Sylvester Clarke
Encyclopedia
Sylvester Theophilus Clarke (11 December 1954 – 4 December 1999) was a West Indian
cricket
er who played 11 Tests
and 10 One Day Internationals.
debut for Barbados on 19 January 1978 against Combined Islands
and finished the season with 22 wickets at 25.18, highlighted by a return of 6/39, including a hat trick, against Trinidad and Tobago
.
, Clarke made his full Test debut at Bourda Cricket Ground in Georgetown, Guyana
against the touring Australian team
on 31 March 1978. Clarke took 6/141 in a convincing debut, before injuring an ankle which kept him out of the rest of the series.
Clarke was subsequently selected for the West Indies' tour of India
in 1978–79, taking 21 wickets at 33.85, including his Test best figures of 5/126 in the 2nd Test at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium
, Bangalore
. He then toured Pakistan
in 1980–81 where he took 14 Test wickets at 17.28 before gaining his first taste of controversy. During the 4th Test at Multan
, Clarke was pelted with oranges and stones by spectators whilst fielding on the boundary. Enraged, he responded by picking up a nearby brick and hurling it into the crowd, badly injuring a spectator who later required emergency surgery. A near riot was averted only when Clarke's teammate Alvin Kallicharan got down on bended knee to apologise to the crowd. Reflecting wryly on the incident many years later, Phil Edmonds
wrote that the brick "probably swung in late and viciously before hitting him on the head,".
Clarke was subsequently suspended for three matches from the team for his actions.. Having already been selected ahead of Michael Holding
to face Ian Botham's England side, Clarke was now forced to drop out of the squad.
Returning from suspension, Clarke found himself out of favour with the selectors and unable to break back into an already extremely strong West Indian bowling line-up boasting such talents as Joel Garner
, Michael Holding
, Malcolm Marshall
and Colin Croft
. He played only one more Test, against Australia
at the Sydney Cricket Ground
in January 1982.
in 1983 and 1984 with an unofficial rebel West Indian side led by Lawrence Rowe
. As a result Clarke, together with the other members of the touring party, was banned by the West Indies Cricket Board
from playing in all cricket under its jurisdiction.
Clarke was a stand out contributor for the West Indian side in South Africa, taking 37 wickets in the unofficial Test series at 16.16 and 20 wickets at 18.45 in the accompanying limited overs series.
Sufficiently impressed, South African provincial side Transvaal
recruited Clarke and in 1984/85, he took a Currie Cup
record 58 wickets at 12.72. He continued to play in South Africa until 1989, representing, at different times, Transvaal, Northern Transvaal and Orange Free State
. In all, Clarke took 193 first-class wickets in South Africa at 17.55 and was named a South African Cricket Annual Cricketer of the Year in 1984 and 1985.
for a decade starting in 1979, becoming one of the leading wicket takers in the county championship. In 1988 he took 63 wickets for Surrey at 14.50 while he also displayed his powerful and adventurous batting prowess, scoring a century from only 61 balls in 1981 (and winning the Walter Lawrence Trophy
in the process).
Clarke's reputation as the fastest, most feared and intimidating bowler in England was such that some opponents, who knew of his fondness for a drink, would sometimes attempt to get him too inebriated to bowl, occasionally with success. Indeed, Clarke's drinking was rumoured to be behind his eventual dismissal by Surrey in 1989 after 591 first-class wickets at an average of 19.00.
Some doubts were raised about the legality of Clarke's bowling action while he was at Surrey.
Several opposition sides made official complaints about Clarke's faster ball and umpire Dickie Bird closely studied tapes of Clarke's action for any irregularities but found none, nor was Clarke ever called for throwing. It is commonly accepted that rather than chucking, it was Clarke's sheer strength and unusually open-chested action, combined with his speed, that left opposition batsmen fearing for their safety when facing him.
Clarke retired from first-class cricket in 1990 with 942 wickets at 19.52, including three hat-tricks. Returning to Barbados, he continued to play club cricket in Bridgetown and served as a net bowler for touring national sides, proving as dangerous as anything the touring team had faced all tour. In November 1999 Clarke complained of feeling unwell and losing weight rapidly and saw a doctor, who could find nothing amiss. On 4 December, Clarke collapsed at his home and died suddenly of a heart attack. He was one week short of his 45th birthday and left his wife Peggy, son and daughter.
, it was written "like the Jamaican Roy Gilchrist
in the 1950s and his fellow Bajan
, Charlie Griffith
in the 1960s, Clarke's weaponry was based more on sheer menace than technical accomplishment."
