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Big Colin Croft was the member of the West Indian pace quartet that
batsmen disliked most. He was a man who believed in the bouncer and
would regularly dig a fast ball into the batsman's ribs. In one over at
the Oval in 1980 commentators counted 11 short balls in two overs. Croft
was unrepentant. He knew more people came to see him bowl fast than to
see batsmen not good enough to play him. It wasn't just speed and
bounce, with his awkward action Croft bowled from wide out on the return
crease, so wide that one batsman said it was like playing fast balls
bowled from mid off. Croft made his debut for Guyana in 1971-72, but had
to wait until 1976-77 and a crop of injuries to the likes of Holding
and Daniel to get a Test against Pakistan.
Joel Garner was another
brought into that match as an emergency replacement. Croft took 7
wickets in his first Test and 8-29 in the first innings of his second.
After that he was a regular, part of Clive Lloyd's 4 fast bowlers
strategy: which was only possible because he had 4 world-class bowlers
fighting each other for wickets. He took 33 wickets in that first
series. Some of his best work for West Indies was in Kerry Packer's
World Series Supertests where he took 20 wickets against Australia in
the West Indies. He was less effective on the slow English wickets of
1980 and played in only one Test on that tour. At home that winter it
was a different story, with 5-40 in Trinidad and 6-74 in Antigua. He
also contributed some rare runs in that match, 17 not out in a big last
wicket stand with Michael Holding. Croft played in the 1979 World Cup
final. After a shorter career than most he went on to become an airline
pilot - just as much speed, but without the bounce. (Bob Harragan)
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