Blackwash: England v West Indies 1984 Part II

Haroon is back with the second part of his look at Clive Lloyd’s incredible West Indies juggernaut …

The Third Test

A glance at the record of the third test match at Headingley on Cricinfo documents that Larry Gomes scored his second century of the series thus earning him another man of the match award. Indeed, it was a typical Gomes effort; modest and without bombast. However, in order to reach three figures, he would find an unlikely ally.

Both sides arrived at Leeds with changes to their line-ups. For England, Nick Cook replaced Miller, Foster made way for Paul Allott (who’d taken a hatful of championship wickets for Lancashire) and a debut was handed to Hampshire’s Paul Terry (in for Gatting). The West Indies tweaked their starting XI with Holding returning for Small.

Having won the toss, Gower elected to bat wanting to make first use of a pitch offering variable bounce and seeking to take advantage of a fast outfield that would give batsmen full value for their shots. At lunch, England had scored 68-3 with both Fowler and Gower back in the pavilion lbw to Garner padding up offering no shot. Early in the innings however, a thick edge from Broad made its way awkwardly to Malcolm Marshall in the gully. Wringing his hand and undoubtedly in some pain, Marshall left the field having only bowled six overs. An x-ray would reveal a double fracture on his left hand; his match seemingly over.

After losing Broad for 32 to Harper, England recovered somewhat with the standout performers from Lord’s, Lamb and Botham compiling a rapid 85 run stand in an hour and a quarter; the latter playing shots reminiscent to those played during his innings at the same ground three years earlier. After losing Botham, Lamb shepherded the tail to reach his second successive century by the close. England ended the day on 237-6.

On the Friday, Lamb would not add to his overnight score after being dismissed to a “grubber” from Harper. The remaining two wickets would add a further 33 with England ending on 270. Taking his rightful place back in the West Indies attack, Holding returned figures of 4-70 and would take his 200^th test wicket.

For much of the West Indies innings, England’s bowlers performed commendably. Indeed, in spite of decent contributions from Lloyd, and Dujon as well as the aforementioned Gomes, the West Indies were in danger of conceding a first innings lead for the second successive match. At 206-7, and with England tails up, Holding joined Gomes. With Marshall’s hand in plaster, it would be improbable that England would need more than two wickets to wrap up the West Indies innings. As he had at Edgbaston, Holding relished the opportunity to display his batsmanship thrashing a quick-fire 28 including two successive sixes off Willis. West Indies ended the day on 239-7 with Gomes (79) and Holding the not out batsmen. Allott meanwhile fully justified his selection taking 5 good wickets including Richards for 15.

When the teams returned on the Saturday, Holding, clearly with his eye still very much in, bludgeoned a six off Willis’s first over. In all, Holding would hit five sixes, all off Willis before holing out to Allott going for what would have been his sixth maximum. The 72 minute Gomes / Holding partnership would be worth 82 of which Holding scored 59.

After the run out of Garner for a duck, the innings was seemingly over with Gomes stranded on 96. Marshall however, by now padded up, made his way down the pavilion steps. Marshall recalls that he couldn’t hold the bat properly so Gomes counselled that he should just block[1]. Gomes duly completed another accomplished century after which Marshall also helped himself to a one handed boundary of Allott. The end came not long thereafter with the West Indies ending on 302; a lead, albeit slender, of 32. Allott, the standout performer with the ball in his comeback test finished with 6-61.

Marshall Law

“…to me [he] would have been the daddy of them of all.”[2] – Clive Lloyd

By his own admission, Malcolm Marshall, already a familiar face to English fans plying his trade with Hampshire, wasn’t particularly academic. And, in spite of his boundless enthusiasm and talent, as a teenager in Barbados, he conceded in his 1987 memoir, “…my knowledge of the game, its tactics and its exponents was still limited and I was getting by on natural ability alone…”[3]. Nevertheless, academic aptitude aside, he would go on to be a true master of fast bowling. Marshall would have little need to rely on unadulterated pace alone. He would study the batsman, conditions and match situation and before long execute forensically crafted plans exploiting an abundant skills toolkit.

When the West Indies took the field after lunch for the commencement of England’s second innings, Marshall, arm strapped, duly took the new ball with Garner. It did not start well for England – 13-2 with Broad and Terry dismissed by Marshall and Garner respectively. Fowler and Gower staged a comeback of sorts with both playing crisply. However, with the score on 104, Gower was caught by Dujon off Harper for a well-made but sadly inadequate 43. Marshall, no doubt in some discomfort, dismissed Fowler, caught off his own bowling and Lamb with a superb off cutter. Despite a mini resistance mounted by Botham and Downton, England finished the day on 135-6.

