Robin Bynoe: My First Test - A Dream Come True (11 Sep 1998)

11 September 1998

My First Test - A Dream Come True

by Philip Spooner

Forty years ago a young Barbadian stepped onto the Test match arena for the first time. In a few minutes he was walking off.

Robin Bynoe, then a fresh-faced 18-year-old Harrison College student, made just a single, but he will long remember his first taste of the big time.

"You could say it was a dream come true," Bynoe said of his debut at Lahore, Pakistan. "Obviously, as a young cricketer in a country of cricket my goal was to play in a Test match."

Bynoe came into the team to replace another Barbadian, Conrad Hunte, and was partnered by wicket-keeper Gerry Alexander. His demise came when he was caught at leg-slip by Mahmood Hussain off the famous seamer bowler Fazal Mahmood before he had a chance to get a proper look at the bowling.

Bynoe said he will always remember the game for many reasons, one being the fact that the West Indies won by an innings and 156 runs after making 469.

"We had lost the first two Tests so to win the last one was a consolation. Fazal had the ball 'doing dixie' early on but Kanhai made a lot (217) and Sobers had a good score (72) and we won quite easily," Bynoe said.

Incidentally, the first two Tests at the National Stadium, in Karachi and at the Dacca Stadium were both played on matting. The West Indies won on a turf strip.

Bynoe admitted that one of his greatest challenges was getting over the nerves on the eve of the big day. He remembered a sleepless night when his room-mate, the Guyanese batsman Basil Butcher, talked to him to give a few words of advice.

"Everyone in the team was helpful," he said. "My first feeling was one of nervousness, but I really did not bat long enough to get over the nerves."

The Pakistan trip was the second leg of the 1958-59 trip which included a five-match series in India. Bynoe started the five-month trip as a 17-year-old and admitted he encountered a culture shock.

"Everything was different. The food was unusual, as you would expect, but I ate everything," he said laughingly " ... you could not drink the water but there were no real problems."

He said the only burden was travel. "The distances were vast and there were no planes in those days so we had to move by train or by coach. One time we spent 36 hours on a train, so you can understand how rough that was," he said.

Bynoe had to wait until the 1966-67 trip to India to get another play when he played three more games. Looking back he thought he was thrown in a "little too early".

He said, however, that if he had to live his cricket life over he would not do it any differently.

(This is the first in a new series to be published in the Weekend Nation)

Source :: The Barbados Nation (https://www.nationnews.com/)