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

tended to treat himself in the same way as a bowler. He seldom bowled for long spells while playing for the West Indies. He placed far greater faith in the talents of Ramadhin, Valentine and others. But, as a bowler, his contributions to victory in at least three memorable Tests were enormous. He was one of the primary stars at Georgetown (6/74) in March 1948, at The Oval (5/36) in August 1950 and at Adelaide (3/43) in December 1951. Goddard’s statistics on behalf of Barbados, when he played most often under the captaincy of Tom Pierce, provide a much more accurate gauge of his enormous cricketing skills and deserve more careful analysis than they have hitherto attracted. In 32 matches for his native country, Goddard registered 2,102 runs (ave 52.55), 51 wickets (ave 26.98) and 27 catches. These are among the very best achieved by any Barbadian. In fact, only the statistics of Sobers and Worrell, among the long list of celebrated Barbadian all-rounders, are clearly superior to Goddard’s. His achievements would obviously have been much greater still had he blossomed at another time and in another place. It is useful to remember that he played for Barbados before the inception of regular annual territorial competition. His 32 matches actually stood for some years as the local record before it was equalled by Weekes in February 1964. The previous best was 30 by the great H.B.G.Austin, one of the founders of the West Indian Cricket Board of Control (WICBC) and generally considered the father of modern West Indies cricket. When Goddard reached his 2,000th run for Barbados (during his splendid innings of 77 not out against the touring Australians in 1955), he was (after Walcott) only the second batsman to achieve this feat. Goddard’s 51 wickets may not look impressive by today’s standards, but they left him in sixth place when he retired. For Barbados, only Clifford Goodman (117), E.A.V. ‘Foffie’ Williams (89), Herman Griffith (87), Percy Goodman (77), and Norman Marshall (70) had taken more wickets. Goddard had the misfortune to reach full bloom between 1942 and 1947 when too little first-class cricket was being played anywhere. In that short span, however, he gave more than an inkling of what he was capable of producing had his opportunities been more plentiful. In that purple patch, his record reads: 16 matches, 28 innings, 5 not outs, 1,495 runs, average 65.00, 5 hundreds, and 6 half-centuries. In only four of these matches did he fail to produce an innings worth 40 runs at least. It is as a captain of the West Indies that John Goddard will always be remembered. He played in 27 Tests and served as captain in 22 of them and player/manager in 3. At this level, he scored 859 runs for the West Indies and averaged 30.68 per innings. He also captured 33 wickets at 31.82 runs apiece and held 22 catches. While losing one series to England and another to Australia, his teams won twice against England and once against India. His final record as a skipper was consequently quite respectable, despite the criticisms so often levelled against him. Even one of his admirers, Ronnie Hughes, in 100 Years of Organised Cricket in Barbados 1892-1992 , thought that, as a captain, Goddard’s major “weakness lay in his lack of tactical skills”. This may well be true. But the same critics who had cause to lament his overuse of Ramadhin and Valentine in Australia in 1951/52 and of Ramadhin in England in 1957 were more laudatory in their comments when the same overused spinners were leading West Indies to victory in 1950. Goddard’s overall record as a captain reads: 8 wins, 7 defeats and 7 draws. Many another leader, after facing good teams in England and Australia, would have been happy with such results. Goddard’s record, too, might have looked much more impressive had he not run foul of the WICBC in 1952. He had had the temerity to complain about the unfortunate itinerary with which his team was saddled during the Australian tour. He made the very good point that it was sheer arrogance to agree to meet the Australians in the first Test on their own turf after but a solitary first-class game and before the tourists had become fully acclimatized. But in those days the WICBC brooked no criticisms. Just as it had bluntly and summarily rejected Worrell’s request for a more reasonable contract to tour India in 1948/49, it now banished Goddard from the Test arena for the next three or four years while the West Indies were playing 15 Tests at home. He might well have produced a better record had he been given the opportunity to oppose India in 1952/53 and England in 1953/54 in the Caribbean. But he 7