On the Monday, Marshall would display skills that, in the minds of many, make him one of the greatest fast bowlers of all time. Bowling at by no means full tilt, he would make a mockery of England’s lower order taking 4-15 from 4 overs within the space of 30 minutes. His first wicket of the day, Cook, caught by Lloyd from a subtle yet effective leg-cutter; the second and third nip backers to Pringle and Allott to trap each lbw; the final a devilish off cutter to Downton caught by Dujon. England finished on 159 leaving the West Indies 128 to win. It would be a formality – the West Indies raced to 74-0 by lunch. In spite of losing Greenidge and Haynes for 49 and 43 respectively, Richards and Gomes saw the West Indies home by eight wickets before tea.

The match would also be Willis’s international final bow. As David Tossell recalls in his excellent retelling of England’s fortunes in the 1980s, the tireless and battle worn fast bowler’s career was at an end: “He seemed never to have bounced back from the illness that curtailed his winter tour and his appearance for Warwickshire in their Benson and Hedges Cup Final defeat against Lancashire in between the third and fourth Tests would prove to be his final game.”[4]

The fourth Test

“What do you want me to do? What can I do? We’re trying, but they are just better than us.” – David Gower[5]

Although there were faint glimmers of hope, Gower’s frustration at Old Trafford conceded to what was an incontrovertible fact. True, England had reduced the West Indies 70-4 before lunch on the first day; a recalled 37 year old off spinner took 4 wickets in the only innings in which he bowled; Broad and Fowler, in pursuit of a 301 follow on target put on a 90 run opening stand; and Lamb continuing his excellent form scored an intrepid century. Alas, for England, these were little more than aberrations. The fourth test match would result in a similar outcome to the preceding three – an absolute shellacking – first with bat, and then with ball.

Arriving at Old Trafford, the pitch was dry. Perhaps a little uncharitably, Fowler described the playing surface as a “slow, low shit-heap with variable bounce.”[6] He did go on to say, however, that this was more as a consequence of the square dying.

Dry pitch in mind, England selected two spinners: Cook retaining his place and Pat Pocock, who’d played his last test match on the same ground against the same opponents in 1976. Clearly showing that championship performances counted, Pocock had taken 42 wickets to that point including ten in the match against Lancashire at the same venue. Norman Cowans of Middlesex came in for Willis with Pringle also missing out.

The tourists, with Marshall still recovering from his fracture and Milton Small also injured, turned to someone who hadn’t even made the initial squad, Winston Davis. Davis was playing county cricket for Glamorgan and would go on to play a key role but not necessarily as one may have expected.

Winning the toss, Lloyd elected to bat first. The England seamers, Allott in particular responded wonderfully removing Gomes, Lloyd and Richards with Botham accounting for Haynes. It would be the only successes England would enjoy until late into the evening session.

From then on in, the stage would belong to Greenidge and wicketkeeper Jeff Dujon. The pair shared in a stand three runs shy of 200 with Greenidge bringing up his hundred with a clipped on driven boundary off Allott. Dujon, who had been originally selected as a batsman for the West Indies on the tour of Australia in 1981/2, displayed class and elegance to bring up his third test century. Indeed, it seemed that England were now starting to merely go through the motions until Botham managed to snaffle Dujon with a short delivery caught by Downton. Due to the lateness of the hour, Clive Lloyd sent out Davis as nightwatchman – the West Indies finishing the day on 273-5.

Like many in the West Indies squad (albeit a late addition) Davis, was already well known to the English cricketing fraternity as he was playing for Glamorgan. The St. Vincentian had already made waves in the World Cup the previous year taking 7-51 against Australia at Headingley, a tournament record that would stand for 20 years. This time however, he would make his name with the bat.

In a day punctuated with interruptions, Greenidge reached his second double hundred of the series whilst Davis, who had been earmarked to come in at number eleven and now evidently relishing his elevation in the order crafted 77 off 146 deliveries. Greenidge and Davis would go on to add 170 for the sixth wicket before Pocock would bowl Davis to make the score 437-6. Pocock, showing that you can’t keep an old stager down, would finish with 4-121. By the close the West Indies finished on 500 all out.

No play was possible before lunch on the Saturday and when England’s innings did finally get underway, the West Indies bowlers looked as they could extract a little extra life out of the pitch. Indeed, Fowler was struck a nasty blow by a short delivery from Davis that didn’t rise as much he expected; it was not dissimilar to the one that felled Andy Lloyd at Edgbaston some weeks earlier. Nevertheless, the opening pair made solid progress to reach 90 before Fowler was bowled by Baptiste for 42.

