Last white captain of the West Indies Test cricket team
David Frith
guardian.co.uk, Monday 30 May 2011 18.26 BST
Article history
Gerry Alexander
Gerry Alexander, right, with Clyde Walcott. England batsman Tom Graveney is making a run during the final Test between England and the West Indies at the Oval in 1957. Photograph: Central Press/Hulton Archive
Gerry Alexander, who has died aged 82, was the last white man to captain the West Indies in Test cricket. He also earned lasting fame as a key player in cricket's thrilling first tied Test match. At the Gabba ground, Brisbane, in December 1960, Australia were moving to victory on the fifth afternoon when a late clatter of wickets led to a chaotic climax, with the West Indies captain Frank Worrell working hard to maintain calm in the field.
Three of the last four batsmen were run out, and Alexander, the West Indies' wicketkeeper, was in the thick of the action. First, he caught Richie Benaud off an attempted hook against Wes Hall, the fast bowler, who finished with five for 63. Then, with the low and blinding evening sun behind the fieldsman's arm, Alexander showed rare skill in gathering a long throw from Conrad Hunte and breaking the stumps to run out Wally Grout. Joe Solomon's direct hit to run out Ian Meckiff now sealed the tie, although for a minute or so confusion was rife, some thinking that the West Indies might even have won.
The tie set up a memorable summer which helped drag Test cricket out of the doldrums. At the end of the series, won 2-1 by Australia, the West Indians were accorded a ticker-tape motorcade through Melbourne, and people everywhere were talking about cricket again. The grace and charm of Worrell, the first black West Indian to lead the team on tour, together with an attractive batting lineup including Garry Sobers, Rohan Kanhai, Hunte and Solomon, and with fast and spin bowling in fine balance, left a lasting impression.
Alexander, who had captained the West Indies in 18 of his previous 20 Tests before Worrell succeeded him, held 16 catches in this series, and in the third Test, at Sydney, scored his only Test (or first-class) hundred, a pugnacious effort which pushed Australia's eventual target out of reach. Alexander topped the Test batting averages with 484 runs at 60.50, having passed 50 in every Test. He then left international cricket after 25 consecutive Tests to concentrate on his career as a veterinary surgeon.
Alexander was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and educated there, at Wolmer's boys' school. He enrolled at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and earned cricket and football blues, also winning an FA Amateur Cup medal playing for the Pegasus team – composed of Oxford and Cambridge students – in 1953. He played cricket for Cambridgeshire in 1954 and 1955. Having returned to the Caribbean, he was chosen for the West Indies' 1957 tour of England, partly because of his local knowledge. It was a miserable tour for the team, captained by John Goddard. Three Tests were lost by an innings. And Alexander's two Tests were disappointing. Taking over the gloves from Kanhai, he struggled to handle mystery spinner Sonny Ramadhin, and made two ducks at the Oval.
Within weeks, in Worrell's absence through university studies, Alexander was leading the West Indies at home in their first-ever series against Pakistan, a memorable contest of prolific runmaking – Hanif Mohammad's 337 in almost 17 hours, Sobers's world record 365 not out, and many other centuries – Alexander's side emerging 3-1 winners. Less than a year later, he led them to India for another winning series which was remembered more for his sending home of the wild-natured fast bowler Roy Gilchrist, a fellow Jamaican, on disciplinary grounds (he had ignored his captain's warning not to bowl full-pitchers at batsmen's heads and threatened him with a knife) than for Alexander's skilful 70 against the brilliant Subhash Gupte at Kanpur.
The three-Test series in Pakistan went less well. The West Indies lost two before winning by an innings at Lahore, where Alexander gave the gloves to Kanhai in the second innings and held three catches in the field. His last Tests as the West Indies captain were in a home series against England in early 1960. He began by holding five catches in an innings at Bridgetown, a West Indies record, on his way to a then-record total of 23 in the series. In Trinidad, the next Test was marred by bottle-throwing and England went on to win; and the rest of a sometimes bad-tempered series served up unfinished encounters. The best of Alexander was still to come, in that fabulous 1960-61 encounter in Australia.
After cricket, he rose to be chief veterinary officer in Jamaica and worked also for the Inter-American Institute for Co-operation in Agriculture. In 1982 the Jamaican government awarded him the Order of Distinction. "He was a truly wonderful man," said Sobers, with whom he had shared many a Test match battle. "His heart and soul were in West Indies cricket."
Alexander's sister, Dorothy, was married to Professor John Figueroa, the eminent Caribbean poet. Alexander, whose wife Barbara died four weeks before him, is survived by two children.
