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Little Larry Gomes surprised a lot of people by becoming a successful
Test cricketer. He would never have got the chance if the Packer
Revolution had not led to the West Indies discarding their entire team,
but a decade later he was outscoring the stars. When he came to
Middlesex in 1973 Gomes looked unlikely to be more than an average
county player. Indeed, it was his gentle medium-pace bowling which often
proved more useful than his pokey left-handed batting, fleshing out the
county attack in the Sunday League. It was probably his experience at
Middlesex that gave Gomes the nod when West Indies tried to find a new
team to play against Australia in 1976-77. He scored 101 in his first
Test and 115 at Sabina Park, with 82 and 91 in India the following year,
but it was not enough for him to be taken seriously as a prospect when
Clive Lloyd's team returned from World Series Cricket.
Gomes did not
force his way back until 1981, when he scored 90 not out against England
in Jamaica. From that point he applied himself as the man at the other
end to the stars; keeping Richards and Lloyd apart just as Peter Roebuck
separated Richards and Botham at Somerset, reminding the greats of
mortality and instilling them with enough caution. He scored 126 in the
Sydney Test of 1981-82 and 124 not out in Adelaide, with 143 at
Edgbaston in 1984, 92 not out at Lord's as Greenidge blasted the
double-century which won the match and 104 not out at Headingley. He was
prolific in the 1983 World Cup, scoring 78 against Australia at
Headingley, 75 not out at Worcester against Zimbabwe and 50 not out
against Pakistan in the semi-final. (Bob Harragan)
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