In this week’s edition of In Search of West Indies Cricket, Roger Seymour continues to look at the Test matches lost by the West Indies during their streak of not losing a Test series from the summer of 1980 to February 1995.
Part II is presented as an excerpt from a script (the writer’s imagination) for a documentary on Clive Lloyd’s term as West Indies Captain. The script is written with the thought in mind that it would be read by a couple members of Lloyd’s all-conquering sides and the writer thinks that Joel Garner would be the ideal narrator for this section. ‘Big Bird’s’ knowledge of, and enthusiasm for, the game is second to none. He is a raconteur extraordinaire, who possesses an amazing recall for matches and is always willing to talk about the game.
Roger Harper’s interview took place via email and he responded on September 10, 2018.
The opening three minutes of video footage will be the team’s arrival in Australia, snippets of Lloyd’s first press conference, the team at nets, going through its paces with the adopted West Indian, Australian physiotherapist/trainer, Dennis Waite. Highlights of the second innings of the second tour match, West Indies versus South Australia where the West Indies compiled 514 for 5 in a drawn game. Greenidge (79), Haynes (94), Richards (102), Dujon (151 not out) and Lloyd (63).
Narrator: The eighth official West Indies tour party arrived in Sydney, Australia on Monday, October 15, 1984. It was in fact our fourth visit in six seasons, but the first full tour since the 5-1 thrashing served up by the tough Australians during the disastrous tour of 1975-76.
The selection panel of Chairman Clyde Walcott, Jackie Hendriks, Andy Ganteaume and the Skipper had endorsed the same 16-man squad from the just-concluded summer tour of England, with the lone newcomer being Winston Davis, who had replaced the injured Milton Small, during the English tour, courtesy of Glamorgan, his county team.
For the rest of us, it was like roll call at the start of a new school year; same faces, just another form, or in this instance, another territory. The Skipper, Vivi (Richards) the vice, Soca (Eldine Baptiste), Duj (Jeff Dujon), Larry (Gomes), G’s (Gordon Greenidge), Juice (Roger Harper), Dessi (Desmond Haynes), Mikey (Holding), Gus (Logie), Maco (Marshall), Thelston (Payne), Richie (Richardson), Cuddy (Courtney Walsh) and myself (Joel Garner). The usual suspects were back for our fourth gathering in 12 months: India, October 1983; followed immediately by the Benson and Hedges Triangular One Day Tournament in Australia in January and February; the Caribbean, March; England, May and now here we were Down Under.