• Franz Copeland Murray "Gerry" Alexander, cricketer, born 2 November 1928; died 16 April 2011
David Frith
guardian.co.uk, Monday 30 May 2011 18.26 BST
Article history
Gerry Alexander
Gerry Alexander, right, with Clyde Walcott. England batsman Tom Graveney is making a run during the final Test between England and the West Indies at the Oval in 1957. Photograph: Central Press/Hulton Archive
Gerry Alexander, who has died aged 82, was the last white man to captain the West Indies in Test cricket. He also earned lasting fame as a key player in cricket's thrilling first tied Test match. At the Gabba ground, Brisbane, in December 1960, Australia were moving to victory on the fifth afternoon when a late clatter of wickets led to a chaotic climax, with the West Indies captain Frank Worrell working hard to maintain calm in the field.
Three of the last four batsmen were run out, and Alexander, the West Indies' wicketkeeper, was in the thick of the action. First, he caught Richie Benaud off an attempted hook against Wes Hall, the fast bowler, who finished with five for 63. Then, with the low and blinding evening sun behind the fieldsman's arm, Alexander showed rare skill in gathering a long throw from Conrad Hunte and breaking the stumps to run out Wally Grout. Joe Solomon's direct hit to run out Ian Meckiff now sealed the tie, although for a minute or so confusion was rife, some thinking that the West Indies might even have won.
The tie set up a memorable summer which helped drag Test cricket out of the doldrums. At the end of the series, won 2-1 by Australia, the West Indians were accorded a ticker-tape motorcade through Melbourne, and people everywhere were talking about cricket again. The grace and charm of Worrell, the first black West Indian to lead the team on tour, together with an attractive batting lineup including Garry Sobers, Rohan Kanhai, Hunte and Solomon, and with fast and spin bowling in fine balance, left a lasting impression.
Alexander, who had captained the West Indies in 18 of his previous 20 Tests before Worrell succeeded him, held 16 catches in this series, and in the third Test, at Sydney, scored his only Test (or first-class) hundred, a pugnacious effort which pushed Australia's eventual target out of reach. Alexander topped the Test batting averages with 484 runs at 60.50, having passed 50 in every Test. He then left international cricket after 25 consecutive Tests to concentrate on his career as a veterinary surgeon.
Alexander was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and educated there, at Wolmer's boys' school. He enrolled at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and earned cricket and football blues, also winning an FA Amateur Cup medal playing for the Pegasus team – composed of Oxford and Cambridge students – in 1953. He played cricket for Cambridgeshire in 1954 and 1955. Having returned to the Caribbean, he was chosen for the West Indies' 1957 tour of England, partly because of his local knowledge. It was a miserable tour for the team, captained by John Goddard. Three Tests were lost by an innings. And Alexander's two Tests were disappointing. Taking over the gloves from Kanhai, he struggled to handle mystery spinner Sonny Ramadhin, and made two ducks at the Oval.
Within weeks, in Worrell's absence through university studies, Alexander was leading the West Indies at home in their first-ever series against Pakistan, a memorable contest of prolific runmaking – Hanif Mohammad's 337 in almost 17 hours, Sobers's world record 365 not out, and many other centuries – Alexander's side emerging 3-1 winners. Less than a year later, he led them to India for another winning series which was remembered more for his sending home of the wild-natured fast bowler Roy Gilchrist, a fellow Jamaican, on disciplinary grounds (he had ignored his captain's warning not to bowl full-pitchers at batsmen's heads and threatened him with a knife) than for Alexander's skilful 70 against the brilliant Subhash Gupte at Kanpur.
The three-Test series in Pakistan went less well. The West Indies lost two before winning by an innings at Lahore, where Alexander gave the gloves to Kanhai in the second innings and held three catches in the field. His last Tests as the West Indies captain were in a home series against England in early 1960. He began by holding five catches in an innings at Bridgetown, a West Indies record, on his way to a then-record total of 23 in the series. In Trinidad, the next Test was marred by bottle-throwing and England went on to win; and the rest of a sometimes bad-tempered series served up unfinished encounters. The best of Alexander was still to come, in that fabulous 1960-61 encounter in Australia.
After cricket, he rose to be chief veterinary officer in Jamaica and worked also for the Inter-American Institute for Co-operation in Agriculture. In 1982 the Jamaican government awarded him the Order of Distinction. "He was a truly wonderful man," said Sobers, with whom he had shared many a Test match battle. "His heart and soul were in West Indies cricket."
Alexander's sister, Dorothy, was married to Professor John Figueroa, the eminent Caribbean poet. Alexander, whose wife Barbara died four weeks before him, is survived by two children.
• Franz Copeland Murray "Gerry" Alexander, cricketer, born 2 November 1928; died 16 April 2011