The finest inter-war batsman

QUITE A few batsmen have had the honour, or the embarrassment, of being compared with actually the incomparable Don Bradman. But only one of them could approach the Australian, both in deeds and greatness. Even the Don was impressed by him.

So brilliant was his batsmanship and so stupendous his scoring feats that he was dubbed the ``Black Bradman'' as he hailed from the stunningly exotic Caribbean islands. Why, his over- enthusiastic fans even responded by calling Bradman the ``White Headley'' - a cricketing sin, perhaps, but certainly not bordering on blasphemy.

George Alphonso Headley, whose 17th death anniversary will be observed on November 30, was a legend in his own right. He was the first of the truly great black batsmen to emerge from the West Indies, always playing Test cricket as if he were fooling around with tiny tots in a park.

In fact, he was the only world-class batsman in his team. Unlike other star West Indian batsmen who came later, Headley had to carry a heavy burden almost throughout his Test career. So much so, the cry in West Indian cricket was: ``Headley out, all out.''

He had so often propped up the Caribbean batting that he deservedly won the nickname Atlas. Figures of 2190 runs at 60.83 (including 10 centuries) in just 22 Tests throw ample light on Headley's class as a batsman. He was at the height of his prowess when World War II robbed him of some valuable years.

When asked to compare Everton Weekes, Clyde Walcott, Frank Worrell and Garfield Sobers with Headley, a famous cricketer said: ``They could sit in the same cathedral as George, but not on the same pew.'' Not too many serious students of the game have dared to disagree with this profound statement of truth.

Headley had three cardinal qualities that make a master bat: he saw the ball early, he was quick on his feet, he was quick with his willow. Ease, poise and balance, Headley had them all. ``He is of that type which uses a bat as if it is an extension of the arm,'' remarked C. L. R. James.

In fact, Headley once confided to James that from the time he began to play cricket, he saw every ball bowled come out of the bowler's hand. He added that if he did not see it out of the bowler's hand he would be at a loss how to play.

A superb backfoot player, Headley always went by his instincts and attacked the bowlers with real disdain. He had all the strokes in his repertoire but he relished cutting, driving and hooking. He had mastered every aspect of batting and it is anybody's guess what he would not have achieved if he had not to perform constantly under pressure.

He never bothered who bowled at him: right hand, left hand, new ball, old ball, slow, fast - all were the same. There was no better batsman than Headley on bad wickets, not even Bradman. A comparative study of their performances on wet and uncertain pitches make it abundantly clear.

Headley just loved batting on such tracks. His reason was indicative of the burden he carried: ``On a bad wicket it is you and the bowler. If he pitches up, you have to drive. If he pitches short, you have to turn and hook. No nonsense.''

While Len Hutton, who saw Headley at his mercurial best in 1939, declared he had never seen a batsman play the ball that late, Clarrie Grimmett, no less, described Headley as the strongest onside player he had ever bowled against. Please note: Hutton and Grimmett were not given to hyperboles.

The duel between Headley and Grimmett was legendary. Initially he failed to score too many runs against Grimmett down under. ``I've to make a century against Grimmett,'' he told his friend St. Hill. He did make one in the third Test of the 1930-31 series. ``Satisfied?'' asked his friend. ``Not yet, I've to master him now,'' replied Headley.

So, in the fifth Test he made another hundred in a little over two hours, playing so brilliantly that even Bradman, Alan Kippax and the rest joined in spontaneous applause. ``Satisfied now?'' asked St. Hill. ``Yes, yes,'' said Headley with a touching modesty, one of his virtues as a human being.

Headley was simply magnificent but it galled him that he had had to treat Grimmett with some respect. It is the genuine artistic instinct faithful to an inner ideal. Just for record, Grimmett was an outstanding slow leg-break bowler, having claimed 216 wickets at 24.21 in only 37 Tests.

Born in Panama on May 30, 1909, Headley was taken to Jamaica at the age of 10 to ``perfect'' his English - Spanish had been his first tongue - and to prepare to study dentistry in America. He had fallen in love with cricket at school although he had never thought of becoming an international cricketer even in his wildest of dreams.

