West Indies’ loss was very much Surrey’s gain
Sylvester Clarke saved his most fearsome spells of fast bowling for Clive Lloyd and Viv Richards, writes Richard Edwards
Cold war were the two words that struck fear into those growing up in 1980s England – but in SE11, on Oval pitches baked hard in the south London sun, a far more frightening prospect lay in wait for the batsman of the day – that of facing Sylvester Clarke.
Born in Barbados two weeks before Christmas in 1954, Clarke was an unexpected gift to a Surrey side desperate to restore their reputation as one of English cricket’s foremost powers. It was September 1978 when Alan Butcher was wheeled out by Surrey’s then manager, Mickey Stewart, to face a man trialling for the position of Surrey overseas player for the following season.
An ambling 15-yard run on a worn end-of-season pitch, gave Butcher precious little indication of what was to follow. From his deceptive approach, Clarke sent two thunderbolts that soared past Butcher’s left shoulder and were still rising when they were taken by an unequally unsuspecting wicketkeeper.
Neither Butcher or Stewart needed a third ball to confirm what they had seen. Clarke’s capture, after just two seasons of domestic cricket in the Caribbean proved to be one of the most important in the county’s history and began a relationship that endured for the next nine seasons. It also signalled the start of a reign of terror that left countless batsmen bruised, battered and mentally scarred.
“My wife is probably best placed to tell you how quick he was – she was the one who had to wash my whites after I had flung myself down the leg-side to take one of his wild inswingers,” Jack Richards, the former Surrey wicketkeeper, tells The Cricket Paper. “Mind you, I would rather have been stood 35 yards back keeping to him than 22 yards away with a bat in my hand.”
Richards kept wicket to Clarke throughout the giant Barbadian’s time at the county and witnessed at first hand the ashen faces that greeted him as he marked out his unassuming run.
“He was fearsome at the Oval, where the wickets really suited him,” says Richards. “At times he could be the fastest but at others you were on at him, saying ‘coming on Sylvers, why aren’t you bowling quickly? The thing was he loved the challenge, he loved saving his quickest spells for the likes of Clive Lloyd and Viv Richards. He had an awkward action which made him very difficult to pick up too.”
Viv Richards once confided that Clarke was the only bowler he ever felt ‘uncomfortable’ facing. Lloyd, then at Lancashire meanwhile, was once on the receiving end of a ferocious spell from a bowler still chastened by his lack of opportunity at Test level.
“He had a point to prove that day,” says Richards. “And he proved it.”
Clarke earned 11 Test caps – taking 42 wickets at a cost of 27 – for the West Indies. Indeed, his most notable contribution for the all-conquering men from the Caribbean came in Multan in 1981, when he hurled a brick into the crowd after growing tired of being pelted by oranges and other assorted projectiles by Pakistan’s home crowd.
In the far more friendly surroundings of the Oval, Clarke was in his element. In nine seasons with the Brown Caps he took 591 wickets at just 18.99 apiece. In 1981 he also scored the fastest century of the season against Glamorgan, his one and only first-class hundred coming in just over an hour.
The Barbadian was part of the Surrey side who won the 1982 NatWest Trophy in comprehensive fashion.
Clarke, despite slipping in the shower two nights before the game, took two for 17 off 11 overs as Warwickshire were dismissed for 158 at Lord’s. Roger Knight’s side knocked off the runs for the loss of just one wicket.
The affable Clarke was commonly seen clutching a rum and coke post play but he undeniably brought a harder edge to Surrey’s play, with even the batsman benefiting from his presence.
“Surrey never really played quick bowling well, whether it was away from home or at the Oval,” says Richards. “Having Sylvester Clarke around, though, got all the batsmen used to the extra pace in the nets.
“One of the great things he did was to give our batsmen confidence against pace.”
It was also to Surrey’s considerable benefit that Clarke was able to give them his almost undivided attention from 1983 onwards, after he decided to join the ill-fated West Indian rebel tour to South Africa.
In January of that year, Clarke took his place in the first team from the Caribbean to play in South Africa. They beat Western Province by 21 runs at Newlands in what The Times described as a ‘Swashbuckling start to a tour of oblivion’. Each player reportedly earned £61,000 from the 30-day tour – a sum that comfortably dwarfed what was on offer for representing the West Indies.
That brief and arguably ill-judged move – which left many of his teammates facing a life of cricketing isolation back home and, for some, started a downward spiral that would never be arrested – would be the last time Clarke represented a West Indies team.
Clarke would, however, go on to earn something approaching legendary status in South African domestic cricket with Transvaal, Northern Transvaal and Orange Free State.
The 58 Currie Cup wickets he took in 1985, at a cost of just 12 each, was a record at the time.
It was Surrey who claimed Clarke as one of their own, though, awarding him a benefit year in 1987 as reward for his aggression and ability to turn a game on its head with some well-directed menace.
In one match he was warned by an umpire for persistent short-pitched bowling. He responded with “this ain’t no ladies’ game, man.”
Uncompromising to the last, he was sacked by Surrey in 1989 for “persistent breaches to the terms and conditions of his contract”.
He would die a decade later back home in Barbados from a heart attack at the age of 44.
Despite the passing of time, the mere mention of his name in the company of opening batsmen from the 1980s and Sylvers will still bring them out in shivers.
One of the great things he [Sylvester Clarke] did was to give our batsmen confidence against pace bowling