Philo Wallace earned a reputation as a powerful top-order hitter who loved nothing more than to hit the ball hard and far. His early forrays into Test cricket were unsuccessful - in 1997-98 he managed 13 runs in one Test in Pakistan - but redeemed himself against England in 1997-98 by smashing 198 runs in two Tests. In South Africa in 1998-99, like so many others, he had a wretched tour, scoring 68 runs in four Tests. In one-day cricket his have-a-go approach came off more often than not, and he played 10 ODIs in the early 1990s and another 23 at the end of the decade. His only hundred - 103 off 102 balls - came against South Africa in the final of the 1998 Wills Cup, but could not prevent West Indies from losing. Wallace captained Barbados for a time, but his omission from their squad for the 2003-04 domestic season was greeted with widespread surprise. He subsequently turned down an offer to return in favour of leading the University of West Indies team.
Martin Williamson (July 2004)