John Goddard
Encyclopedia
John Douglas Claude Goddard (April 21, 1919-August 26, 1987) was a cricketer
Cricketer
A cricketer is a person who plays the sport of cricket. Official and long-established cricket publications prefer the traditional word "cricketer" over the rarely used term "cricket player"....

 and one-time captain of the West Indies Test side.

Goddard was born in Fontabelle, St Michael
St Michael
St Michael was a brand that was owned and used by Marks & Spencer from 1928 until 2000.-History:The brand was introduced by Simon Marks in 1928, after his father and co-founder of Marks & Spencer, Michael Marks. By 1950, virtually all goods were sold under the St Michael brand...

, Barbados
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...

. He captained the West Indian team through several tours, including West Indies' maiden tours of India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 and New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

. His first stretch as a captain started in the late 1940s and lasted five series. The West Indies won eight and drew five out of 17 matches.

His captaincy was not without controversy, however; he and Jeff Stollmeyer
Jeff Stollmeyer
Jeffrey Baxter Stollmeyer was a Trinidad and Tobago cricketer and footballer. He played 32 Tests for the West Indies, captaining 13 of these....

 had a long-running feud throughout their careers. Stollmeyer stated that Goddard had received too much credit for West Indies' success in the 1950 tour of England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, and that the other officers of the side had received too little. These comments, coming as they did after the West Indies disastrous tour of Australia in 1951/52
West Indian cricket team in Australia in 1951-52
The West Indies cricket team toured Australia in the 1951-52 season and played five Test matches against Australia. The series was billed as the "World Championship of cricket", with both teams having beaten England in the previous 18 months...

, led to long-standing animosities and splinters in the West Indian leadership. http://content-aus.cricinfo.com/westindies/content/story/225896.html Later, when Goddard was picked to captain the tourists in the tour of England in 1957
West Indian cricket team in England in 1957
The West Indies cricket team toured England in the 1957 season to play a five-match Test series against England.England won the series 3-0 with two matches drawn...

, Stollmeyer quit first-class cricket for good. Unfortunately, Goddard's tourists did horribly on this tour as well, losing three out of four.

Goddard died in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 in 1987.

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