Viv Richards
claimed Clarke was the only bowler he did not feel comfortable batting against, David Gower
stated that Clarke was by far the fastest man he ever faced, and in the mid-1980s Garry Sobers wrote that Clarke was "the quickest and most hostile fast bowler now playing in world cricket"..
Clarke was not shy of delivering balls patently designed to scare opposing batsmen and make them look foolish, and was regularly capable of a perfect bouncer
, which having pitched then cut away sharply to follow the path of a batsman's head as he swayed away from it. Having duly terrified the batsman, Clarke would often follow this up with a wicket-taking high speed yorker
, which the shaken up batsman was in no condition to defend.
Though an affable and laconic personality off the pitch, Clarke had a quick temper on the field and regarded the battle between batsman and bowler as a personal trial of strength and character. He was quite aware that he could be a physically intimidating man, and was unafraid of using his size and power to his advantage in overawing batsmen psychologically. Once warned by an umpire for over-use of the bouncer, he replied: "Dis no ladies' game, man."
West Indian cricket team
The West Indian cricket team, also known colloquially as the West Indies or the Windies, is a multi-national cricket team representing a sporting confederation of 15 mainly English-speaking Caribbean countries, British dependencies and non-British dependencies.From the mid 1970s to the early 1990s,...
cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
er who played 11 Tests
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
and 10 One Day Internationals.
Early life
Born in Christ Church, Barbados, Clarke attended St Bartholomew's Boys' School. A tall, strong, barrel-chested and powerfully built man (he weighed 15 stone - 210lbs - during his international career), Clarke was born to be an intimidating fast bowler and commenced his cricketing career with Bridgetown club side, Kent. He made his first-classFirst-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...
debut for Barbados on 19 January 1978 against Combined Islands
Combined Islands cricket team
The Combined Islands cricket team were a cricket team that represented the cricket-playing islands of the Lesser Antilles, excluding Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago who fielded their own teams. They played in 13 Shell Shield tournaments from 1965-66 to 1980-81, when they won their first title and...
and finished the season with 22 wickets at 25.18, highlighted by a return of 6/39, including a hat trick, against Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago cricket team
The Trinidad and Tobago cricket team is the representative cricket team of the country of Trinidad and Tobago.The team takes part in inter-regional cricket competitions in the Caribbean, such as the Regional Four Day Competition and the WICB Cup, with the best players selected for the West Indies...
.
Test career
The right-armer, having developed an extremely fearsome bouncer, soon became one of the most respected bowlers in the West Indies and, following the defection of many of the West Indian team to World Series CricketWorld Series Cricket
World Series Cricket was a break away professional cricket competition staged between 1977 and 1979 and organised by Kerry Packer for his Australian television network, Nine Network. The matches ran in opposition to established international cricket...
, Clarke made his full Test debut at Bourda Cricket Ground in Georgetown, Guyana
Georgetown, Guyana
Georgetown, estimated population 239,227 , is the capital and largest city of Guyana, located in the Demerara-Mahaica region. It is situated on the Atlantic Ocean coast at the mouth of the Demerara River and it was nicknamed 'Garden City of the Caribbean.' Georgetown is located at . The city serves...
against the touring Australian team
Australian cricket team
The Australian cricket team is the national cricket team of Australia. It is the joint oldest team in Test cricket, having played in the first Test match in 1877...
on 31 March 1978. Clarke took 6/141 in a convincing debut, before injuring an ankle which kept him out of the rest of the series.
Clarke was subsequently selected for the West Indies' tour 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...
in 1978–79, taking 21 wickets at 33.85, including his Test best figures of 5/126 in the 2nd Test at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium
M. Chinnaswamy Stadium
The M. Chinnaswamy Stadium , located in Bangalore, Karnataka, is one of the cricket stadiums of India. Flanked by the picturesque Cubbon Park, Queen's Road, Cubbon and uptown MG Road, this four decade old stadium is situated in the heart of the city of Bangalore. Formerly known as the Karnataka...
, Bangalore
Bangalore
Bengaluru , formerly called Bengaluru is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed the Garden City and was once called a pensioner's paradise. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and...
. He then toured Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
in 1980–81 where he took 14 Test wickets at 17.28 before gaining his first taste of controversy. During the 4th Test at Multan
Multan Cricket Stadium
Multan Cricket Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Multan, Punjab, Pakistan. The stadium is located off Vehari Road, in the suburbs of Multan. Having such a lush green outfield and playing area, the stadium is the most beautiful in the country at the moment. It is primarily used for cricket...
