The fastest of them all
The West Indies have produced a spate of fast bowlers. Maybe it is in their genes, but the fastest bowlers have come from the Caribbean’s. One such pace bowler was Roy Gilchrist, though in present times many feel that he may have been unfairly treated.
I have no doubt that at one time Roy was the fastest in the world and mind you he was faster than Wes Hall, who was pretty fast himself. While hall played many tests and took close to 200 wickets, Gilchrist played only 13.
Gilchrist came to India with Gerry Alexander's team. He opened the bowling in the test matches and the Indian batsmen had a torrid time against him. I remember reading that Pankaj Roy while facing Gilchrist at the Eden Gardens commented that he just could not see the balls delivered by Gilchrist.
Gilchrist however had a strained relationship with the captain, Gerry Alexander. In fact he had been left out of the Kanpur test because of indiscipline. But he was back with a bang in the remaining tests. Gerry an old world cricketer did not like the superfast beamer that Gilchrist bowled sometimes and had cautioned him on many occasions.
The dam burst at the end of the tour when the West Indies played a match against Punjab which was captained by Swaranjit Singh an Oxford blue and class mate of Alexander. Gilchrist bowled to Singh, who hit him for a four. This irked the pace bowler who bowled a beamer. Alexander who was the wicket keeper went up to Gilchrist and admonished him for it. Gilchrest marked his run up and bowled another beamer at the head of Singh, which narrowly missed his turban.
This was the last straw; Alexander took Gilchrist off and wrote a report about him to the West Indies board. Gilchrist never again played for the West Indies. It was a sad end to a really fine fast bowler whose mean streak took the better of him.
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