Joe Solomon

Joe Solomon might well not have scored the 5318 runs he did in first-class cricket (1326 of them in Tests) or bowled part-time, and useful, legspin, and he would still be part of cricket folklore. Because of his presence - only part of his body in view - in one of the most iconic images from the game's long history; an image he, more than anyone else, created. You know what we are talking about, you wouldn't be here otherwise. Yes, that tied Test in Brisbane, in December 1960. That run out. That direct hit. All of that. Of course, if he hadn't scored all those runs, he wouldn't have been there in the first place…

Solomon was a late starter. Born in August 1930, he played his first representative match - a first-class game for his native Guyana (then British Guiana) - only in October 1956, when 26 years old. He impressed straightaway.

In his first game, against Jamaica in the first-class quadrangular tournament, Solomon scored 114 not out from No. 7 in just under five hours - an innings in which Bruce Pairaudeau, Rohan Kanhai and Basil Butcher had scored centuries too. In his second game, in the same tournament, against Barbados, Solomon moved up a spot to No. 6 and scored another century, this time a 108 in just over four hours. Then in his third game, against the touring Pakistanis, from No. 6 again, Solomon scored another century, 121 in just over five hours. He was in the West Indies Test squad not long after, on tour in India in 1958-59.

He played four of the five Tests. Scored one century - against Vinoo Mankad and Subash Gupte in Delhi - and two half-centuries, and ended with 351 runs at an average of 117.00. Garry Sobers (557), Kanhai (538) and Butcher (486) were the only ones to score more than him, across the two teams in the series, and they played all five Tests.

That century in Delhi, though, remained Solomon's only one in Test cricket, even though he averaged 34.00 from his 27 Tests.

But, as we might have mentioned already, what he is, and will be, best remembered for is that run out he effected. In Brisbane. In what was his tenth Test. To close out the first tie in Test history. The 65 and 47 he scored in that match is really just a footnote.

Interestingly, in the very next Test, opening the batting, Solomon became the main protagonist in another intriguing incident. On this occasion, at the MCG, when facing Richie Benaud, his cap fell on the stumps, and he was out hit-wicket. A rarity then, as it is now. Unbelievable as it may sound, he had been dismissed hit-wicket in that Brisbane Test too, in the first innings, off the bowling off Bob Simpson.

On the MCG dismissal, Solomon told Brydon Coverdale, writing for ESPNcricinfo at the time, "I don't know what happened. Up to now, I don't know. It never happened before. I played back to Benaud, played the ball and my cap fell on the stumps. They said I am out. That's the rule, you're out. It was just one of those things."

And on the Brisbane dismissal, he said, "I can't remember hitting the wicket. It was on the third run they gave me out. The wicketkeeper showed the umpire the bail was off. We'd run three already. You'd think after you hit the wicket and take off for the first run they would show you and appeal to the umpire. But on the third run they gave me out. It was not fair."

It hadn't stopped rankling with Solomon even at the time of that interview - "The man in the photo" - in 2017, more than half a lifetime on.

Solomon died in December 2023, aged 93.
By Shamya Dasgupta