Best West Indies player with less than Test 10 caps?

Simple question: who is the best West Indies player with less than 10 Test caps?

There are a lot of great players to choose from including the likes of Len Baichan, Franklyn Stephenson, Ezra Moseley, Renford Pinnock, Hartley Alleyne and Norbert Phillip. Wayne Daniel played 10 Test matches and Sylvester Clarke appeared in 11 matches otherwise their names would have also appeared on this list for me.

My vote, however, goes to Tony Gray. His first-class numbers (22.80 ave, 45.5 strike rate) compared very favourably to Malcolm Marshall (19.10 ave, 45.2 strike rate). Gray picked up 19 5-wicket hauls in his first-class career and also 5 fifties with the bat.

Gray fared incredibly well in the 5 Test matches he played (22 wickets at an average of 17 and a strike rate of 40.3) and was just as dominant in his 25 ODI appearances (44 wickets at an average of 18.97 and an incredible strike rate of 28).

While he didn't bowl enough deliveries to qualify for the best strike rates in Test history, there are only three bowlers on that list who bettered Gray's 40.3, and two of them played in the 1800s; Shane Bond (38.7) is the only qualified post-war bowler with a lower strike rate.

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Question is if Tony Gray performance was so good, why did not he play more for WI?

How about Any Cummins? He was a successful in ODI & decent lower order bat. Could have been useful all rounder

probably like his successor : Ian Bishop : injury plagued !

what is his Surrey stats ?

baichan was shortchanged by selection policies.

baichan dinner was eaten when he got injured by Gordon Greenidge...


had greenidge opted to play for England , baichan was safe !

Greenidge /Haynes is now Folklore...

There was another Greenidge named Alvin if am not wrong. He was a good opener too.

It really was too bad that he suffered so many injuries. In 1985, his first year in county cricket for Surrey, he picked up 79 wickets at an average of 22.98 with 8 5 wicket-hauls. The only bowlers that took more wickets that year were Neal Radford, Malcolm Marshall, Courtney Walsh and David Lawrence.

The following year he took 51 wickets at an average of 18.94. Richard Hadlee (an insane 12.64 average) was the only bowler with a better average that year.

I still remember Gray tearing apart a Hampshire team in 1985 that featured the likes of Gordon Greenidge, Paul Terry, Robin and Chris Smith, Mark Nicholas and Malcolm Marshall.

A few more numbers on Gray that I was able to dig up thanks to Cricket Archive . In his career, Gray took 146 wickets for Trinidad and Tobago at an average of 25.58. He was even better in for Surrey, taking 199 wickets at an average of 21.28. Perhaps even more impressive were his figures in ODI matches for Surrey - an average of 22.80 with a strike rate of 32.34!

I didn't realise that he also appeared for the Young West Indies, where once again he completely dominated the opposition (a bowling average of 9.00). His best performance came against Zimbabwe in October 1989 where he took 7/30 in the first innings and took 3 more wickets in the second innings. There was a lot of talent in that Young West Indies team, namely Lara, Hooper, Adams and Lambert.

cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/51/51967.html

I knew I remembered Gray taking a hat-trick for Surrey and I was finally able to track down the scorecard. The game in question took place in July 1985 against Yorkshire. Gray tore apart that Yorkshire side in the first innings, taking 8/40 including the aforementioned hat-trick. Boycott carried his bat, ending up 55 not out while the rest of the team (including Jonny Bairstow's father) crumbled around him.

cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/46/46205.html