George Headley
Encyclopedia
George Alphonso Headley (30 May 1909 – 30 November 1983) was a West Indian cricket
er who played 22 Test matches
, mostly before the Second World War. Considered one of the best batsmen to play for West Indies and one of the greatest cricketers of all time, Headley also represented Jamaica
and played professional club cricket in England. West Indies had a weak cricket team through most of Headley's playing career; as their one world-class player, he carried a heavy responsibility and the side depended on his batting. He batted at number three, scoring 2,190 runs
in Tests at an average of 60.83, and 9,921 runs in all first-class matches at an average of 69.86. He was chosen as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year
in 1933.
Headley was born in Panama
but raised in Jamaica where he quickly established a cricketing reputation as a batsman. He soon gained his place in the Jamaican cricket team, and narrowly missed selection for the West Indies tour of England in 1928. He made his Test debut in 1930, against England in Barbados
, and was instantly successful. Further successes followed in series against Australia and in three more against England, as Headley dominated the West Indian batting of the period. Following his tour of England in 1933, Headley signed as a professional at Haslingden
in the Lancashire League, where he played until the outbreak of war in 1939.
The war interrupted Headley's career; although he returned to Tests in 1948 he was hampered by injuries and did not achieve his previous levels of success. Even so, he was chosen as West Indies captain in 1948 against England, the first black player to be appointed to the position, although a combination of injuries and politics meant he only led his team for one Test match. He did not play Tests between 1949 and 1953, but resumed his career in English league cricket, first in Lancashire and later in the Birmingham League. His playing career ended in 1954 on his return to Jamaica, after a public subscription paid his fare from England. After retiring as a player, Headley was employed as a cricket coach by the Jamaican government until 1962. He lived until 1983; his son Ron
and his grandson Dean
each played Test match cricket, for West Indies and England respectively.
on 30 May 1909, the son of DeCourcy Headley and Irene Roberts. Neither of Headley's parents was from Panama; his father was from Barbados and his mother from Jamaica, but they had moved to Panama while DeCourcey worked on the construction of the Panama Canal
. By the time Headley was five years old the Canal was complete, and the family moved to Cuba in search of further employment. In 1919, concerned by the amount of Spanish being spoken by her son, Headley's mother took him to Jamaica so he could be educated in an English-speaking school.
Headley moved in with his mother's sister-in-law Mrs Clarence Smith, in Rae Town, Kingston
, and remained with her until her death in 1933. His mother returned to Cuba, but regularly exchanged letters with her son. He attended Calabar Elementary School, where he played for the school cricket team as a wicket-keeper
, although a meagre sporting budget meant he had to do so without gloves. Later, he continued his education at Kingston High School. Taking part in all-day cricket matches at the local Crabhole Park, Headley began to attract local attention, and aged 16, he joined Raetown Cricket Club. In 1925 he scored his first century, batting at number three in the batting order
in a match for Raetown against Clovelly.
On leaving school, Headley was appointed as a temporary clerk in a magistrate's court; this enabled him to play competitive cricket for the St Andrew's Police side in 1926, in a cup competition. Some impressive performances for the club earned him an invitation to practice with the Jamaica Colts team. However, his job made it impossible to attend, and he was not considered for the Jamaican side
against Lord Tennyson
's English touring side in 1927. That year, Headley began working for Keeling–Lindo Estates, in St Catherine. The firm were enthusiastic cricket patrons, allowing employees time off to play in matches, so that Headley was able to attend practice with the Jamaica team on a regular basis. He also moved to the St Catherine Cricket Club, captained by his immediate superior in Keeling–Lindo. To generate more income, Headley took a second job, working for the Jamaica Fruit and Shipping Company, but he wanted a secure profession. To this end, he planned to move to America to pursue a career in dentistry. However, he was now on the verge of the Jamaica team and a delay in the arrival of the application forms for his American work permit allowed him to make his first-class
debut for Jamaica against another touring team led by Lord Tennyson.
on 9 February 1928, in a match won easily by the home team. Batting at number three, his first innings yielded 16 runs, but in the second innings, he scored 71, reaching fifty runs in as many minutes. In the second game against Lord Tennyson's XI which began in Kingston on 18 February, Headley scored his maiden first-class century
. Having scored 22 not out
after the first day's play, he reached 50 runs by playing very carefully but subsequently played more adventurous shots. He hit the bowling of Alan Hilder for four consecutive fours
and twice hit Lord Tennyson for three fours in a row. At one point, thirteen of his scoring shots in a row went for four. He was finally out for 211, the highest score at the time by a West Indian batsman against an English team. After the innings, Tennyson compared Headley to Victor Trumper
and Charlie Macartney, batsmen considered among the best who ever played. Headley concluded the series against Tennyson's team with innings of 40 and 71, to give him an aggregate of 409 runs at an average of 81.80. He also took his maiden first class wicket.
