Rowe, scored double century in first innings and 100 not out in second

by A.C. de Silva

A STAR BATSMAN: Lawrence George Rowe (born 8 January 1949) is a former West Indian cricketer. He was a star batsman in the West Indies line-up and was born on 8th January 1949.

Lawrence, also known as "Yagga", was an elegant right-handed batsman described by Michael Holding, his teammate, as "the best batsman I ever saw". It was felt that his ability was so extraordinary that Sobers believed he could have been the greatest of all West Indian batsmen. At one game Rowe hit a ball so cleanly that it followed a level trajectory like a guided missile over the boundary for six. Gideon Haigh describes the incident:

Early in his innings against England at Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados, in March 1974, he received a bouncer from Bob Willis. He smashed it flat into the stand at squareleg; it travelled most of the way at head height.

He made his debut for Jamaica in 1968-69. He then made history on his Test match debut v New Zealand at Kingston 1972 scoring 214 and 100 not out, the first time that a cricketer had scored a double and single century on Test debut. It also gave him a batting average of 314 after his first Test match.

In 1974 v England he scored 302 at Kensington Oval in Barbados.

On his arrival in Australia for the 1975-76 tour Rowe was being hailed as the best batsman in the world. A century in his second Test innings in Australia maintained his average at over 70 runs per innings and it seemed to confirm his reputation. The team were humiliated by the Australian side over the rest of the series and Rowe never regained his previously devastating form.

Rowe - West Indies bating hero

Rowe was a West Indies batting "hero" in the days before Viv Richards. He played 30 Test matches scoring a total of 2,047 runs at an average of 43.

He was known to whistle while he batted though he seemed to be injury prone; he suffered problems with his eyesight and was allergic to grass.

He played 30 Tests between 1972 and 1980 and played 11 One Day Internationals. Rowe played for Derbyshire in the English County Championship and also joined World Series Cricket, where he scored 175 in one match for the WSC West Indies XI. He is one of only four West Indian batsman to have scored a triple century, the others being Garfield Sobers, Chris Gayle and Brian Lara.

This was a West Indian batsman for the West Indies. More than that, Lawrence Rowe was a hometown boy: at Sabina Park, four Tests brought him three centuries, including a unique double and single hundred on debut, and an average of 113.40. In the rest of the Caribbean he averaged 43, and less than 30 abroad.

Elegant right-hander

He was an enigmatic, elegant, composed right-hander, opening or high in the order.

He thrived on sunshine, and the back-foot shots that were the staple on hard pitches and less comfortable on slower seaming surfaces. His hooking and pulling was instinctive and deadly. But his career was punctuated by problems with his eyesight, a variety of injuries and, perversely, an allergy to grass.

If Lawrence sneezed, they said, put the opposition in. He might not have been one of the supreme batsmen, but he did manage one of the great innings. Against England at Bridgetown in 1974 he made 302 out of 596 for 8, in a little over ten hours of unruffled technical excellence.