers with a century when he stroked 214 against New Zealand at Sabina Park in 1972, but by scoring 100 not out in the second innings he became, and remains, the only batsman to score two centuries in his first Test.

Two years later, after scoring 120 at Sabina Park in the second Test against England, Rowe scored a memorable, stroke-filled 302 in the third Test at Kensington Oval and followed that with a fighting 123 in the fifth Test at Queen's Park Oval.

The greatness of Rowe, however, was not so much the runs he scored, but the manner in which he scored them. He was a batsman of class, an artist second to none - including Headley.

Rowe was one of cricket's great naturals - a superb and classic batsman, sharp of eye, nimble of foot and precise in movement. His batting was full of elegant artistry and there were people, young and old alike, who believed one stroke from his bat was worth every penny of the entrance fee. In fact, there were some who were satisfied just to see Rowe walk to wicket, take his guard and get into his stance.

He was a class act, a batsman who made every stroke seem easy and who hooked, drove, swept and cut with such precision easy grace that even in the hottest of battles he appeared to be enjoying himself.

Such was the strokeplay of the batsman once called Lawrence of Jamaica that there were times when fans left the arena after a big innings and did not remember his score. All they remembered, all they talked about for days were the strokes - the front-foot drive through extra-cover or left of point, the wristy stroke off the back foot as he whipped the ball through midwicket, the chip and drive wide of mid-on, the vicious hook and the delicate late cut.

Rowe, the man who whistled a tune while batting, especially when he was timing the ball perfectly, was more than a batsman who scored runs: he was a class batsman who batted as if he was born to bat.

These were the words of the late Sir Frank Worrell's father-in-law the night after Rowe's masterpiece at Kensington Oval: "When Rowe was born, the good Lord must have put his hand on his head and said, son, go thou and bat".

If the greatness of a batsman is judged on runs alone, Rowe is second to one Jamaican. If, however, it is assessed by skill and strokes, elegance and class, he is second to none.









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[Karl]

Once 'Lawrence of Jamaica', now just a pariah...

Once 'Lawrence of Jamaica', now just a pariah - in his own country

By Abhishek Mukherjee


Tags: West Indies,Desmond Haynes,Michael Holding,Lawrence Rowe,World Series Cricket,Abhishek Mukherjee,Moments in history,Double century by a batsman on debut,Lawrence Rowe's 302 against England,Jamaica's five greatest cricketers



The 1980 West Indies (standing from left): Physio Dennis Waight, Desmond Haynes, Malcolm Marshall, Collis King, Michael Holding, Joel Garner, Colin Croft, Deryck Parry, Faoud Bacchus, Gordon Greenidge and David Murray. Sitting (from left): Manager Clyde Walcott, Alvin Kallicharran, Deryck Murray, Clive Lloyd (captain), Viv Richards, Lawrence Rowe, Andy Roberts and assistant manager Cammie Smith © Getty Images

Lawrence Rowe, the only batsman to score a double-hundred and a hundred on Test debut, was born on January 8, 1949. Abhishek Mukherjee looks back at the saga of this classical, stylish underachiever from Jamaica who was later shunned by his own countrymen.

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There has probably been no other batsman like Lawrence Rowe. He hailed from the island team of West Indies that has produced some spectacular of batsmen. Among the most illustrious of contemporaries, Rowe stood out for his style. He drove with élan – even off the backfoot. He hooked amazingly hard; he played the late cut incredibly late, often through the slips. And his nimble-footed aggression meant that he could tear any spin attack to shreds. And when he hit through the covers off the backfoot, it looked so regal that everything else on the ground seemed pale in comparison.

Rarely has a batsman promised such greatness and then fallen to levels such mediocre. Any batsman of his technique, power, reflex and panache was destined for lofty heights. And yet he finished with just 2,047 runs from 30 Tests at 43.55 – significantly higher than his First-Class average of 37.57.

Rowe was an obvious choice when he made a classy 227 in a tour match against the visiting New Zealand side. He was an obvious choice for the Test at Kingston. He responded with knocks of 214 and an unbeaten 100 - the only one to score a double-hundred and a hundred on his Test debut. And his debut aggregate of 314 runs still stands.

Kingston never disappointed Rowe. Two years later Rowe scored 120 at the same venue. In the next Test he bludgeoned a 302 against a strong England attack off 430 balls at Bridgetown. No one in Kingston had ever seen anything like it. He massacred a potent English attack all over the park – in style.

He always seemed to see the ball early, and he was as lazy and elegant as he was lethal; it was dangerous for the opposition and a delight for the spectators, more so because the supreme grace lasted for a period of over 10 hours. It was in this innings that Rowe hit the most famous stroke of his career – a flat hook off Bob Willis that went straight, almost at head-level, into the stands over square-leg. And to add insult to the injury, he used to whistle a tune after completing every shot, as if nothing had happened!