, Clarke was pelted with oranges and stones by spectators whilst fielding on the boundary. Enraged, he responded by picking up a nearby brick and hurling it into the crowd, badly injuring a spectator who later required emergency surgery. A near riot was averted only when Clarke's teammate Alvin Kallicharan got down on bended knee to apologise to the crowd. Reflecting wryly on the incident many years later, Phil Edmonds
Phil Edmonds
Phil Edmonds is a former English cricketer and a successful, albeit controversial, corporate executive....
wrote that the brick "probably swung in late and viciously before hitting him on the head,".
Clarke was subsequently suspended for three matches from the team for his actions.. Having already been selected ahead of Michael Holding
Michael Holding
Michael Anthony Holding is a former West Indian cricketer. One of the fastest bowlers ever to play Test cricket, he was nicknamed 'Whispering Death' by umpires due to his quiet approach to the bowling crease...
to face Ian Botham's England side, Clarke was now forced to drop out of the squad.
Returning from suspension, Clarke found himself out of favour with the selectors and unable to break back into an already extremely strong West Indian bowling line-up boasting such talents as Joel Garner
Joel Garner
Joel Garner , also known as "Big Joel" or "Big Bird", is a former West Indian cricketer, and a member of the highly regarded late 1970s and early '80s West Indies cricket teams....
, Michael Holding
Michael Holding
Michael Anthony Holding is a former West Indian cricketer. One of the fastest bowlers ever to play Test cricket, he was nicknamed 'Whispering Death' by umpires due to his quiet approach to the bowling crease...
, Malcolm Marshall
Malcolm Marshall
By 1984 Marshall was seen as one of the finest bowlers in the world, and he demoralised England that summer, especially at Headingley, where he ran through the order in the second innings to finish with 7-53, despite having broken his thumb whilst fielding in the first innings...
and Colin Croft
Colin Croft
Colin Everton Hunte Croft is a former West Indian cricketer. He provides expert analysis on the British Broadcasting Corporation's Test Match Special.-Cricket career:...
. He played only one more Test, against Australia
Australian cricket team
The Australian cricket team is the national cricket team of Australia. It is the joint oldest team in Test cricket, having played in the first Test match in 1877...
at the Sydney Cricket Ground
Sydney Cricket Ground
The Sydney Cricket Ground is a sports stadium in Sydney in Australia. It is used for Australian football, Test cricket, One Day International cricket, some rugby league and rugby union matches and is the home ground for the New South Wales Blues cricket team and the Sydney Swans of the Australian...
in January 1982.
Rebel tour to South Africa
With very limited international opportunities for him in the West Indies, Clarke decided to accept a lucrative offer to tour the apartheid era South AfricaSouth Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
in 1983 and 1984 with an unofficial rebel West Indian side led by Lawrence Rowe
Lawrence Rowe
Lawrence George Rowe is a former West Indian cricketer.Lawrence, also known as "Yagga", was an elegant right-handed batsman described by Michael Holding, his team mate, as "the best batsman I ever saw". It was felt that his ability was so extraordinary that Sobers believed he could have been the...
. As a result Clarke, together with the other members of the touring party, was banned by the West Indies Cricket Board
West Indies Cricket Board
The West Indies Cricket Board is the governing body for professional and amateur cricket in the West Indies...
from playing in all cricket under its jurisdiction.
Clarke was a stand out contributor for the West Indian side in South Africa, taking 37 wickets in the unofficial Test series at 16.16 and 20 wickets at 18.45 in the accompanying limited overs series.
Sufficiently impressed, South African provincial side Transvaal
Transvaal cricket team
Gauteng cricket team is the first-class cricket team of the province of Gauteng in South Africa....
recruited Clarke and in 1984/85, he took a Currie Cup
SuperSport Series
The SuperSport Series is the main domestic first class cricket competition in South Africa, first contested in 1889-90. From 1990-91 it became known as the Castle Cup, and from 1996-97 by its current title...
record 58 wickets at 12.72. He continued to play in South Africa until 1989, representing, at different times, Transvaal, Northern Transvaal and Orange Free State
Orange Free State cricket team
The Free State cricket team is the first-class cricket team representing the province of Free State in South Africa....
. In all, Clarke took 193 first-class wickets in South Africa at 17.55 and was named a South African Cricket Annual Cricketer of the Year in 1984 and 1985.
English County cricket
Clarke played with great distinction for English county side SurreySurrey County Cricket Club
Surrey County Cricket Club is one of the 18 professional county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Surrey. Its limited overs team is called the Surrey Lions...
for a decade starting in 1979, becoming one of the leading wicket takers in the county championship. In 1988 he took 63 wickets for Surrey at 14.50 while he also displayed his powerful and adventurous batting prowess, scoring a century from only 61 balls in 1981 (and winning the Walter Lawrence Trophy
Walter Lawrence Trophy
The Walter Lawrence Trophy is an annual award made to the player who has scored the fastest century in English domestic county cricket that season, in terms of balls received...
in the process).
