Courteous Courtney

THE day that Hansie Cronje testified before the King Commission of Inquiry, I was watching Courtney Walsh bowl out England on the first morning of a Test match. The contrast was telling. As cricketer and human being, the Jamaican is all that the modern game is not - straightforward and utterly accomplished. This day he bowled an immaculate line, on or outside the off stump, the ball now deviating three inches one way, now three inches the other. When the batsman was beaten, Courtney offered a quizzical smile. In similar circumstances, a man like Glen McGrath would have used a four-letter word, or perhaps several.

Indians first saw Walsh bowl during the 1987 World Cup. His team did not figure in the two matches I went to, but I did watch him on the box. What stood out was the lovely late movement off the seam. He usually bowled his first five overs for half-a-dozen runs and a wicket, but was then taken off by his captain, Vivian Richards. The batsmen got set against the lesser bowlers, and by the time Walsh was brought back it was too late. I believed then, and believe now, that this was a colossal error of captaincy. Walsh should have bowled his quota at a stretch, with the new ball, thus reducing the other side to 30 for three. The mechanical strategy followed by Richards contributed to his team's early exit from the competition. They might yet have made the semi-finals, except that at a key moment in a key match against Pakistan, Walsh, ever the gentleman, refused to run out Salim Jaffer when he backed up too far.

Later that winter I watched, at the ground, two days of a Test in New Delhi. I had a special interest in the match, for my former college captain Arun Lal was playing. On the first morning the home side were bowled out for 75, Patrick Patterson claiming five wickets. Arun battled hard, for 25, before falling to a wicked delivery from Winston Davis. Walsh's only victim, if a considerable one, was Kapil Dev, caught behind off an outswinger.

Remarkably, a side whose top three were Greenidge, Haynes and Richards answered with a mere 127 all out. Walsh, with 16, was third top scorer I confess I remember nothing of that innings. But I do recall him bowling when India batted again. Srikkanth and Raman Lamba went early, but then Arun Lal and Dilip Vengsarkar got together in a fine, retrieving stand. Arun, who was essentially a backfoot player, hit some square cuts and pulls before being thought out by Walsh. Two men were placed on the fence, and a series of short balls bowled. Arun left three or four alone before hooking the fifth down the throat of deep square leg. The batsman was set and the wicket was dead: had he restrained himself, a century was there for the taking. To watch my friend walk off the Kotla, muttering to himself, ranks as one of the most sorrowful moments in a lifetime of cricket watching.

The only other time I was at a ground while Walsh bowled in a Test match was at Lord's, four years later. When West Indies batted, Richards made 60, and that superbly gifted under- performer, Carl Hooper, stroked his first Test hundred. Then England went in, and Courtney Walsh and his comrade Curtly Ambrose got to work. Graham Gooch lost sight of a Walsh in-dipper delivered at about a million miles an hour. The ball curved in late to take the off-stump, the England captain not offering a shot. This brought in Greame Hick, in his first Test. Born in Zimbabwe, the prodigy had to wait seven years before qualifying for England. From the first weeks of this summer of 1991 he was being advertised as the Great White Hope of English cricket - indeed, he was not above a bit of self-promotion himself, releasing, prior to the Lord's Test, a book with the Churchillian title, My Early Life. If the West Indians had not read the book they seemed to have read about it, for they subjected him to a torrid baptism. Ambrose came pounding in from the Pavilion End, long loping strides in seven-league boots. I quaked from where I sat, and poor Hick was at least 80 yards closer. One at the chin, a second at the chest, the third aimed at the head and flying just over. Then the sucker punch, a fast, full straight ball outside off stump. Hick reached for it, and Jeffrey Dujon had the two hundredth catch of his career.

Almost a decade has gone by, and Walsh and Ambrose are yet bowling out England. Before this summer's series began, an English commentator incautiously pointed out that the West Indies had lost, on the trot, the last 10 Test matches they had played on foreign soil. He forgot to add that these were played against South Africa, Pakistan and New Zealand. As always, it was the sight of their erstwhile rulers that would bring out the best. This will be the last series in which Walsh and Ambrose shall bowl together. Their partnership is almost like a marriage, a successful marriage, with the partners growing old, companionably and gracefully. And like most marriages, in their long time together, the first one has been dominant, than the other. In the early 1990's Walsh was the steady foil to the deadly Ambrose. The Antiguan delivered the ball from 10 feet or more; to that steepling bounce was added a sharp inward movement. It was Ambrose who would get six wickets as the West Indies bowled out sides for less than a 100. But as he has aged, the bounce has become less steep and the movement has, more or less, disappeared. The spirit is still willing but the flesh is weak. By custom he takes the new ball, but it is his partner who is more likely now to run through a side. Walsh's run up is easy and economical, and the arm high. A better physique, and years of playing county cricket, have allowed him to more effectively stay abreast of the competition. He takes more wickets, each greeted with unreserved joy by Ambrose.

The union of Ambrose and Walsh has been perhaps the happiest of the great fast bowling partnerships. With Hall and Griffith, Lillee and Thompson, Truman and Statham, there was always a competitive edge - one man wanted to outdo the other. Only Lindwall and Miller were like the West Indians: friends as well as partners. On tour, the Australians even roomed together. So complete was their trust that each left his money on the table between their beds - to be picked up, when wanted, by either.

Lindwall and Miller bowled in tandem from 1946 to 1956. The West Indians have been together even longer. Now, at last, they too have fallen victim to Anno Domini. The announcement of Ambrose's retirement has been categorical - after the present series he will play no more for the West Indies. Walsh has not committed himself, either way. But one suspects, and one hopes, that he will play for a further season or two.

To watch Courtney Walsh bowl is to be educated. To watch him bat is to be entertained. He is now the only genuine tail-ender left in international cricket, the last relic of a once abundant species. He holds the world record for the most Test wickets, and another world record for the most ducks. To this Indian, he joyfully recalls a bygone era, when men such as B. S. Chandrasekhar batted with an equal, and equally cheerful, incompetence. Consider how Walsh leaves alone a ball outside the off stump, his bat curled inwards, his feet off the ground. Or how, with a curious hop-hop, he plays, or attempts to play, the shorter delivery. Words cannot accurately describe either stroke. Let me say only that to watch Walsh bat is worth the price of admission to any cricket ground in the world.

And yet, in this strangest of games, Walsh has helped his side win two Test matches with the bat, these in successive seasons, aided the first time by Brian Lara and the second by Jimmy Adams. Of course he has won many more matches for the West Indies with the ball. In the end, though, he will be remembered as much for the quality of his character as for the quality of his bowling. The modern game is driven by the will to win for one's side or one's country. There is nothing at all wrong with this, except that in some men, the Australians most especially, this translates into an other-hating xenophobia. Let us, and the young among us especially, make the most of Walsh while we can.

No other cricketer in recent times has so effectively combined competitiveness with courtesy.

RAMACHANDRA GUHA

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