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(Part 17.) Steady stalwart.
“We don’t need Andy Roberts, Croft and Garner when we have superstar Vanburn Holder!”
In pretending to be the voice of then West Indies Cricket Board of Control president Jeffrey Stollmeyer—at the time of the exodus of most first-choice players to Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket in 1978/79—The Mighty Sparrow targeted the Barbadian seamer for sarcastic ridicule.
But with 34 days to go to the 50th anniversary of the West Indies victory over Australia in the 1975 World Cup final at Lord’s, we shed a different light on this steady if unspectacular fast-medium bowler, who first represented the region on the dismal 1969 tour of England where the decline of the great team of the 1960s became all too apparent.
Vanburn Holder was fortunate to be in his prime at the time that the regional side was in transition, as it is unlikely that he would have played as many as the 40 Tests that he did over a period of nearly ten years if quality fast bowlers were readily available.
That was not his fault, and it certainly could not be said that he shirked responsibility. From the very start of his Test career, he was both the opening bowler and the workhorse, delivering 38 overs in the first innings of his first two Tests for modest returns.
Yet until the arrival of Andy Roberts triggered the unprecedented tsunami of fast bowling talent, the bow-legged journeyman shouldered the burden manfully.
He did have his moments, none more prominent than bowling the West Indies to a series-clinching 201-run demolition of India in Mumbai in the fifth and final Test of the enthralling 1974/75 series.
His figures of six for 39—sealing the result when he had last man Bhagwat Chandrasekhar caught behind—were actually bettered at Queen’s Park Oval three years later when, recalled in the absence of the ‘Packer players’, he claimed six for 28 against an Australian side that was also without most of its first-choice players.
By then of course he was surplus to requirements and only played because the fearsome foursome of Roberts, Michael Holding, Colin Croft and Joel Garner were contracted to Australian magnate Packer and therefore effectively persona non grata in the eyes of the hierarchy of the WICBC.
Photo: Sydney Herald.
In the year of the 1975 Cricket World Cup, though, he was very much part of Clive Lloyd’s bowling armoury alongside Roberts, Keith Boyce and Bernard Julien.
His experience in English conditions—he played a key role in Worcestershire’s county championship-winning season in 1974—was considered invaluable, and while nowhere near to being classified as an all-rounder, his occasional tail-end defiance in support of a senior batsman proved useful.
Superstar he definitely was not, hence Sparrow’s jibe. But Vanburn Holder was very much worth his place in the West Indies side that lifted the first official global men’s title.
Photo: Eric Piper/ Daily Mirror.
Next: Andy Roberts—breaking new ground.
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Fazeer Mohammed is a journalist/broadcaster with almost 40 years’ experience across a range of media.
His interest in cricket, and particularly its history, started at home via his father’s small collection of autobiographies and magazines, offering perspectives and context which have informed his commentary and analysis on contemporary issues in the game.