After Tea, Davis inflicted a second painful blow, this time on Terry with a ball that failed to rise as much as the batsman had anticipated. On this occasion, the Hampshire man wasn’t so fortunate – his arm broken and match ostensibly over. England would continue to lose wickets regularly to end the day on 163-5 (effectively for 6 with Terry unlikely to participate any further); still 138 short of saving the follow on. Importantly though, Lamb was still there.

The son of British parents and born in South Africa, Allan Lamb made waves in county cricket after moving to England in the 70s. He scored almost 6,500 first class runs for Northamptonshire from 1978 – 1981 at an average in excess of 60 before making his England debut in 1982 against India. This was no mean feat for a player brought up on a diet of fast bowling on South African surfaces with little exposure to spin. Nevertheless, this would serve him well against the unrelenting pace line up of the West Indian attack. He would go on to score six centuries in all against the West Indies including two in the Caribbean. He would become a mainstay of the English batting for much of the decade.

Whilst most of the England batting line up wilted in the face of the West Indian attack, Lamb took on the bowling bravely and with alacrity. On the fourth day, England edged closer to their follow on target but would lose wickets regularly. When Cowans was ninth out with the score on 278 (and Lamb on 98 not out), the teams, not unreasonably, assumed the innings was over. However, for the second time in successive matches a batsman was to emerge from the dressing room, left arm in plaster.

Terry, looking apprehensive, made his way down the pavilion steps onto the ground. There was even talk on TMS that he may bat left-handed until it was pointed out that such a move may expose his unbroken right arm. With his broken left arm protruding beneath his sleeveless sweater, Terry’s first task was to enable Lamb to complete his hundred and, if fortunate enough, help eke out the 23 runs to avoid the follow on.

The initial target was reached when Lamb scampered the two runs he needed from a clipped shot down to deep backward square leg off Holding. On reaching his hundred, and no doubt considering the predicament of his batting partner, Lamb’s first reaction was to look enquiringly at the pavilion balcony as if recalling the Clash’s “Should I Stay or Should I Go?”. The pair ultimately remained, but it didn’t last long – Terry, bowled Garner without adding to the 7 runs he’d scored before sustaining his injury; England all out for 280.

Lloyd had no hesitation in enforcing the follow on. With a day and a half remaining for England to survive, it didn’t go well. By the close, England were 120-5.

The following day, only a further 36 were added before England were dismissed for 156. Demonstrating that spin also had its place in the West Indian attack, Harper finished with 6-57. One consolation for England during the second innings was that Gower managed 57, a smattering of polite applause from the few spectators attending appreciating the effort. On reaching his half century however, Gower could barely raise his bat in acknowledgement, never mind raise a smile.

The Fifth Test

“Blackwash” – banner displayed at the Oval after the end of the fifth test

At the end of the first day of the last test match of the series, even the most scarred members of the England camp must have dared to dream and perhaps even venture “we’ve got ‘em here”. After all, in spite of being 4-0 down, they managed to dismiss the West Indies for fewer than 200 in less than a day – despite losing the toss and being asked to field.

This wasn’t a fluke. England made several changes from Old Trafford – the enforced batting change with Chris Tavare replacing the injured Terry and in the bowling attack, Cowans and Cook making way for the debutants Richard Ellison of Kent and Jonathan Agnew of Leicestershire. For the West Indies, Davis made way for the returning Marshall.

Bowling intelligently on a surface offering a not insignificant amount of bounce, the home side had reduced the West Indies to 124-7 before a rally, of sorts, by Lloyd and Baptiste enabled them to reach 190. With the ball, Botham, who had a riveting dual with his Somerset mucker, Richards, took five wickets, Allott three and Ellison, swinging the ball prodigiously at times, justifying his selection with 2-34. England would close day one on 10-1 with Fowler and nightwatchman Pocock the not out batsmen.

Unfortunately for the hosts, however, Friday proved to be a torrid day. If England’s bowlers could extract bounce out of the Oval pitch, what havoc would the West Indies attack wreak? Returning to the side after his enforced lay off, Marshall bowled with venom, fire and more importantly skill, returning 5-35 with England dismissed for 162 before the day was over. Oh dear.

A first innings difference of 28 may lead one to plausibly conclude a game is in the balance. And for a while on Saturday with three important West Indies wickets (Greenidge, Gomes and Richards) down for 69 it seemed that way. However as at Leeds and Lord’s, the West Indies were just warming up. The packed, exuberant Saturday crowd were treated to contributions from Lloyd, Dujon and more significantly Haynes (not before time) that would enable the West Indies to end day 3 on 284-7.

