Full Name

Joel Garner

Born

December 16, 1952, Enterprise, Christ Church, Barbados

Age

71y 94d

Nicknames

Big Bird

Batting Style

Right hand Bat

Bowling Style

Right arm Fast

Playing Role

Bowler

Height

6ft 8in

Education

Boy's Foundation School, Christchurch, Barbados

Batters would say that the overriding feeling when first confronted by Joel "Big Bird" Garner was that he would trample on them, such was the foreshortening effect of his 6ft 8 inches. He possessed lively pace, which, when the mood took him, could be cranked up to the brisk side of rapid, and the ball would rear alarmingly from barely short of a length. He also had the most devastating toe-crunching yorker the game had seen since that of Charlie Griffith. Of the top wicket-takers, few have a lower average than his parsimonious 20.97.

Garner made his Test debut against Pakistan at home early in 1977, taking 25 wickets in five Tests. He then took stacks of wickets against all comers, home and away. Against Australia in March 1984, he took 9 for 142 in a hard-fought draw in Georgetown when West Indies were missing Michael Holding and Malcolm Marshall from the attack. He followed that up with 6 for 60 in the first innings of the next match, in Port-of-Spain. Nine more came in a career-best effort three months later at Edgbaston during the blackwash series. And against England again, in Port-of-Spain in his second to last Test series, he ran rampant with seven wickets in a crushing win.

If Garner's value in Test cricket was as an integral part of the most formidable pace attacks ever - they spread the load so that he took five wickets in an innings on just seven occasions - then in one-day cricket, particularly in the overs at the end of an innings, when the unhittable yorker speared in relentlessly, he was priceless. In a period when the overall bowling average was 29.6 and the economy was four an over, Garner averaged fewer than 19 runs per wicket and conceded just over three runs an over. At Lord's in 1979, he simply blew England's slim hopes away with 5 for 38, the best figures ever in a World Cup final.

Joel Garner Career Stats

Bowling

FormatMatInnsBallsRunsWktsBBIBBMAveEconSR4w5w10w
Tests581111316954332596/569/10820.972.4750.81870
ODIs9898533027521465/315/3118.843.0936.5230
FC214-39829163338818/31-18.532.4645.2-487
List A256-1335965983976/296/2916.612.9633.613100

Batting & Fielding

FormatMatInnsNORunsHSAveBFSR100s50s6sCtSt
Tests5868146726012.44--0115420
ODIs984115239379.1936066.3800-300
FC21423154296410416.74--18-1290
List A25613346102359*11.75--01-710
Joel Garner

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Debut/Last Matches of Joel Garner

Recent Matches of Joel Garner

Photos of Joel Garner

Joel Garner presents Sunil Ambris with his Test cap
Colin Croft, Joel Garner, Gordon Greenidge and Michael Holding pose ahead of the <i>Fire in Babylon</i> premiere
Joel Garner and Courtney Walsh tower over a reporter
Joel Garner and Courtney Walsh arrive for the 2010 ICC Awards in Bangalore
Adrian Barath gets his Man-of-the-Match award from Joel Garner
Joel Garner takes questions from the media