But Headley might still have been lost to the game had there not been a delay in getting his passport for the United States. While he was waiting, Headley was chosen to play against a visiting English team captained by the Hon. Lionel Tennyson in 1927-28. He was not yet 19. But he did not show any sign of nervousness a teen-ager does when pitted against a foreign side and scored 78 and 211 in two matches for Jamaica.

The whole English party was impressed but not the West Indian selectors who thought Headley was too young to be picked for the 1928 tour of England immediately afterwards. But in the home series against England in 1929-30, Headley did make his Test debut in a grand manner (21 and 176) and went on to dominate the rubber.

His scores included 21 and 176 in the first Test at Bridgetown, 114 and 112 in the third at Georgetown (the first ever Test victory for West Indies) and 223 in the fourth at Kingston after the hosts were set 836 runs to win. He ended up with 703 runs in eight innings, averaging 87.80.

In Australia in 1930-31, he scored two more Test centuries and ended the tour with 1066 runs. His 102 in the second Test at Sydney was particularly impressive in that he was still unconquered when the team was bowled out for a paltry 193.

In a single month in 1932 he hit 344 not out (his highest score ever), 84, 155 not out and 140 against another English side, led by Lord Tennyson, to visit Jamaica. It was a sensational time. While Bradman had been conquering new heights in his own ruthless way, Headley was certainly not far behind.

Against sterner opposition and in more difficult conditions in England in the following year, Headley averaged 66.28 while making 2320 runs, including seven centuries with one on his first appearance at Lord's. In the second Test at Old Trafford, he scored an unbeaten 169, a score he improved upon with 270 not out at Kingston in the 1934-35 series.

Headley was the first to score a century in each innings of a Test at Lord's, in 1939, and it was a measure of his ability that from 1929 to 1939 he did not have a single bad Test series. By the start of World War II he had totalled 9532 runs at 72.21 in first-class cricket.

Afterwards, though not the juggernaut that he had been, Headley extended his aggregate to 9921 runs at 69.33, including 33 three- figure knocks. He was a member of the formidable West Indies team that toured India in 1948-49 but missed most of the tour through injury after playing in the first Test at Delhi. He was last seen in the heavyweight division of cricket at Kingston against England in 1953-54 when he was 44 years and 236 days old.

Through his cricket, which was all sunshine and lustre, Headley had done enough to enhance the image of West Indian cricket in its salad days. As `Wisden' noted, ``His contribution to the strength and power of modern West Indies team cannot be exaggerated.''

Although his batsmanship was all but scientific, Headley's whole approach to batting was scientific, albeit based on a solid impulsive force. As Peter Roebuck said, Headley studied batting and worked to correct his faults with a fierce determination and with an intense concentration he kept largely to himself.

Analytical and intelligent, he would go to his hotel room at night and think about his innings the next day. He never left anything to chance. His success rate was amazing. At every level of the game he scored an avalanche of runs with a spark and style few of any age have matched.

Importantly, Headley's enormous success was a vindication of the whole black race. It was in the fitness of things that he was invariably a thorn in England's flesh. In the first post-war Test at Bridgetown against England he was appointed captain.

Of course, Headley led the West Indies in that one Test only but by doing so he became the first black cricketer to captain the West Indies when the national captaincy was monopolised by the whites. So much so, the erudite James had to wage a long campaign to get a non-white to the captaincy of the West Indies cricket team. Worrell, of course, became the first black man to captain the West Indies on a tour. But not before 1960.

Headley, who knew the art of batting inside out, coached on behalf of the Government of Jamaica. Headley's father had helped build the famous Canal in Panama. Headley's son Ron played two Tests against England in England in 1973. Headley's grandson Dean Headley has already made a mark for England as a paceman.

An MBE, Headley had, according to Neville Cardus, good claims to be considered, ``on all wickets'', the finest inter-war batsman. And that particular period, consisted of, among others, Wally Hammond and Stan McCabe.

The final word on Headley should come from James. ``I believe that every great batsman is a special organism; it must be so, for they are very rare, as rare as great violinists - I doubt if I have known more than a dozen,'' said the Marxist cricket writer and historian.

HARESH PANDYA

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