Unlike many in the West Indies touring party, Haynes, up to that point, didn’t feature in county cricket (although he would go on to do so successfully for Middlesex between 1989 and 1993 where he would help the Londoners win two championships and one Sunday league title). In 1984, he’d hitherto endured a miserable series scoring just 110 runs at an average of under 16. Haynes confessed to his biographer Rob Steen that although he’d played well in the tour matches, Clive Lloyd would impress upon him that this innings would represent a last chance for him to state his case for the forthcoming tour of Australia.[7] Haynes responded perfectly scoring 125. and on reaching three figures, he displayed the broadest of grins.

On Monday morning, and as in previous instances, the West Indies lower order added quick runs; 62 from a little over 17 overs on this occasion to be dismissed before lunch for 346, leaving England a chase of 375 in a shade over five sessions. After the early loss of Fowler, England looked to be making a decent fist of at least saving the test, if not prevailing. By tea they’d reached 71-1. All they needed to do was to keep their heads down.

Off the Long Run

 In 1976 on the same ground, but on an absolute featherbed of a pitch that had yielded a little over 1,500 runs, Michael Holding would take 14 wickets to consign England to a 231 run drubbing. He would approach the crease gracefully off a run up of almost 20 paces. Dickie Bird, who was officiating in the game, described how the lithe Jamaican “…would glide over the ground, smoothly and noiselessly, until ‘whoosh’, he rocketed past me at the point of delivery, and the ball arrowed its way through the air at a frightening pace.”[8] It was, by all accounts, Bird who would go on to give Holding the nickname, Whispering Death.

Although the toil of international cricket as well as the ultra-competitive World Series Cricket had resulted in Holding cutting down his run, he was no less effective. That said, on the fourth evening, he would turn back the clock. After meeting a Surrey member on the Pavilion steps who said, ‘Remember 1976’, Holding, on what he would describe as an uncharacteristic nostalgic whim, reverted to his long run.[9]

What ensued was fast bowling majesty. Holding would remove Broad (caught by Greenidge), Gower (lbw) and Lamb (caught by Haynes who, probably basking in the glory of his century, ran towards the crowd in Tahir-esque celebration) to reduce England to 90-4. Before the day was out, Garner would remove Tavare before the hosts limped to 151-5 by the close.

It didn’t take long for England to be put out of their misery on the final day off the series; fewer than twelve overs in fact. Botham did manage a counterattacking run a ball fifty, but it wasn’t even close. Part way through the morning session, England would be bowled out for 202 to lose by 172 runs; Holding finishing with 5-43.

England 0 West Indies 5. It would only be the fifth time up to that point in test cricket’s 107 year history that a side would win a series of five test matches or more by a clean sweep.

Yet another batsman, Haynes, would be player of the match with Greenidge adjudicated as player of the series. However, Garner may well have counted himself unlucky not to have been accorded the series award for his 29 wickets at less than 19.

Yet, in spite of West Indian dominance, certain sections of the media weren’t particularly generous. Comments ranged from grievances about slow over rates, bowling designed to intimidate (or even maim), the noise made by the West Indian supporters as well as Gordon Greenidge hitting the ball too hard at Lord’s!

On the subject of over rates, whilst low, the West Indies actually got through their overs marginally quicker than England. Simon Hughes cites Desmond Haynes: ‘If we speeded up between overs we’d beat you in three days instead of four’[10]. And, yes, the bowling was fast and hostile. But this was not a mindless bouncer fest. It was fast bowling of the highest quality.

Simon Lister cites Fowler ‘We never thought this was against the spirit of the game. Our only thought was that if you can’t handle it, then don’t do it. Just get stuck in. The West Indies were guilty of nothing more than being superb.’[11] Furthermore, the October 1984 editorial of The Cricketer proposed the following: ‘In future batsmen should only be out caught if the ball has touched the blade (or the back) of the bat. Any ball caught off the gloves or the handle of the bat would not be out.’ And, perhaps with unintended irony, the photograph next to the same editorial showed ‘…Botham’s 300^th Test wicket, Dujon being caught off the glove by Tavare at first slip…’

Furthermore, since many of the West Indies squad were playing county cricket regularly, the English batsmen would have had ample opportunity to hone their skills against them. And, like me, I dare say some of you will have read articles or heard commentators in more recent times lamenting the fact that there are fewer West Indies supporters who now attend matches.

As for Greenidge hitting the ball too hard? Well…ok, fair enough, I might have made that one up – but hopefully you get the picture.

After the storm

A little over a week later, England would face Sri Lanka at Lord’s where Lamb would continue his fine form scoring his fourth test hundred of the summer. Nevertheless, England would have the worst of a drawn game dominated by the Sri Lankan batting of Sid Wettimuny and Duleep Mendis.

