written by mail for:
www.westindiesforum.com
In my view the 1975-76 tour of Australia was a defining moment for West Indies Cricket. Glued to the radio and up at ungodly time of the night, with school looming in the morning it was not the best move but it had to be done. God only knows how I was not caught by my very vigilant mother. Ears glued to a radio the size of a small car, I conjured up the images transmitted by the commentators and the Windies having won the last two warm up matches, I felt we had a very good chance in the 6 tests series.Quite a lot of excitement as the teams seemed evenly matched and it was only a few months prior West Indies had beaten the Australians in the inaugural Prudential World Cup at Lords. Lloyd made an excellent start to his tenure as Captain and had also beaten India 3-2 in their back yard in 1974-75 so I, like many West Indians, was on a high, expectant to see this mostly young team perform.There was Leornard Baichan, prolific in domestic Cricket with an average second to none, a youngster called Viv Richards, The Captain himself, a classy all rounder in Bernard Julien, Inshan Ali the mystery spinner of his time, Roberts, young Holding, Fredericks the diminutive assassin, Rowe and Kalli. They were all players of stature and achievement.I listened loyally match after match without fail, turning up to School bleary eyed and thinking we can still do well. Before I knew it we had lost 5-1 and the radio a tad worn out from my ears being pressed against the speaker.There we some notable moments though, some memorable and others not.Leonard Baichan, after a successful debut tour of Pakistan where, as an opener, he averaged 81 in his two tests, including a ton on debut, averaged 49 in his three innings leading up to the first test but, despite the need for a stable opening pair, he did not play until the 6th and final test when the rubber was dead and lost 4-1. Baichan was never to play for the West Indies again. During that series, Greenidge, Bernard Julien, Kallicharan and Richards partnered Fredericks as openers.At the start of the series Gibbs required 14 wickets to equal FS Trueman’s record of 307 wickets, a feat he achieved in the second innings of the Adelaide lost test match when he had Mallett caught by Murray. He went one better in the first innings of the, Melbourne test in dismissing Redpath and ended up with 309 scalps when he dismissed Gilmour. He promptly retired from International Cricket.The accumulated stress of the series was most telling leaving me numb and distressed but no one understood. Why would they, I dared not say. We were not to be whipped and abused in that fashion for quite some time after and I was grateful
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