Sylvester Clarke - big among giants

Earlier this week, I was actually on my way from Trinidad & Tobago in the Caribbean to Melbourne, Australia to play in an annual benefit game for Multiple Sclerosis, when I heard, via Qantas "In-Flight News", that Sir Conrad Cleophas Hunte had died of a heart attack in Sydney. By the time the aircraft had touched down at Melbourne, Australia, via Auckland, New Zealand, I was greeted with the additionally sad news that another West Indian "legend", Sylvester Theophilous Clarke, had also died suddenly in his native Barbados.

On hearing these pieces of bad news, I had to come to the very morose, but, I think, reasonable conclusion that someone, somewhere, must be putting together a cricket team of the very highest order, for a very pressing engagement. This quick sequence of death of West Indian international cricketing representatives is unprecedented.

In the last month to six weeks, four former West Indian cricketers have died in very quick succession. The world knew of Malcolm Marshall's demise to colon cancer in November. He was an icon where performances were concerned. With very much less fanfare, another former "quickie", Jaswick Taylor, from Trinidad & Tobago, one who played a few Tests in the 50's, also died. He was in his 60's. Now we mourn "Silly" and "Connie".

I never met Jaswick Taylor, even though my father did speak positively of him, especially in regional West Indian cricket. I had only met Sir Conrad, a distant relative of my father (hence one of my middle names; "Hunte") after my playing days. I did, however, select him as the first opening batsman for my "all-West Indian cricket team of the century". I did see his classical batsmanship against Australia in 1965.

I did have regular and constant contact with Sir Conrad during the last West Indies tour of South Africa in 1998/9. Sir Conrad was, among other very positive endeavors, very involved in bringing sport generally, and cricket, particularly, to the Negro masses of the inner cities of that country. He even promised great positive reforms in Barbados', and perhaps, West Indies' cricket, as the newly appointed President of the Barbados Cricket Association.

Of course, I have played internationally with both Malcolm and Sylvester. Indeed, as late as October last, "Clarkie" and I, along with several other former West Indian players, in a team captained by Joel Garner, played a very popular and pleasant game in Dominica to celebrate that country's 21st birthday. "Clarkie" was, as always, with his close buddy and friend, Collis King, the life of the entire weekend. These two were inseparable.

I suppose that I have to, very reluctantly, think of my own eventual demise and mortality. After all, we have been robbed of the relatively young lives of both Malcolm, at 41 years old, and now Sylvester, at 45 years old. I am already 46. Though I did play Tests with both, they were younger than the "regular four", Michael Holding, Andy Roberts, Joel Garner and myself.

Very ironically indeed, the last time I actually saw, and had long conversations with, Sir Conrad and Sylvester, was at the lavish funeral of Malcolm Marshall. Life does throw up some severe bouncers!!

I doubt that there are many who really appreciate how tremendous a fast bowler Clarke really was. This might explain some of it. In the Barbados team of the late 70's and early 80's, Clarke and Wayne Daniel were the first bowling pair with the new ball, despite the normal presence of both Marshall and Garner. What a bowling attack that was. No one beat Barbados in this period.

It could even be said that Clarke could have been the most feared of all of the West Indian fast bowlers, since another Barbadian, Charlie Griffith, period.

Because of the presence of Holding, Roberts, Garner and myself in the then West Indies cricket team, Clarke only managed eleven Tests, after playing his first against Bobby Simpson's Australia in 1978. However, I was a witness to something very deadly, in every sense, in Pakistan in 1980. The fast bowling team for that Faisalabad Test was Marshall, Croft, Clarke and Garner. Roberts had been "rested", at home, and Holding, while on tour, was injured.

No one bowled better, and more aggressively, than Clarke on that tour. Statistics would show that I managed one more wicket, the highest on the tour, than Clarke, for the four Tests. Statistics lied. Clarke was the most frightening prospect as a fast bowler we had all seen in our lives. Majid Khan, Wasim Raja and Zaheer Abbas, three of Pakistan's internationally known stalwarts of the period, would attest to that too. It could even be suggested that "Clarkie" actually put at least one of them, perhaps two, "out" of international cricket forever.

In that Test series in 1980, Clarke hit the helmets of Zaheer and Majid so often with his thunderbolts that neither made any runs to mention. As the West Indians would say, "Clarkie owned them!!" No one who played in that series would ever forget the sickening crack Zaheer got on the helmet in that Faisalabad Test of 1980 from a Clarke bouncer. That helmet definitely saved Zaheer's life that day. When examined, the helmet had a full indentation of almost three inches deep from that Clarke delivery. Zaheer was never the same again and retired immediately after that series.

That was Sylvester Clarke.

He was extremely strong, aggressive and lethal, a "big boy." Unlike many of us with those long curving run-ups, "Clarkie" ran in from about twelve strides, yet developed such pace and bounce that no batsman anywhere ever conquered him. Built like the proverbial "ox", more like a line-backer in American football, with great strong shoulders, Clarke drove fear into batsmen.

He got wickets too. For both Transvaal in South Africa and especially Surrey in England, Clarke became a legend in his own right. He broke all season records playing for Transvaal in South Africa's Curry Cup first class competition in 1983, 1984 and 1985. He also managed to get over 900 county wickets for Surrey. To this day, no batsman who had ever faced Clarke in the English county circuit, including the present West Indies team coach, (Sir) Vivian Richards, who then played for Somerset, could tell any other stories but of fear and destruction caused by Sylvester Clarke. Even on the "Masters" circuit, "Clarkie" was still lethal. Nothing really changes!!

West Indian cricket has lost a great amount of cricketing talent and know-how in the last few weeks. At least three of the four recent deaths have been literally larger than life itself. None were larger, physically, than Clarke. He lived life fully, enjoyed every moment of life on this planet, be it at work, cricket, or at play.

Sylvester Clarke would be missed by all who came across him for his fun. He was respected by all for his cricket. This is another great loss to West Indian and world cricket.