After the toughest and most arduous of summers, Gower retained the captaincy – sans Botham, who by now was so disenchanted by an intrusive tabloid press[12], England would travel to India for a challenging five test series. The tour would initially be marred by the assassination of a senior British diplomat, Percy Norris, as well as that of the sitting prime minister Indira Ghandi. Gower’s side would nevertheless prevail winning the series 2-1.

The following summer, Gower’s side, with Botham as well as several South African rebels back in the fold, would regain the Ashes lost in 1982-3, beating Australia by 3 tests to 1 with 732 elegant runs flowing from the captain’s bat. After a victorious final test at The Oval in September 1985, Gower was asked by the BBC’s Peter West about the prospects for the upcoming tour of the West Indies. No doubt, with tongue firmly embedded in cheek, and perhaps on a high from the Ashes achievement, the England captain replied, “I’m sure they’ll be quaking in their boots at the moment”. Seven months later, England would return from the Caribbean, soundly drubbed, again 5-0. Two months hence, after the loss of the first test against India at Lord’s, Gower was promptly fired.

For the West Indies, they would continue their devastating form in Australia taking the series 3-1. The series also saw the tearful resignation of Kim Hughes as captain after the second test in Brisbane. After the inflicting of another cleanly swept series defeat upon England in 1985/6, the side would travel to Pakistan drawing an enthralling series 1-1.

As was commented upon in part one of this look back, Pakistan were a side that started to expose cracks in the West Indian edifice. In the first test at Faisalabad, for example, they would dismiss the West Indies for 53 to win by 186 runs. Furthermore, in the return series in the Caribbean in 1987/8, the sides played out another riveting series drawing 1-1.

In his memoir published soon after the series, Pakistan captain, Imran Khan suggested that some questionable umpiring in the second and third tests had cost the visitors[13]. That said, in spite of a decent record in the 80s, I am minded to respectfully suggest, because of patchy performances in Australia and New Zealand, the assertion that Pakistan were one of the few sides to challenge West Indian supremacy during the decade may be a tad overstated.

In the English season that year, the West Indies led by Richards would inflict further pain on England winning 4-0. Remarkably, this would be the last time that the West Indies would win a series in England. In 1988, what odds could you have got that it would be more than a generation, and counting, on such an outcome?

The Greatest Side Ever?

Winning a series 5-0 away from home and in such an emphatic manner would invariably prompt the question as to whether Clive Lloyd’s side was the greatest ever? I recall, that having completed their 1984 series win, comparisons with predecessors, notably Bradman’s side of 36 years earlier were being made. And since that great team of the 1980s the accolade of the greatest test side was unequivocally bestowed upon the Australians under Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting.

Whilst I had little intention of carrying out an empirical analysis of the results of the two sides, one can only acknowledge that the Australians were a better side statistically as well as in terms of balance. Added to which they had a champion spinner in Shane Warne and the destructive Adam Gilchrist.

However, watching and appreciating sport, like admiring a work of art, is as much about the emotions it evokes as anything else. And, with all due deference to the men from down under, I would venture that the ability of that West Indies side, as a unit, to entertain, captivate and electrify (as well as emphatically win) surpasses that of Australia. And I reckon individual West Indian players would be likelier to empty more bars around the world than Australians.

That said, a match up against the two would be something to behold though, wouldn’t it?

Haroon Khalid

[1] Marshall, M. 1987 Marshall Arts. Queen Anne Press London

[2] Pace Like Fire Episode Two The Most Fearsome Side In The World. (2015). Sky Sports, 7 June 2016.

[3] Marshall, M. Ibid

[4] Tossell, D. Sex & Drugs & Rebel Tours: The England Cricket Team in the 1980s . Pitch Publishing. Kindle Edition.

[5] Gower, D. An Endangered Species . Simon & Schuster UK. Kindle Edition.

[6] Fowler, G. Absolutely Foxed . Simon & Schuster UK. Kindle Edition.

[7] Steen, R. 1993. Desmond Haynes Lion of Barbados H F & G Witherby London

[8] Bird, H. 1997. Dickie Bird: My Autobiography Hodder & Stoughton London

[9] Holding, M. No Holding Back: The Autobiography Orion. Kindle Edition.

[10] Hughes, S. 2009. And God Created Cricket Doubleday London.

[11] Lister, S. 2015 Fire in Babylon, Yellow Jersey Press, London.

[12] Botham, I. Head On – Ian Botham: The Autobiography. Ebury Publishing. Kindle Edition.

[13] Imran Khan. 1988. All Round View Chatto & Windus London