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LEARI E CONSTANTINE :
THE LORD OF TRINIDAD
BY PETER WYNNE-THOMAS Thoughts of West Indies
cricket immediately provoke memories of Garry Sobers,
or the formidable battery of fast bowlers – Marshall,
Roberts, Hall and Garner – or for older readers the 3
Ws – Walcott, Weekes and Worrell – or again ‘those
little pals of mine’ – Ramadhin and Valentine, but Lord
Constantine, who’s he?
It might seem impossible, but in the great scheme of
things the achievements in Constantine’s career in fact
dwarf those of the very greats I have just listed. No
other professional West Indies cricketer ended his days
in the House of Lord’s.
Learie Constantine can justifiably be bracketed with
Garry Sobers as an all-rounder, astounding as a
batsman, a bowler and considered by his
contemporaries as the greatest of all fielders, either
close in or away from the bat. That shrewd observer of
cricket and cricketers in the inter-war period,
Robertson-Glasgow made the comment, after having
described Constantine’s all-round skills, by simply
saying that West Indies had lost a brilliant wicket-keeper.
After a handful of first-class matches, Constantine was
selected as a member of the first post-WWI West Indies
tour to England and was an integral member of the
three subsequent inter-war West Indies trips, as well as
the first visit from the Caribbean to Australia, where
his incredible catch achieved after a backward
somersault took those Down Under by surprise and was
a talking point for years afterwards.
He achieved little on his first appearance at Trent
Bridge on the 1923 West Indies tour – at that time
West Indies were not considered good enough to
qualify as a Test playing ‘country’. On their second post
war tour of 1928 the team were granted Test Match
status for the first time, but only three Tests each of
three days – they lost all three by an innings.
Constantine was their one outstanding player, scoring
most runs and taking most wickets, easily the leading
bowler with 107 wickets and second in the batting with
1381 runs.
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MICK NEWELL
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Hi s tor i ca l Impor tance