The myth of Sylvester Clarke

In his piece for the Guardian, Jon Hotten explores the unpredictability of former West Indies pacer Sylvester Clarke, whose name resonated in the game much like Sonny Liston in boxing.

Whether he was the quickest of his time is a moot point. Geoffrey Boycott, who faced them all, thought that Jeff Thomson and Michael Holding at their peak were the fastest. What set Clarke apart were two things. The first was his attitude at the crease. He was in a way unknowable; wordless, dead-eyed. All that was clear of his personality was the way he bowled - with bad intentions. Once, challenged by an umpire for repeatedly pitching short, he turned around and said: "It ain't no ladies game, man." The second was that his pace was accompanied by steepling bounce, and worse than that, an action that made it unpredictable.

From a short, slow-ish run his natural line was towards the batsman. Dennis Amiss, who made a double hundred against Holding and Andy Roberts at the Oval in 1976, called it "the trapdoor ball", because it was hard to pick up and then it just kept zoning inwards at the throat. Any batsman will tell you that the worst kind of bouncer is the one that follows you. Sylvester's could be like a heat-seeking missile.