Following his success, Headley abandoned his prospective career in dentistry. Although some critics expected his selection for the West Indies tour of England in 1928, Headley was not chosen. While West Indies played their inaugural Test series during that tour, Headley continued to play for St Catherine's. He had another opportunity against English opposition in 1929, when a team led by Julien Cahn
arrived to play two first-class games. Jamaica's distance from other Caribbean islands made it difficult for their cricketers to gain good-quality playing experience, so the frequent visits by English sides were important to the development of Jamaican cricket. These tours also served to build Headley's reputation. In the first match, Headley played a slow, defensive innings of 57, but he did not reach fifty in his other three innings. Even so, he was chosen by the Jamaican selectors for a West Indies XI, which included players from other islands, to play Cahn's team in their final tour match. The home side lost the toss and had to bat in very difficult conditions following rain. Headley found the fast bowlers difficult, but survived the period when the pitch was most difficult to bat on before he was out for 44. In the second innings, he attacked from the start and used a wide range of shots to reach 143 before he was run out
. In three matches against the tourists, Headley scored 326 runs, averaging 54.33.
A change in the location of his job meant that Headley moved to the Lucas Cricket Club
in 1929. He visited America and played some exhibition matches for the Jamaican Athletic Club in New York, scoring a century against a touring team from Bermuda; his parents had moved to America by then, which enabled Headley to combine the cricket with his first visit to his parents in ten years.
(MCC) undertook a tour of the West Indies which included four Test matches—the first Tests to be played in the West Indies. The MCC side was not at full international strength; it included players who were either just beginning or just ending their international careers, and several star English bowlers were missing. The first Test was played in Barbados and Headley was selected, making his debut for the West Indies on 11 February 1930—to the disapproval of some Barbadians who thought his place should have gone to a local player. Batting at number three, he played aggressively in the first innings but the crowd barracked him and he was bowled for 21. However, in the second innings he scored 176, becoming the first West Indian to score a century on his Test debut and only their second centurion overall. He shared century partnerships
with both Clifford Roach
and Frank de Caires
, but these were insufficient to force victory, and the match was drawn. Headley remained in the Test side for the rest of the series, the only home player other than Roach to appear in all four Tests. In Trinidad, during the second Test, Headley found the unfamiliar conditions difficult—Trinidad was the only Test match ground in the Caribbean which was played on a pitch made from matting instead of grass. Headley scored eight and 39 as West Indies lost the match. The home side levelled the series with their first ever Test victory in the third match of the series, played in British Guiana. In this match Headley became the first West Indian, and only the fifth cricketer of any nation, to score two separate hundreds in a Test match. His first innings of 114 was played mainly in support of Roach, who scored a double century. In the second innings, Headley scored 112 as West Indies batted with a big first innings lead, attacking defensive English bowling.
While en route to the final Test in Jamaica, the West Indies team stopped in Panama and Costa Rica where official functions were held in Headley's honour. In Jamaica, where there was widespread jubilation, Headley attended several receptions and celebrations. When the cricket resumed, Headley scored 64, 72 and 55 in three innings against MCC for Jamaica. With the Test series level, it was agreed that the final match of the series would be played until one team won, regardless of how long it took—the other Tests had been limited to four days each. On the first three days, England scored 849. In reply West Indies could only manage 286, with Headley out for ten runs. England batted again, to set West Indies an evetual victory target of 836. This time, Headley batted for 390 minutes, faced 385 balls
and hit 28 fours while scoring 223. He and Karl Nunes
added 227 for the second wicket. Headley played the hook very effectively and hit many short deliveries for runs. When Headley was stumped, he had made what was at the time the fourth highest individual score in all Test cricket and the highest in a second innings. When West Indies still needed 428 runs, rain fell for two days and the match had to be abandoned after its ninth scheduled day. Headley ended the series with 703 runs at an average of 87.87.