Clarke's reputation as the fastest, most feared and intimidating bowler in England was such that some opponents, who knew of his fondness for a drink, would sometimes attempt to get him too inebriated to bowl, occasionally with success. Indeed, Clarke's drinking was rumoured to be behind his eventual dismissal by Surrey in 1989 after 591 first-class wickets at an average of 19.00.
Some doubts were raised about the legality of Clarke's bowling action while he was at Surrey.
Several opposition sides made official complaints about Clarke's faster ball and umpire Dickie Bird closely studied tapes of Clarke's action for any irregularities but found none, nor was Clarke ever called for throwing. It is commonly accepted that rather than chucking, it was Clarke's sheer strength and unusually open-chested action, combined with his speed, that left opposition batsmen fearing for their safety when facing him.
Clarke retired from first-class cricket in 1990 with 942 wickets at 19.52, including three hat-tricks. Returning to Barbados, he continued to play club cricket in Bridgetown and served as a net bowler for touring national sides, proving as dangerous as anything the touring team had faced all tour. In November 1999 Clarke complained of feeling unwell and losing weight rapidly and saw a doctor, who could find nothing amiss. On 4 December, Clarke collapsed at his home and died suddenly of a heart attack. He was one week short of his 45th birthday and left his wife Peggy, son and daughter.
Reputation
Whilst his Test bowling figures are not exceptional, and he was one of several particularly fast West Indies' bowlers at the time, Clarke nevertheless gained a reputation amongst his fellow players as the most intimidating and feared fast bowler of his generation. In his obituary in The GuardianThe Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, it was written "like the Jamaican Roy Gilchrist
Roy Gilchrist
Roy Gilchrist was a West Indian cricketer who played 13 Tests for the West Indies in the 1950s. He was born in Saint Thomas, Jamaica and died of Parkinson's disease in St Catherine, Jamaica at the age of 67....
in the 1950s and his fellow Bajan
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...
, Charlie Griffith
Charlie Griffith
Charles Christopher Griffith is a former West Indian cricketer who played in 28 Tests from 1960 to 1969. He formed a lethal fast bowling partnership with Wes Hall during the 1960s...
in the 1960s, Clarke's weaponry was based more on sheer menace than technical accomplishment."
Viv Richards
Viv Richards
Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards, KNH, OBE is a former West Indian cricketer. Better known by his second name, Vivian or, more popularly, simply as Viv or King Viv Richards was voted one of the five Cricketers of the Century in 2000, by a 100-member panel of experts, along with Sir Donald...
claimed Clarke was the only bowler he did not feel comfortable batting against, David Gower
David Gower
David Ivon Gower OBE is a former English cricketer who became a commentator for Sky Sports. Although he eventually rose to the captaincy of the England cricket team during the 1980s, he is best known for being one of the most stylish left-handed batsmen of the modern era. Gower played 117 Test...
stated that Clarke was by far the fastest man he ever faced, and in the mid-1980s Garry Sobers wrote that Clarke was "the quickest and most hostile fast bowler now playing in world cricket"..
Clarke was not shy of delivering balls patently designed to scare opposing batsmen and make them look foolish, and was regularly capable of a perfect bouncer
Bouncer
Bouncer or The Bouncer may refer to:* Bouncer , a person who provides security at a public venue* Bouncer or BNC, a piece of software used to relay traffic and connections in computer networksIn sport:...
, which having pitched then cut away sharply to follow the path of a batsman's head as he swayed away from it. Having duly terrified the batsman, Clarke would often follow this up with a wicket-taking high speed yorker
Yorker
Yorker is a term used in cricket that describes a ball bowled which hits the cricket pitch around the batsman's feet. When a batsman assumes a normal stance this generally means that the cricket ball bounces on the cricket pitch on or near the batsman's popping crease...
, which the shaken up batsman was in no condition to defend.
Though an affable and laconic personality off the pitch, Clarke had a quick temper on the field and regarded the battle between batsman and bowler as a personal trial of strength and character. He was quite aware that he could be a physically intimidating man, and was unafraid of using his size and power to his advantage in overawing batsmen psychologically. Once warned by an umpire for over-use of the bouncer, he replied: "Dis no ladies' game, man."
Books
- Sobers, G. (1988) Sobers: Twenty Years at the Top, MacMillan London, Ltd, ISBN 0 330 308 68 8.