The greats were always vocal in his praise. Michael Holding has mentioned that Rowe was undoubtedly the greatest batsman he has ever seen; Desmond Haynes has mentioned Rowe as his childhood hero; his reputation spread so far and wide that he on one occasion he refused to bat in a side match because the pitch was damp and, as per Holding, “he could not be the Lawrence Rowe the people were expecting.”



Lawrence Rowe supremely talented but was unfortunate to finish as an under-achiever © Getty Images


At the end of the England series Rowe’s Test average stood at 70.68 after 12 Tests. The numbers were phenomenal, and he was easily the best batsman in the world. Comparisons with Don Bradman and George Headley had already started.

To nobody’s surprise he was called up to play for Derbyshire. It was then that the ailments began: he developed hay fever and the occasional headache, and – worst of all – Rowe was diagnosed as allergic to grass.

He still continued to play, but with reduced success. Then, when West Indies toured India later that year for one turned out to be a humdinger of a series, Rowe failed miserably even in the nets. It seemed that there was a problem with his eyesight, and he was rushed home.

The opticians found that Rowe had better than a 20-20 vision – he could see so well that he could read the manufacturer’s name on the chart. However, he was diagnosed with terygnium, resulting in growths in his eyes blurring his eyesight. His right eye was almost completely covered, and the left one was partially affected as well. He had to undergo surgery, but the archaic contact lenses often made his eyes water. The eyesight and reflex – attributes on which his game was built – were gone.

He came back, though, in what was marked as the ‘unofficial Test championship’ Down Under, Rowe began with 28 and 107 at Brisbane, managing to hold on to his 70+ average. Thereafter it all went downhill. He never reached the lofty heights he had once perched so comfortably at, though he kept on scoring runs every now and then.

Picked for World Series Cricket, Rowe had one last hurrah – scoring 175 against the Australians. The legendary drives and hooks came into play once again, and a he played one so late that Rodney Marsh had almost gathered it. Ian Chappell at first slip had no time to react. It made even the otherwise composed Richie Benaud ecstatic, and for a while it seemed that the Lawrence of Jamaica – as he was often called – was back at his prime.

After quitting in 1980, Rowe led a rebel West Indian team to South Africa in 1982-83. As a result he was shunned in his favourite Kingston: he was generally considered an outcast by the public; the general tone was that Rowe had betrayed them; as a result he was forced to shift residence and settle down in Miami. Along with Lance Gibbs, he was largely responsible for organising international matches in Lauderhill, Florida.

In 2004 Rowe was named as one of Jamaica’s five greatest cricketers of all time – along with Headley, Michael Holding, Courtney Walsh and Jeff Dujon. On June 20, 2011, Rowe was honoured at Sabina Park during the lunch interval of the India Test along with Holding and Walsh; a stand was named after him, and he sincerely apologised in public for making the tour about three decades back. Barely three months after naming the players' enclosure in the northern stand after Rowe, the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) withdrew the honour following Rowe's comment in a radio interview that he had done nothing wrong by going to apartheid South Africa in 1983 and 1984.

He had been banished in spirit from his homeland forever.

(A hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobiac by his own admission, Abhishek Mukherjee is a statistical analyst based in Kolkata, India. He typically looks upon life as a journey involving two components – cricket and literature – not necessarily as disjoint elements. A passionate follower of the history of the game with an insatiable appetite for trivia and anecdotes, he has also a rather steady love affair with the incredible assortment of numbers the sport has to offer. He also thinks he can bowl decent leg-breaks and googlies in street cricket, and blogs at http://ovshake.blogspot.in)

[Gamma]

hear hear!!!!

lawrence the batsman, pure unadulterated class. the whistling preceded Sir Viv's gum chewing but in itself appeared so disdainful of the bowler and indeed the fielders.

lawrence the batsman deserves all the accolades, lawrence the man, the south africa rebel tour sticks in my crop!

[World Fan]

Well it's out there in print so here

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/201...is-and-cricket


Cannabis and cricket: the highs and lows

An exhibition about the culture of cannabis-use in cricket opens in a New Zealand marijuana museum soon. Time, then, to recall the era of 'Reefer Madness'


An exhbition highlighting the links between cricket and cannabis is to open in Dunedin's museum of marijuana. A novel idea, and one which the MCC will, no doubt, be keeping a keen eye on in case they decide to stage a similar installation at Lord's. Photograph: Sean Dempsey/PA Archive/Press Association Images

REEFER MADNESS

Things to do in Dunedin when you're desperate. It is a short list that just got a little longer. New Zealand's first museum of marijuana, Whakamana, has opened in a house on David Street. You can't miss it. There is a mannequin in the window posing with a phoney spliff. The local police, wary of this new venture, have already been for a visit, seeking, and receiving, assurance that "visitors would not be supplied with anything but information". Judging by the video clip shown on the local news they won't have found anything much more than a few glassy-eyed blokes with beards staring at pinboards covered with curly-cornered clippings of old newspaper articles about the long-going, on-going campaign to legalise the drug.