. After a brief visit to New Zealand where they played a non-first-class match against Wellington
, the tourists arrived in Sydney. Headley made a good start to the tour and attracted praise from the press in Australia and West Indies. The first match of the Australian leg was against New South Wales
, where the West Indians were bowled out for 188 and Headley was stumped for 25. However, his runs came in less than two overs
and Learie Constantine
later rated this as one of Headley's best innings. In the second innings, Headley made 82, the top score, but could not prevent the tourists losing. The next match was also lost, as Bert Ironmonger
took thirteen wickets in the match for Victoria
. In the first innings, Headley scored 131 out of 212, regarded by one critic as one of the best centuries scored on the ground, and top-scored again with 34 in the second innings. By this stage the Australian bowlers had realised that Headley excelled when hitting the ball through the off side, and they began to alter their tactics accordingly. In the final match before the Test series began, against South Australia
, Headley had problems playing the Australian bowlers, particularly the leg spin
of Clarrie Grimmett
. The Australians bowled at Headley's leg stump with fielders concentrated on the leg side
, making it difficult for him to score runs. Headley scored 27 and 16 as his team were heavily defeated. These bowling tactics were used in subsequent matches, and Headley found difficulty in countering them.
At the beginning of the first Test, West Indies were bowled out 296 as Grimmett took seven wickets, including Headley first ball. In the second innings, with West Indies 80 behind, Grimmett again attacked Headley's leg stump. After having his scoring restricted, Headley lost patience and after scoring 11 was stumped, trying to hit Grimmett. Bowled out for 249, West Indies lost by ten wickets. After scoring only three in the following tour match against Tasmania
, Headley contributed 14 and two in an innings defeat in the second Test. After two heavy Test defeats for the tourists, some critics believed that the series was too one-sided and that some of the five Tests should be cancelled. Headley's poor run of form continued in the West Indian victory over Queensland
and, having put on weight, he was also struggling with his fitness. In an effort to overcome Australia's leg stump attack Headley had altered his batting stance; instead of standing at right angles to the bowler, he turned his body more front-on, to enable him to improve his placement of the ball on the leg side. His quick footwork enabled him to alter his position if necessary to play the ball on the off side. He also eliminated from his strokes a risky cover drive he had developed on Caribbean pitches. During the third Test at Brisbane, Headley made his first substantial contribution to the series, after Australia scored 558 batting first. Facing Grimmett's leg side tactics, Headley managed to score freely, and forced Grimmett to alter to an off stump attack. With ten fours in total, Headley became the first West Indian to score a century against Australia, and was left 102 not out when West Indies were bowled out for 193. Forced to follow-on
, West Indies were dismissed for 148 of which Headley made 28, the highest score of the innings. Ironmonger tricked him into playing the leg glance and he was caught by the wicket-keeper who had moved across in anticipation of the shot.
Headley maintained his good form in matches against Victoria and South Australia after the third Test, scoring 77 and 113 in the first match and 75 and 39 in the second. Although neither match was won, the West Indians needed to take only one more wicket to win the first match when it ended drawn, and lost the second by a single wicket. However, the fourth Test was lost by an innings as Ironmonger again caused difficulties for the West Indies batsmen. Headley top-scored with 33 out of the first innings total of 99 but made only 11 on his second attempt, being dismissed both times by Ironmonger. By now the tour was making a financial loss, forcing the tourists to take economy measures such as travelling by tram. In conversation with a member of the Australian Board of Control, Headley, Constantine and fellow tourist Tommy Scott
suggested the authorities should produce faster pitches to enable the public to see more attacking cricket. It seems this advice may have been heeded; the pitch was faster in a match against New South Wales, won by the West Indians, in which Headley scored 70 and two. In the fifth Test, West Indies won the toss and batted first, which proved an advantage in a match plagued by uncertain weather. Headley and fellow Jamaican Frank Martin
scored centuries on the first day despite bowling from the Australians which the Jamaican newspaper Daily Gleaner described as good. Headley, playing Grimmett comfortably by now, batted for 146 minutes, and hit 13 fours. In the course of the innings he achieved the rare feat in Australia of reaching 1,000 first-class runs on the tour. Grant, the West Indies captain, declared the innings closed
after rain had fallen to make the pitch more difficult for batting. Australia were then bowled out for 224, 126 runs behind West Indies. The tourists scored 124 more runs in their second innings, of which Headley made 30, before more rain fell and Grant declared for the second time in the match. Subsequently, the bowlers dismissed Australia for 220 to give West Indies their first win over Australia, although the series ended 4–1 to the home side. Headley scored 336 runs in the Test matches at an average of 37.33, and 1,066 runs at 44.41 in all first-class games.
