Big Bird lands up again

The name of Joel Garner emerging in a recent discussion brought back memories of the great West Indies fast bowler, whose yorkers smashed the timber of many an opposition batsman

Joel Garner… now that’s a forgotten face! The ex-West Indies fast bowler’s name appeared in the media a few days ago when his former World Series Cricket foe Ian Chappell brought him up for discussion while responding to Sanjay Manjrekar’s view that Ravichandran Ashwin didn’t have many fifers on foreign soil (specifically in South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia) to be termed as an all-time great.

In reply to Manjrekar’s point about Ashwin’s negligible Test fifers in the above countries, Chappell said during a panel discussion on ESPN Cricinfo: “How many five-wicket hauls did Joel Garner get? Not very many, when you consider how good he was and his record. Why? Because he was performing with three other very fine bowlers and I think, particularly of late (where Ashwin is concerned), you’ll find the Indian attack has been so strong that the wickets are probably being shared around more.”

The record shows that Garner, 68, claimed five wickets or more in an innings seven times in 58 Tests, thrice in one series—at home against Australia in 1983-84. And who can forget his most famous ODI fifer in his career, the 5-38 against England in the 1979 World Cup final at Lord’s. The Indian public missed out on watching Garner playing Test cricket on their shores because he was advised rest to heal his shoulder injury when Clive Lloyd brought his team here in 1983. And his solitary tour to Pakistan in 1980 yielded 10 wickets in three Tests, which he thought was, “much below my best for a series.”

Doubtless, Garner was a feared bowler—not as swift as fellow pacers Michael Holding, Andy Roberts or Colin Croft, who made his Test debut alongside Garner against Pakistan in 1976-77—but for his lethal yorkers.

Tackling balls higher than his 6 feet, eight inches frame was the perfect recipe for discomfiture among batsmen and there are players who shudder to think what he would have done had he opened the bowling for the West Indies more often than he did after his 1976-77 debut. The media didn’t expect great things from the debutant, but 25 wickets in his first Test series made him one of the West Indies Cricket Annual’s Five Cricketers of the Year. “Had it been seriously stated before the start of the 1977 cricket season in the West Indies that the tall fast bowler, Joel Garner, would be an important member of the Test team against Pakistan, it would have been dismissed as a story taller than the man himself,” wrote the author of his profile in the Tony Cozier-edited annual of 1977.

Clive Lloyd started giving him the new ball against Australia in 1983-84. Garner was fresh from his rest, which was recommended by his doctor for a shoulder injury. and the Barbadian claimed 31 wickets in five Tests against the Australians. In a total of 18 Tests against the men from Down Under, Garner captured 89 wickets at 20.90. They were also one of the first international teams he watched from the Kensington Oval boundary in Barbados. In his book Greg Chappell with Adrian McGregor, the great Australian wrote about how a young West Indian approached him with a request to autograph a dollar note in 1973. Chappell asked the young bloke if he played cricket. An affirmative reply was followed by, “I’ll play with you someday.” Chappell wished him good luck and that lad turned out to be Garner. By 1977-78, he was bowling to Chappell in World Series Cricket.

I met Garner during a party at the Cricket Club of India (CCI) in 1998 when he was manager of the West Indies A  team. I asked him about that boundary line chat with Chappell in 1973 and the dollar note. He was delighted to be reminded of it. Then, he stunned me. “I have that note with me. I carry it wherever I go. I will show it to you tomorrow,” he said. He kept his promise the next day, pulled out the laminated note from his brief case and posed with it. Apart from Chappell, there were signatures of other Australian greats like Dennis Lillee and Keith Stackpole. He said he’d preserve and present that note when his daughter Jewel (then 16) would grow up.

I encountered a gentle giant that day at the CCI and I wasn’t surprised. I had read about his kind, selfless ways in the late David Hookes’s book when Garner was his South Australian teammate in 1982-83. In the first game against Queensland, captain Hookes asked the star import which end of the Gabba ground would he prefer. And Garner said opening partner Rodney Hogg should get the end he wanted. “No, you’re the world’s best fast bowler,” Hookes insisted, to which Garner stated: “Hoggy’s trying to play for Australia. He’s the Australian. You give him whichever end he wants - for the whole season.”

The late cricketer-turned-writer Peter Roebuck too had good things to say about Garner in his 1982 book Slices of Cricket. This was before Roebuck played a critical role in the exit of Ian Botham, Viv Richards and Garner from Somerset in 1986. Roebuck wrote about how his county teammate drove him around Barbados on a tour. “Joel offered lifts to ladies carrying baskets, and once in a while a large West Indian mama would pile into the car, delighted to find relief from the usual four-mile hike to the grocer’s.”

Garner ended his international career in 1986-87 with 259 wickets in 58 Tests. Big Bird (nicknamed after the Sesame Street character) played the game in the true spirit and while we still remember his stump-crushing yorkers, we also must wonder what would have happened had former Test batsman Seymour Nurse, according to Garner in his book, ‘Big Bird’ Flying High, not noticed a tall schoolboy batting at Barbados’ Foundation School nets in the late 1960s and yelled, “Garner, what’s a big fellow like you doing batting or trying to bat? You’re too big to be a batsman. With your height you should be bowling fast.” 

mid-day’s group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance. He tweets @ClaytonMurzello
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