The first major exhibition at the marijuana museum opens in a couple of months, to coincide with the start of New Zealand's Test against West Indies at the Oval across town. Curator Abe Gray says it will be about the culture of cannabis use in cricket: "We'll be looking at the history of cannabis use among cricket teams, cricket players, and the New Zealand cricket team." A novel idea, and one which the MCC will, no doubt, be keeping a keen eye on in case they decide to stage a similar installation in the museum at Lord's.

If you want to look at the many highs and lows – mainly highs – of cannabis and cricket, New Zealand is a good place to start. The grass seems to be greener on the far side of the world, which may be why so many England players have got into trouble there. It was on the infamous "drugs, sex and rock 'n' roll tour" to New Zealand in 1983-84 ("I know I was there because I've checked the record books," writes Vic Marks. "Obviously I don't remember anything about it") that members of the England team were accused of smoking pot by the Mail on Sunday. The Test and County Cricket Board held an enquiry, which resulted, in Wisden's diplomatic words, "in the party being cleared of having done anything off the field which might have affected their playing performance".

The TCCB was less lenient when, two years later, Ian Botham admitted in that same paper that he had dabbled with the drug. Frank Keating, sickened by suggestions that Botham should be banned for life because of his moral turpitude, suggested instead that he should be "paid for bringing the game into repute". So started the era of 'Reefer Madness'. Stephen Fleming, Matthew Hart and Dion Nash all confessed after being caught smoking at a barbecue in South Africa in 1993. Nash made like Bill Clinton and insisted that he "didn't inhale".

Keith Piper, Paul Smith, and Dermott Reeve all admitted using it at Warwickshire. Phil Tufnell was accused of using it but later cleared of doing so by the England management (on tour in New Zealand again) in 1997, and banned when he skipped a drugs test the next season. Five South African players, Roger Telemachus, Andre Nel, Paul Adams, Justin Kemp, and Herschelle Gibbs, were caught smoking it at a party in 2001. In 1993 Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Aqib Javed, and Mushtaq Ahmed were all arrested and accused of possession during a stopover in Grenada, although the Pakistan management strongly protested the charges. Much more seriously, their Pakistan team-mate Qasim Umar insisted years later that as a young player he had been shown by 'a senior international' how to carry a cricket glove in his kit in which the fingers had been opened up and the stuffing pulled out so that cannabis could be packed in in its place.

West Indies' David Murray said that he smoked pot "before and after the day's play, but never in the breaks – you can't do that". Which shows just how disciplined you needed to be to play professional cricket in the 1970s.

Murray never made it as a Test player.

Club players have the luxury of being a little more lax. In Penguins Stopped Play, Harry Thompson describes his team-mate Cie. "A devilish spin-bowler, his performances could be erratic," Thompson wrote. "Finally we discovered his secret: dope. Without it, his bowling was no more than ordinary. But give him several oak-tree-sized spliffs behind the pavilion during the tea interval and he could make the ball fizz, swirl, bite and spit. 'Yeah man' he would exult as he bamboozled his way through the opposition. The ball, it seemed, was as stoned as he was."

The very occasional exception aside, marijuana is reckoned to inhibit performance rather than enhance it. Which is one reason why Wada, which classes it as a "specified substance unlikely to have been taken for performance enhancement", recently raised the threshold for a positive test from 15 nanograms per millilitre to 150. Even Thompson admits of Cie that "after a joint or two, he couldn't bat for toffee".

Its debilitating effects were never better illustrated than by the tale of the Australian team Nerrena CC. In 2005 they travelled to Inverloch for a crucial league fixture. The Nerrena players were pleasantly surprised to find that the hosts had laid on a spread of suspiciously moreish chocolate cupcakes for their guests. "I thought, gee this is pretty good," said Nerrena player Tim Clark. "They usually feed us crap." He ate five of them. Soon his team-mates began complaining of "sunstroke-like symptoms". Two broke into hysterical giggling fits, and had to leave the field because their mouths were so dry.

Clark said it took him 20 minutes to put his pads on once play started, and almost four hours to assemble a kit bicycle at the end of the day. "I was all over the shop. I was putting the handlebars where the seat was meant to be."

Inverloch denied everything. One of Nerrena's players pointed out afterwards that "if the police had tested me for drugs as I drove home, and I came up positive, what could I have said to them? 'It wasn't me, I was fed drugged cupcakes at cricket?'"