On their return home, the West Indian players were well received by the public and officials; Headley received praise and once again attended functions arranged in his honour. In Australia Donald Bradman
, the star Australian batsman, praised Headley, particularly for the way in which he had overcome his problems against Grimmett. C. L. R. James, the writer and historian, later wrote that Headley's success demonstrated his mastery of batting. Headley arrived in Australia as a primarily off-side player which accounted for his difficulty against the Australian bowlers' tactics. However, James notes: "What he did, under fire, so to speak, was to reorganise his batting to meet the new attack." So successful was Headley that he was described by Grimmett as the best on-side batsman against whom the bowler had played.
; 236 not out after the first day's play, Headley went on to score an unbeaten 344, after batting for 407 minutes and hitting 39 fours. Jamaica totalled 702, and won the match by an innings. During his innings, Headley passed the previous highest score by any West Indian batsman, 304 not out by Percy Tarilton
in 1920, and the highest score in the West Indies by any batsman, Andy Sandham
's 325 in 1930. His partnership with Passailaigue took 248 minutes, and as of March 2011 remains a world record for the highest sixth wicket partnership in a first-class match. The success of two home batsmen led to celebrations in Jamaica and praise from the English bowlers for Headley's batting. Headley continued his success in the second game, opening the batting and top-scoring with 84 in the first innings. In the second innings, opening again, he made 155 not out to guide West Indies to their victory target of 363. In the final match, Headley scored his third century of the series after returning to number three, accumulating 140 of Jamaica's total of 561. Jamaica won the match to win the series 3–0; Headley scored 723 runs at an average of 361.50. In the remainder of the season, Headley led Lucas to victory in the Senior Cup, scoring a century in the final.
under the continuing captaincy of Jackie Grant. The English press speculated on Headley's ability to cope with English conditions, while expecting him to perform to a high standard. In the event, Wisden believed he justified the expectations and increased his reputation. In the first match of the tour he scored 52 out of a total of 129 against Northamptonshire
, in difficult batting conditions on a wet pitch
. He scored fifties in each of his next three matches before scoring a century against the MCC during his first appearance at Lord's Cricket Ground
. In the second innings of this match, a short ball from Bill Bowes
struck Headley on the chest, and as a result of this injury he missed three games, but when he returned to the team he scored 129 against Glamorgan
and 224 not out against Somerset
. A quieter match followed against Middlesex
, but Headley reached his second double century of the tour in the match against Derbyshire
, which took him past 1,000 runs for the season. Despite Headley's contributions, the West Indians won only one of these matches and subsequently lost the first Test against England by an innings. Headley scored 13 in the West Indies first innings, and his 50 was the highest score when West Indies followed-on
. Critics were impressed by Headley's second innings performance, in which he scored his runs out of 64 added while he was batting. Between the first and second Tests, in matches where conditions were difficult for batting and ideal for spin bowlers, Headley scored three fifties and achieved his side's highest score in each of four innings.
West Indies drew the second Test, avoiding defeat for the first time in a Test in England. Headley scored 169 in 375 minutes with 18 fours, sharing a partnership of 200 in 205 minutes with Ivan Barrow
—who became the first West Indian to score a Test century in England, minutes before Headley became the second. When the innings ended, Headley was still not out and the crowd gave him an excellent reception. Wisden described Headley's batting as magnificent, displaying "a ready adaptability and perfection of timing". The West Indies bowlers used Bodyline
tactics in the England innings; England's Nobby Clark
used the tactic in the West Indian second innings, in which Headley scored 24 runs. He was one of the few of his side's batsmen able to resist the bowling tactics.
After scoring an unbeaten 257 in a minor match against Norfolk, Headley scored 89 in his team's victory over Glamorgan and 182 against Warwickshire
. However, he failed in the third and final Test, scoring nine and 12 as West Indies were defeated by an innings. The tourists thus lost the series 2–0; in the three Tests Headley's aggregate was 277 runs at an average of 55.40, the best figures for the team. After the Test matches were over, Headley had an operation to remove a sebaceous cyst
from his forehead and missed several games, before returning for an end-of-season festival match in which he scored 167 against an England XI. When the tour concluded, Headley had scored 2,320 runs with seven hundreds, at an average of 66.28. This was over 1,000 runs more than any other tourist and placed him third in the English first-class batting averages for the season. Ivan Barrow believed Headley reached his batting peak during the tour. He recalled how many bowlers tried to hit his pads with the ball but Headley simply flicked the ball away. Headley's performances earned him selection as one of Wisden's Cricketers of the Year
. The accompanying article called his tour "almost a triumphant march" and described him as "the best batsman the West Indies have ever produced". Wisden editor Sydney Southerton also described him as a giant in the team and wrote: "From what we had been told by English players who had been to the West Indies, we were fully prepared for Headley's success, but even so, he astonished most of us." Headley bowled more than he had previously: prior to the tour, he had taken three first class wickets, but took 21 wickets in England at an average
of 34.33, bowling off spin
.
