Bird’s eyeview

KINGSTON: It’s hard not to notice Joel Garner when he walks into a room. At 6 feet 8 inches, he remains the tallest ever cricketer to play Tests. But that’s not his only claim to fame.

His Test average of 20.97 is also one of the best ever, this despite being limited by being part of one of the most feared bowling quartets of all time comprising Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Colin Croft and himself. As a result, the wickets were shared around and he ended up with just 259 wickets. But it was often in ODIs that his accuracy, disconcerting bounce and dreaded yorker came to the fore. Allied with the fact that the ball was sent down from a great height, it was impossible to score off.

In this day and age of 300-plus scores, the bowlers of today could certainly use some pointers on how to keep the runs down. One ball that certainly keeps the runs down is the yorker. So how does he go about trying to perfect such a delivery?

“All I remember was bowling over and over again. I would start off with three stumps, then move on to two stumps and finally I would bowl for an hour at one stump. When I would be finished the only people at the ground would be the groundsman and he would be there, because he would toss the ball back to me after every delivery,” said Garner. “But that’s what worked for me, doesn’t mean it will work for someone else too. But you have got to make the effort and try out new things in the nets.”

At a reunion a few years back, Garner met that same groundsman from his old parish and then there was familiar exchange of stories. “He told me that he remembered me being there for Christmas and I was like ‘really?’, because I had no recollection. That was it for us, I played cricket because I loved it and it was the only thing that I ever wanted to do.”

Garner also believes that the culture of today’s cricketers is very different. “On my first tour, I shared the room with Andy Roberts and I kept him up every night till around midnight so that I could hear the stories from him. He was my mentor. He is guy who taught me everything,” said Garner. “Sometimes, when I reach a ground just after a match has ended, I find that all the players have left as early as possible. There is no banter, there is no talk, there is no getting to know your team-mate. I knew just by looking that Gordon Greenidge was having a bad day or that Roberts was having a bad day. And I would just steer clear of them. I could do that because I knew them all as individuals away from cricket.”

When Garner looks at teams now, he notices that the camaraderie isn’t quite the same. “We were good because each of us was the best of friends and you don’t ever want to let down your friends. I look at this West Indian team and I ask myself, do these cricketers even know each other?”