Watching the West Indies in 1976

While watching the ESPN Classic replay of the 3rd Test match between England and the West Indies in 1976 I am stunned by the coverage.

In the midsts of some terrific batting by Greenidge, Richards and Lloyd there were some startling bits of play. My attention was grabbed during England’s second innings. Previous to this I had been hard at work and not that interested by the coverage, England were bowling. They bowled poorly and their fielding lacklustre. The West Indies were fed a banquet of half-volleys and slow, good length fodder. This was obviously fairly dull viewing for an English supporter.

Having had the game on in the background during the West Indies innings I was very surprised to see how the West Indian side bowled. Roberts was on fire, he was aggressive and dangerous. Whereas the English bowlers were blunt Roberts was sharp as a razor. Brian Close (without Helmet) was battered from pillar to post and lucky not to have his head knocked off on many occasions. John Edrich, Close’s opening partner, found batting so hard against the West Indian bowlers he could only make 24 in over 2 hours. At one stage a member of the crowd ran onto the pitch with a quickly fashioned cricket bat that was four or five times the size of a normal bat and handed it to Edrich, such was his inability to score of Roberts.

Call me sadistic but I enjoyed the fact that the batsman did not have all the protection that they currently do. I loved the aggresive bowling and the fact that the batsmen, when hit, stood tall to show the bowler they were not hurt. It is no wonder that the likes of Holding, Roberts and Garner are engrained in cricket folklore, they were new, they were different and they made the heart race.