Joel Garner (Big Bird) Remembered

It hasn't been a great few weeks for the West Indies. Totally outplayed by England in the Test series and captain Chris Gayle possibly regretting his remarks about his future and that of the five-day format have undone some of the good work done in recent years. I'm sure Gayle was just being a bit defensive about his own late arrival for the first Test at Lord's after his role in the IPL tournament.

Twenty20 and other ODIs are on the up, of course. Looking at the domestic English fixture list for the coming weeks, it's all 50-over FP Trophy games then the start of the domestic Twenty20 competition. It's a long gap before the next County Championship games. Anyway, memories of ODIs of the past, when they were quite a novelty, were stirred for me last week.

I was working in Taunton when Joel Garner 'flew' in to the County Ground for the official opening ceremony of some new gates dedicated in his honor. I missed the occasion, and the match against Durham which followed (curtailed by rain, as it turned out!) but it was good to have Big Bird back at the place he left, with Viv Richards and Ian Botham, in 1986 in sad circumstances. Somerset sacked the West Indians as the overseas pros in favor of Martin Crowe after two bad seasons when Viv and Bird had not been at their best, although the fault could not be totally placed at their door.

It's also nearly 30 years since Garner produced one of the great bowling performances in an international one-day final. Four years after winning the memorable inaugural World Cup tournament, the Windies were back in the final on 23rd June 1979, this time against home side England. England won the toss and put the opposition in to bat.

Unusually, Greenidge, Haynes, Kallicharran and Lloyd were all out fairly cheaply, but a 139-run fifth wicket partnership between Richards and Collis King, in blistering form, restored the order, and Viv steered the Windies to a respectable total of 286-9 in their 60 overs, with an unbeaten 138 in 157 balls.

Brearley and Boycott got England's reply off to a solid start, putting on 129 but, perhaps unsurprisingly, far too slowly. No thoughts of pinch-hitters in those days! However, at 183-2, with the likes of Gooch, Gower, Botham and Larkin’s to follow, it surely wasn't the end of the world. Enter Big Bird......

Gooch may have hit him for a few early boundaries but when Garner bowled both future England captains Gooch and Gower, for no further runs, things were looking a bit sticky. It got worse. Colin Croft bowled Derek Randall and had Botham out for four (caught by his Somerset buddy, Viv!) either side of a first-ball duck for Larkin’s, delivered by Garner. The latter then disposed of Chris Old and wicket-keeper Bob Taylor before Croft polished things off with nine overs to spare.

England had lost eight wickets for eleven runs; Garner had taken 5-4, and was twice on a hat-trick on his way to figures of 5-38 in his eleven overs, very expensive by his standards but nevertheless surely enough to earn the Man of the Match award. But no! Viv got the nod for his brilliant performance with the bat. However, Big Bird's devastating spell was what did for England and gave the Windies their second and last World Cup triumph. England did reach the final again eight years later but are still looking for their first World Cup trophy. At least they won't have to face their twin nemeses of Viv Richards and the incomparable Joel Garner! If they don't want reminding, they'd better not enter Taunton County Ground under either of the gates bearing their names. Stick to the main entrance, boys!