When Clarke came to India as the WI Spearhead

Sylvester Clarke, who died in Bridgetown on Saturday, played five of his eleven Tests against India. He made his first tour as a West Indian player to this country as a member of Alvin Kallicharran's side in 1978-79 and the only five wicket haul of his career was against India. The team, bereft of the Packer players, was perhaps the weakest of the Caribbean sides to come to India and lost the six match series 1-0. But the batting of Kallicharran, Bacchus and Gomes was appreciated, as also the bowling of Clarke and Norbert Philip.

The two took their place alongside other fearsome pace duos to visit India and Clarke was the most successful bowler in the visiting side. He played in the first five Tests, missing the sixth because of injury, and took 21 wickets. On the flat batting tracks prepared for the series, it was a commendable feat. And even more commendable was the fact that Clarke took Gavaskar's wicket five times out of the seven occasions he was dismissed in the five Tests the West Indian fast bowler played, including a famous first ball ball dismissal at Bangalore. And this was the series when Gavaskar scored 732 runs including three hundreds and a double hundred. Incidentally it was at Bangalore that Clarke took his only five wicket haul in Tests - 5 for 126. But he was at his best at Madras on the only bouncy track provided in the series. The tall Clarke made the ball lift alarmingly and took six wickets in the match for 121 runs. He dismissed Vengsarkar for a pair and also took the wickets of Gavaskar, Viswanath, Kapil Dev and Ghavri.