The Southampton Incident
From page 12A
the WICBC that he was available for the three test matches.
The packed itinerary of first-class games had the tourists playing cricket six days a week. Following their 174-run win at Southampton, the West Indies lost to the D H Robins XI (their only first-class loss of the tour), and then beat Nottinghamshire by nine wickets on July 3, as Fredericks (82 not out) and Lawrence Rowe (84) added 151 for the first wicket, the latter having moved up in the lineup to fill the vacancy created by Camacho being injured.
With the First Test slated for July 2631, the West Indies looked set at the top of the order with Fredericks and Rowe. However, Rowe had torn his ankle ligaments on the first day of the Third Test versus the Australians in March, in Trinidad, didn’t bat in either innings (as WI lost by 44 runs) and missed the rest of the series. He was still suffering from the lingering effects of the injury, and was experiencing some form of discomfort after an hour or so, at the crease. Although Rowe continued to open in the county matches, it soon became obvious that he would not be available for the Test matches. A replacement had to be sought.
On July 14, the first day of the match versus Sussex at Hove, Kallicharran broke a finger whilst attempting to take a catch off the bat of John Snow. Another injury, less than two weeks before the First Test.
What options were available for the Tour Committee of Manager Esmond Kentish, Captain Rohan Kanhai, vice-captain, Lance Gibbs and senior player Clive Lloyd? Should the visitors send for a player from back home or seek a replacement in England? The choices in England included the two Greenidges, Geoffrey and Gordon.
Geoffrey ‘Geoff’ Greenidge
Geoff Greenidge, 25, a former schoolboy prodigy was a prolific run getter for Harrison College and had announced himself to the Caribbean during the 1967 Shell Shield season. In the match versus Jamaica at Kensington Oval, he followed up his first innings knock of 205, by taking seven wickets in Jamaica’s initial innings. He had made his Test debut in the 1972 series versus New Zealand, and played in three of the first four Tests against the Australians. A professional cricketer with Sussex County since 1968, he was just 43-odd miles from London, about an hour away.
West Indian immigrant
Gordon Greenidge, 23, the Barbadianborn, Hampshire right-handed opener had witnessed the entire incident from his position in the slips. He had immigrated to England in 1965 and had become eligible to play for England, but had chosen to try out for the West Indies. At the conclusion of the previous English summer, where he had accumulated his second successive total of 1,000 runs for the season, he had returned to Barbados to prepare for the 1972/73 Caribbean season and had opened in the four Barbados Shell Shield games, the first three with his namesake. His scores of 88 and 61 in his first first-class match at home, versus the Combined Islands were followed with innings of 10, 19, 44, 29, 49 and 4. In the match at Southampton, he had scores of 9 and 13.
Son of a legend
Ron George Alphonso Headley, son of the legend ‘Mas George’ Headley had played for the county of Worcestershire since 1958, and was very familiar with English conditions. He had only appeared for Jamaica in one tournament, the inaugural Shell Shield season in 1966. The dashing left-hander had to bear the inevitable comparisons to famous father, but was an outstanding player in his own right. After negotiations with his county, Ron was released for the rest of the West Indies tour. On July 18, he donned a West Indian cap for the first time, and opened with Fredericks against Kent at the St Lawrence Ground, Canterbury. He was selected for the First and Second Tests, and had scores of 8, 42, 1 and 11. His brief test career was over.
Garry Sobers played in all three Test matches, topped the batting and bowling averages, as the West Indies took the series 2-0.
In 1980, Gordon Greenidge published his autobiography, Man in the Middle. Here’s an excerpt: “I figured that I was in the selectors’ thoughts. I was the man in form and there seemed no logical alternative. Imagine then how stunned I was when I heard that Ron Headley had been called up… it was an amazing decision… Ron had played loyally and comparatively successfully for Worcestershire for 15 years without ever once so much as putting himself in line for a cap without ever doing anything to suggest he had been unlucky. Yet here he was, at the advanced age of 34, hoisted from obscurity into a place on the touring team and contention for a Test place.”
Notes from 1974
Shell Shield: Camacho would miss the 1974 season. The Greenidge duo would open for their island in three of four matches. Headley opened in all of Jamaica’s games. Fredericks’ new opening partner for Guyana was the left hander Leonard Baichan.
Test series: Fredericks and Rowe opened in all five Test matches against England.
Tour of India and Pakistan 1974-75: The team was announced on June 20 and the three openers selected were Fredericks, Gordon Greenidge and Baichan. Rowe was chosen as a middleorder batsman. Baichan began the tour with hundreds against Indian Universities and South Zone, and was picked ahead of Greenidge for the First Test. Unfortunately, he was injured in a car accident the day before and Greenidge got his chance. He made 93 run out and 107 on his Test debut.
Greenidge hurt his back whilst keeping wicket in the Fifth Test versus India, and Baichan made 105 not out in the second innings of the First Test in Pakistan, his Test debut.
And the young fast bowler, who making his first-class debut for Hampshire, had struck Camacho in the face? Anderson ‘Andy’ Montgomery Everton Roberts in an interview in 2014 with ESPNcricinfo for the ‘Match that changed my life’ feature, would confess, “The important thing about that match was, I was playing against the West Indies and the only way for me to get into the Test team was to bowl fast. And that was what I did.”
Andy Roberts made his test debut against England in the Third Test, March 6 - 11, 1974 at Kensington Oval, Barbados. A domino effect was beginning.