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(Part 22.) Home away from home.
When it came to familiarity with British conditions, England weren’t the only team at home for the 1975 Cricket World Cup. For the vast majority of the West Indies squad, it was already their cricketing home for at least five months a year on the English county circuit.
So, with 29 days to go to the 50th anniversary of the West Indies triumph in the World Cup final at Lord’s, we take a look at the strong Caribbean presence at the top level of English cricket at the time and also acknowledge the first black West Indian to play county cricket, 73 years earlier.
By the time the tournament came around in June of that year, only two players in the squad, Maurice Foster and Collis King, did not have English county experience.
While King went on to play a season for Glamorgan and appeared for Worcestershire later in his career, Foster turned down overtures from both Somerset and Kent after touring England with the West Indies in 1969.
Foster said the financial terms offered weren’t that much better from what he was earning in his job with Berger Paints at home in Jamaica.
Of the other 12 in the 14-man squad, 10 were on the books of various counties—the exceptions being opening batsman Roy Fredericks, whose three-year-stint with Glamorgan came to an end in 1973, and Lance Gibbs, the off-spinner who completed his seven-season sojourn with Warwickshire also in 1973.
For Gibbs, that period was highlighted by a haul of 131 first-class wickets in 1971 and being a part of the County Championship-winning team a year later.
In batting order, the existing county affiliations of the other ten were: Gordon Greenidge (Hampshire), Alvin Kallicharran, Rohan Kanhai (both Warwickshire), Clive Lloyd (Lancashire), Vivian Richards (Somerset), Keith Boyce (Essex), Bernard Julien (Kent), Deryck Murray (Warwickshire), Vanburn Holder (Worcestershire) and Andy Roberts (Hampshire).
This was a period when non-English players did not have to meet any residential requirement before becoming eligible to represent a county, which is why West Indians on the English county circuit pre-1968 were few and far between.
We must take this opportunity, though, to pay tribute to Vincentian Charles Ollivierre, who toured England with the first official West Indies team in 1900—although they did not have Test status then.
Ollivierre opted to stay in that country at the end of the tour. He eventually joined Derbyshire two years later and scored 167 against Warwickshire, which was the highlight of his debut season.
Photo: George Beldham.
While his overall first-class numbers (4,830 runs from 114 matches at 23.56) are less than flattering, he did have one record-breaking performance in 1904 when he amassed 321 runs (229 and 92) in a nine-wicket victory over Essex.
That match total of 321 stood as a Derbyshire record for 106 years until surpassed by Australian opener Chris Rogers in 2010.
His Derbyshire career came to an end in 1907 after which he played minor league cricket before going on to coach in The Netherlands from 1924 to 1939.
Ollivierre never returned to Saint Vincent. However, only last month, one of his great, great grandsons, Marlon Bute, repeated a call for the government of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to honour him “as an example of greatness for every Vincentian who has dared to dream beyond their circumstances.”
In a BBC interview two years ago, another great great grandson, Garrey Dennie, put Ollivierre’s ground-breaking role in West Indies cricket history in context:
“When we speak of the Caribbean cricket history, we look at the great Viv Richards, the Garry Sobers, the Clive Lloyds and all these wonderful players who we see as heroes.
“In fact, there is a beginning point, there is a gateway. That gateway starts with Charles Ollivierre.”
Next: Learie Constantine, the conqueror.
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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.
