Famous Cricketers No 71 - J.D.C.Goddard

INTRODUCTION There are few cricketers alive or dead with as interesting a history as John Goddard’s and yet, inexplicably, there has been nothing of substance written about this famous West Indian captain. There are the predictable obituaries in the West Indies Cricket Annual 1988 (p12) and Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack 1988 (p1204); and there is a brief profile, written by Ronnie Hughes (an Old Lodge School Boy like Goddard) in 100 Years of Organised Cricket in Barbados 1892-1992 (p77). But apart from these snippets, one searches in vain for the kind of literature that would do justice to an athlete of Goddard’s immense talent or his undoubted historical significance. This effort is meant to correct such a glaring omission. John Goddard was a fine cricketer in his own right, deserving of a place in any West Indies team during the 1940s, even had he not been chosen as its captain. He was one of the dominant players in the ‘Goodwill’ series of games arranged in the Caribbean during the period of the Second World War when first-class cricket almost everywhere else was seriously interrupted. It is true that, had he not been white and wealthy, he would assuredly never have been appointed a Test captain of the West Indies but few could have disputed his merits as one of the world’s leading all-rounders when he was at his peak. Goddard was the first West Indian to captain a touring team successfully in England and India and he also served effectively as player/manager during the New Zealand tour of 1955/56. His record as a leader, prior to the ill-fated tour of Australia in 1951/52, was simply outstanding. In his first eleven Tests as captain of the West Indies, Goddard won no fewer than 6 times and lost only once. When he left England at the end of the summer of 1950 he was universally hailed as an inspirational leader. He had deployed his troops with much better than average acumen and had allowed the inexperienced Sonny Ramadhin and Alfred Valentine free rein to work their peculiar brand of magic. Unfortunately, however, he is still best remembered as the captain who lost a series in Australia, that his team ought definitely to have won, and who lost another even more convincingly in England in 1957, when (most pundits felt) he had placed too much confidence in the abilities of Ramadhin. But, as Frank Worrell was quick to observe in his perceptive Cricket Punch , the England Test teams of 1957 were immeasurably more powerful than those of 1950 and could not have been easily beaten by the West Indies - whatever Goddard did or did not do. Even so, had Goddard’s colleagues taken a number of routine catches and batted with a greater degree of patience and discipline against Australia, the West Indies would clearly have advanced to the unofficial championship of the cricketing world in 1952. Had the umpires taken a stricter view of the tactics employed by Colin Cowdrey and Peter May at Edgbaston in 1957 (when their deliberate pad-play stretched the old lbw law to its very limit), history may well have emerged with a kinder verdict on Goddard’s leadership. Beyond all this, of course, too many cricket fans - even in the West Indies - still remain in ignorance of John Goddard’s true worth as a player. Too few people are aware that he was the leading batsman in Barbados between the retirement of George Challenor and the emergence of ‘the Three Terrible Ws’. Too few people know that he was among the first half-dozen of all West Indians to exceed 2,000 runs in regional competition. Nor is it well enough known that, in purely statistical terms, Goddard was one of the most successful all-rounders ever to represent Barbados. A powerful statement to this effect is therefore long overdue. 4