Calypso Kings West Indies came into big cricket in 1950

By A. C. De Silva

FLASHBACK: Until the year 1950, England and Australia hardly took the West Indies as a serious member of the Test cricket fraternity. The West Indies have achieved some impressive results on their home wickets, but usually against under strength touring sides, but this was it.

The West Indies had a triumphal tour of England in 1950 and the emergence of the spin twins "those little pals of mine, Ramadhin and Valentine".

The famous "three W's" "by which Frank Worrell, Everton Weekes and Clyde Walcott came to be known. The fact that the three - that's Worrell, Weekes and Walcott ahd all been born on the same island within eighteen months of one another and it was enough to start the pens flashing and typewriters hammering.

The 1950 tour was, the greatest triumph yet for West Indies cricket. On the face on it, the 1950 tourists from the Caribbean surprised the cricketing world with their fine performances. The batting line-up was strong, with Allan Rae and Jeffrey Stollmeyer - a reliable opening pair and the "Three W's - Frank Worrell, Clive Walcott and Everton Weekes, providing a powerful and stylish middle-order. Then there were the newcomers - the untried 20-year-olds Sonny Ramadhin and Alf Valentine.

Ramadhin - Valentine formidable pair

The first Test at Old Trafford, however, revealed Ramadhin and Valentine to be a formidable spin pair. They took 15 wickets between them. In their first test at Old, Trafford, they took 15 wickets between them, Valentine taking 8 for 104 in his first Test innings as a bowler. Although England won the match none of their batsmen played the spinners comfortably and the home side faced the second Test at Lord's without any great confidence.

The West Indies, by contrast, were in high spirits, evidently enjoying their cricket, and encouraged by their supporters.

Batting first, the West Indians opened the Lord's Test comfortably, getting to 233 before their third fell; a century from Rae archored the winning and Weekes hit an entertaining 63. But the bowling of Alex Bedser and spinners 'Roley' Jenkins and Johnny Wardle eventually restricted the visitors to a modest total of 326.

As the England openers Hutton and Cyril Washbrook carefully advanced the score past 60 on the morning of the second day, an even contest looked in prospect.

Then, in quick succession, the two batsmen were dismissed by the West Indian spinners, both stumped, and the England innings disintegrated.

Pitch - limited help

Ramadhin and Valentine had only limited help from the pitch, which was taking some spin, but slowly. Yet the England batsmen could make nothing of them.

Valentine's slow left-arm deliveries, sent on their way with a sharp tweak of the fingers and flew down on to a perfect length, forced the batsman to choose between an ultimately doomed blocking defence or a perilous advance down the wicket that had already been the downfall of Hutton.

The diminutive Ramadhin, only 5 feet 4 inches tall, was bowling quickish right-arm off-breaks interspersed with finger-spun leg-breaks, on an equally impeccable line and length.

None of the English batsmen could read which way the ball was spun until it broke off the pitch. This uncertainly fatally undermined their confidence to play strokes.

Bill Edrich, one of the most experienced players in the England side, batted one and a quarter hours for eight runs; Doggart and Parkhouse were dismissed for ducks.

England were 122-9 before Wardle re-stored a measure of sanity with hard-hitting 33 not out. Still the first innings' deficit was 175 and the moral calamity for England's batsmen overwhelming. Ramadhin had taken 5-66 in 43 overs, Valentine 4-48 in 45 overs.

That the wicket was not a difficult one for batting the West Indies soon admirably proved. Disdaining to enforce the follow-on, they scored 425 before daclaring with six wickets down. The innings was distinguished by a commanding 168 not out from Walcott, driving and sweeping with all the power of his giant 6 foot inch frame.

His partnership of 211 with Gerry Gomez put the match beyond England's reach. It remained for Ramadhin and Valentine to win it.

England had 11 hours to survive and at first it seemed they might manage it.

Hutton was bowled playing no stroke to an arm-ball from Valentine that hit his middle stump, but Washbrook batted admirably and found support from Gilbert Parkhouse, who was playing in his first Test.

Only three wickets had fallen by the last over of the fourth day, when Park-house, startled by a rare full-toss from Valentine, hit it straight into the hands of Goddard at silly mid-off.

The following morning Washbrook was yorked by a delivery from Ramadhin that deceived him in the flight and England's last chance of escaping defeat vanished.

The West Indies eventually won by a margin of 326 runs; it was, in the words of E.W. Swanton, 'victory thorough, unarguable, overwhelming.'

As the last wicket fell, the playing area was invaded by dancing, singing West Indian supporters headed by a calypso band-uninhibited scenes that were mildly shocking in an era before the pitch invasion had become a ritual climax to any exciting match.

The West Indian victory owed everything to the pair celebrated in a famous calypso as "Those two little pals of mine, Ramadhin and Valentine.' Ramadhin ended with a match analysis of 11-152; Valentine's figures were 7-127.

An even more remarkable evidence of their ascendancy over the batsmen is provided by the scoring rate of the marathon spells they bowled.

Ramadhin delivered 115 overs in the match including 70 maidens, for an average cost of only 1 runs an over.

Valentine's accuracy was even more remarkable' 75 out of his 116 overs were maidens. The West Indies had arrived as a major force in cricket.