The tale of a Windies spinner

"For every fast bowler that played for West Indies between 1976 and 1986, there was a spinner whose ambitions of playing international were finished." Elquemedo Willett would know. One who represented West Indies in five Tests between 1973 and 1975, Willett's career came to a premature halt mainly because of West Indies' focus on pace, pace and nothing but pace. Willett's not complaining; in fact he doffs his hat to the great fast bowlers who made West Indies an invincible force. But maybe it's worth sparing a thought for an entire breed who took up, in Willett's words, a "useless profession".

The list of spinners who played only a handful of games for West Indies, in that era, is endless. Raphick Jumadeen (12 Tests), Inshan Ali (12), Imtiaz Ali (1), Derick Parry (12), Albert Padmore (2), Clyde Butts, Willett, Rangy Nanan

Nanan's case is instructive. A prolific domestic wicket-taker, he got his only chance when West Indies toured Pakistan in 1980-81. He had a good time in the tour games - including snapping up 6 for 48 in an innings against the Governer's XI at Sahiwal – and made his debut on a shirt-front at Faisalabad. On a surface, which Dennis Lillie once termed as a bowler’s "graveyard", he returned impressive match figures of 4 for 91. "It wasn't all about performance," he says reflecting on those times. "We needed to understand that, irrespective of how we did, there was always a chance of not playing in the next game. That was how good the fast bowlers were. It was unfortunate. Had I played fifteen years earlier or fifteen years later, things would have been different."

When he ended his first-class career he was the all-time leading wicket-taker in the Shell Shield, the premier domestic competition. Nanan believes that the ill-effects of West Indies' all-pace policy is being felt now. "You don't see too many good spinners in the Caribbean today because the earlier generation wasn't motivated enough. Not too many took up spin in the '80s and '90s because they thought they would not get a chance."

The meeting with Nanan reminded me of an encounter I'd had with Rajinder Goel a few months back. Goel's path was at least blocked by other spinners. In Nanan's case there was just no hope. He chose a profession that merited little attention in the land.