Famous Cricketers No 94 - Alfred Lewis Valentine

Valentine. When he bowled Jim Laker at Georgetown in the third Test, he had achieved his 100th Test wicket at the age of 23 years, 302 days. It had taken him only 19 Tests to achieve this milestone, which no other West Indian bowler had previously been able to reach. Valentine’s slump continued in 1955 when Australia visited the West Indies for the first time and swept all before them, winning 5 of their 9 first-class matches and losing none. They won the Test series 3-0, scoring bushels of runs on the easy-paced strips then prevalent throughout the Caribbean. Valentine played in only 3 Tests and suffered grievously. His 5 wickets came at the exorbitant cost of 349 runs from 140 overs. His career average spiralled to 29.26 runs for each of his 105 Test wickets. After the tour of 1950, in the unusual and protracted absence of quality fast bowlers, the West Indies had come to depend more and more on the wizardry of Ramadhin and Valentine. When these spinners failed so signally against Australia in 1955, their crushing defeat could not be avoided. In 1955/56, Valentine was a member of the first West Indian team to undertake an extended tour of New Zealand. He played 6 first-class matches during this campaign, capturing 23 wickets at less than 20 runs apiece. In the 4 Tests, he took 15 wickets for 283 runs from 201.4 very steady overs and made a huge contribution to the 3-1 result which the West Indies achieved in the series. He returned the remarkable analysis of 22.4/11/32/5 when he helped Collie Smith (4/75) to dismiss New Zealand for 164 in their second innings at Christchurch. The tour of England in 1957, in which the West Indies came to grief in the Test series, was a disastrous one for Valentine personally. Beset by illness and injury, he participated in only 16 first-class matches and played in only two Tests. He was totally innocuous in those two games, conceding 88 runs from 26 overs and taking no wickets at all. Slightly more effective against the counties, he finished the tour with 60 wickets at less than 20 runs each. He showed glimpses of his best form against Sussex, taking 10/150 in 59.5 overs at Hove. This apparently won him a berth in the Test XI that faced England at Lord’s. But he was then so hopelessly out of sorts that the captain offered him only 3 overs while England were scoring 424 runs in their only innings. Even so, in mid-August, Valentine continued his mastery over Leicestershire’s batsmen by dismissing 8 of them for 40 runs in 27. 4 overs when they collapsed for 75 & 74 and lost by an innings and 212 runs. When Pakistan paid their first visit to the West Indies in 1957/58, Valentine was selected for the first Test at Bridgetown. He suffered, as did others, during that marathon innings which saw Hanif Mohammad (337) occupy the crease for more than 16 hours. Val’s three wickets came at a very high price (124 runs) and he was summarily discarded for the remainder of the series. His bowling was so unimpressive during the rest of the decade that he was not chosen for the tour of the sub-continent in 1958/59 or for any of the Tests against England in 1959/60. His first-class career appeared to be over. Bowling for Jamaica against the MCC tourists in February 1960, he lent considerable credence to that view when he could capture only two wickets for 108 runs from 44 overs. Frank Worrell, however, did not lose faith in Valentine’s ability. When he was appointed captain of the West Indies in 1960, he did everything he could to rehabilitate the Jamaican spinner. He insisted on taking Valentine with his team to Australia in the winter of 1960/61 and to England again in 1963. Valentine responded by claiming 39 wickets (av: 28.87) in 11 matches during that memorable Australian tour. He played in all five Tests, finishing with 14 wickets at just over 38 runs each. At Sydney in January, in the one Test which the West Indies won, he made a vital contribution, taking 8/153 in 49.4 eight-ball overs. He (4/86) and Gibbs (5/66) were responsible for Australia’s collapse for 241 in their second innings when chasing 464 for victory. Valentine had great difficulty maintaining his position in the Test XI when India visited the Caribbean again in 1961/62. He ruined his chances by bowling poorly against Barbados, in a 7