Arthur Barrett is dead

Arthur Barrett, one of Jamaica’s greatest ever legspin bowler, is dead. Barrett, 73, died in the early hours of Monday morning at his home after suffering from cancer.

A right-arm leg-spin and googly bowler, Barrett represented Melbourne, Jamaica, from 1966 to 1981, and the West Indies from 1971 to 1975.

At Melbourne, Barrett formed a deadly combination with left-arm spinner Bruce Wellington, and in company with pace bowlers Cecil Lawson and Ruddy Williams, batsmen Sam Morgan, Gerald Wollaston, Ruddy Marzouca, and George Sterling started the club’s golden run in 1968.

Playing for Jamaica, along with the likes of Easton McMorris captain, Maurice Foster, Lawrence Rowe, Renford Pinnock, Victor Fray, Linden Wright, Othneil Miles, and Wellington, Barrett was an integral part of Jamaica’s first regional championship team in 1969 when they won the then Shell Shield tournament.

FIRST CRICKETER

In that year, he took six wickets for 18 runs against Barbados at Kensington Oval.

In the following year, he took six for 78 against Guyana at Sabina Park, and scored 102 not out, batting at number eight, going to bat at 132 for six, and scoring his runs out of the last 152 of the total of 287 runs, against the Combined Islands.

He also took 10 for 82 in that match to become the first cricketer

SENIOR CUP CHAMPIONS 1968: Members of the Melbourne cricket team which won the 1968 Senior Cup cricket competition after a play-off with Boys’ Town. Seated from left: Samuel Morgan, Carlton Vaz, George Sterling, (captain), Bruce Wellington and Paul...