I believe that Courtney Walsh should stick to his guns, and ride off into retirement
Colin Croft26-Apr-2001I believe that Courtney Walsh should stick to his guns, and ride off into retirement. Why prolong the inevitable and even the agony? Enough is enough. As if to confirm this, Walsh has said two things that were somewhat pertinent.”I would like to finish my International cricket career at Sabina Park, my Jamaican home of cricket. It would be fitting if we can win that final game so that I could go out as I came in, on a victorious team.”
Courtney Walsh leaves the Test field for the final time
Photo © CricInfo
Both of these have now occurred. Walsh had a fine match figures of 6-93 in the final Test, and 25 wickets overall. The West Indies actually won the Test, so no problem there.”I would like to help the younger fast bowlers come through and take their places in this team, so that the tradition can be carried on in good hands.”In a way, that too has come to pass. I would also suggest that Courtney Walsh, especially in recent years, could not have done more to show younger fast bowlers how the art should be practised.At least Merve Dillon, by taking 20 wickets in the five Tests against South Africa, a tremendous improvement in production and maturity, has shown that he can step up and deliver. What he will now need is consistency.Cameron Cuffy, while diligent, will never be a world-beater. Nixon McLean is, in my mind, even worse off, since he is not even a fast bowler any longer. Simply, he has been around much too long not to have even learned the basic fundamentals of fast bowling, so it is very likely that he will just peter out and eventually fade away.Of the more recent fast bowlers in the Caribbean, Reon King, along with Cuffy, Dillon and McLean have been used, with sometimes Colin Stuart as the utility bowler. Since Marlon Black is no-where to be seen, due to that physical beating he took in Melbourne, the Leeward Island’s Kerry Jeremy could get a look in.Reon King still has to prove that he is really made of the stuff that is necessary to be a good fast bowler, since he seems to be perpetually injured. It is likely that he will get his chance again in Zimbabwe, while Stuart and Jeremy could well be on stand-by, if not indeed in the squad.It therefore confirms that there are personnel to fill the void, even though none have really shown, perhaps except Dillon against the South Africans, that they can do the business. However, prolonging Walsh’s career to Zimbabwe will make no sense at all. What purpose will it serve now?That final day of Walsh’s career was very sad, even though the West Indies had won the game, for they were losing their champion.It was ironic that when Marlon Samuels took the lofted catch to dismiss Paul Adams, completing the West Indies first Test win since June last year, and condemning the visitors to their first loss in 13 games, no-one paid any attention to him at all. Why should they? There were much more important things to do.Every player, even the operating bowler, Merve Dillon, were, by then, hugging Courtney Walsh with tremendous emotion, euphoria and appreciation. Even the younger ones, those who were just pups whenWalsh played his first Test in 1984, joined in the celebrations.From his 1st wicket, Australian Graham Wood in 1984, to his 435th, Henry Olonga, caught at forward short leg by Wavell Hinds; to his 500th, Jacques Kallis, LBW; to his last, Allan Donald, the ninth wicket in South Africa’s second innings, to give him his 519th Test wicket, in his 132nd and final Test; Courtney Walsh has been the ultimate professional, producing when it mattered most. What a performer; what a void he now leaves, but he has nothing more to prove.It is very difficult to contemplate, even imagine Courtney’s accomplishments, much less understand and appreciate them. At least, the numbers can tell some of the story.By the end of his final Test, his 132nd, more than any other West Indian cricketer, Walsh had bowled about 5,000 overs in Test cricket.That would mean, without counting any no-balls (and he would have hadmore than a few since his advent to Test cricket in 1984), that Walsh would have sent down no less than 30,000 legal deliveries in his almost 17 years of Test cricket.Allowing for a bowling approach/run-up of about 20 meters, simple mathematics would tell you that Courtney Walsh must have run about 600,000 meters, or 600 kilometres, at a good canter, bowling for the West Indies in Tests alone. There are many bicycles these days that never get that far without needing repair.To have a proper perspective of Walsh’s contribution to the cricketing world, one must also remember that Walsh has been bowling for Jamaica and Gloucestershire County Cricket Club as long as he has been playing for the West Indies.What kept this guy going is probably a miracle. Perhaps he could now bottle it and sell it, though determination and pride of performance can never be bottled or duplicated. One simply has to be born with the right attitude!Courtney Walsh replaced me directly in the West Indies cricket team, so I have a very special place in my heart for him. No one, especially Walsh himself, expected to last all of 17 years. He has carried on the best traditions of fast bowling, doing the right things to not only remain in the West Indies cricket team after all of these years, but to remain at the very top of the West Indian fast bowling tree, even after losing his best friend and fast bowling partner, Curtly Ambrose almost a year ago.An amazing statistic, I think, is that Walsh, after getting his 435th wicket to break Kapil Dev’s record, also at Sabina Park, in 2000, has taken 84 wickets over the last calendar year. Absolutely stunning!Given an honorary doctorate by the University of the West Indies for his services to cricket, feted and heralded everywhere around the Caribbean, I would suggest that we all would be much less well off with the end of his career. With some luck, he will put some of his experiences back into West Indies cricket’s future.From me, it is “Thank you, Cuddy”, personally and from everyone in West Indies cricket and the cricketing world at large. I would also say this. Anyone attempting to break his wicket record will be drop-dead tired if and when they do. There will never be another like Courtney Walsh.