During the tour, Headley received news that his aunt had been killed by floods in Kingston which had also destroyed his home. Headley was greatly affected by the news, particularly the nature of her death. Although not able to attend the funeral, he wanted to leave England on an earlier ship than the rest of the team, but this could not be arranged in time.
in the Lancashire League for £500 per season, the highest of several offers. The money was far more than he was earning from working as a fruit picker in Jamaica, and after consulting the Jamaican Cricket Board, who advised him to accept, he signed with the club on 8 September 1933. There was a special provision which allowed Headley to be released to play for West Indies. Living in Haslingden where there were few, if any, other black people, Headley faced some prejudice from residents. However, he was generally welcomed and accepted. His first season was in 1934 and his first match was against Nelson
, for whom Headley's West Indian Test colleague Learie Constantine played. Headley had a difficult match. As the professional, he was expected to open the bowling although as a spinner, he would normally have bowled later in an innings. When he batted he was run out for a duck
by Constantine after facing one delivery
, and Haslingden lost the match. After this poor start, Headley scored 1,063 runs in the season at an average of 50.62, with three centuries. He changed his bowling style to medium pace and took 59 wickets at an average of 16.59. In 1935 he scored over 900 runs at an average of 61.13, and took 34 wickets; his contract was renewed for another two years. In 1936 he again scored over 900 runs, and took 54 wickets. In 1937 he broke the record for most runs scored by any player in a Lancashire League season, accumulating 1,360 at an average of 97.15, with five centuries; he also took 41 wickets. Headley's final two-year contract with the club covered the seasons 1938 and 1940, since he was expected to tour England with the West Indies team in 1939. The war prevented him playing in 1940, so his last season with Haslingden was 1938. Although in that year his overall batting performance declined, to 677 runs at an average of 37.61, he took 76 wickets at 9.70 and had success in the Worsley Cup competition, including one innings of 189 not out in a match played over five evenings.
, was stronger than English teams that had previously toured the Caribbean; despite some shortcomings, Wisden and other critics considered it strong enough for the task in hand.
The first Test in Barbados was badly affected by rain which made the pitch almost impossible to bat on. West Indies batted first and were bowled out for 102; Headley's 44 was the highest score of the match. In reply, England had scored 81 for seven when Wyatt declared in an attempt to make West Indies bat while the pitch was difficult. In the second innings, Headley was out for a duck and Jackie Grant declared when West Indies had scored 51 for six, so that England required 73 to win; they did so after losing six wickets. In the second Test, Headley scored 25 in his first innings; in the second, he adopted a cautious approach as his team led by 44, hitting 93 in 225 minutes. West Indies subsequently bowled out England to win the match and level the series. The rain-affected third Test was drawn, with Headley's 53 his side's top score.
The MCC went to Jamaica for the final leg of their tour. Headley played two matches for Jamaica against the tourists; he failed in the first game but scored 127 in the second. The teams went into the fourth and final Test with the series still level at one win apiece. West Indies batted first, facing accurate bowling. The local press criticised the West Indies batsmen for slow batting on the first day, but Headley scored 132. The Daily Gleaner noted that Headley maintained the controlled approach he had established in the season. On the second day, he took his score to 270 not out, and the Gleaner described him as "the genius we all know, scoring with all his old freedom and audacity". In total, he batted for 495 minutes and hit 30 fours, recording the highest score by a West Indian batsman. It remained a West Indian record until Garfield Sobers
scored 365 not out in 1958, and was the team's highest against England until Lawrence Rowe
scored 302 in 1974. West Indies scored 535 for seven and bowled out England twice to record their first victory in a Test series. Headley contributed 485 runs at an average of 97.00.
Headley returned to England to play for Haslingden in the 1935 English season, and played a single first-class game, scoring a century for Sir L Parkinson's XI against Leicestershire. In the 1935–36 season, the Yorkshire team toured Jamaica, playing three first-class matches, winning one and drawing the others. The touring county considered Headley the key batsman, and targeted him by bowling defensively in an attempt to frustrate him. Headley lost his wicket through impatience in the first match, although he scored a pair of fifties, but scored a century in the third game. In total, he scored 266 runs at an average of 53.20, but Yorkshire won the series after winning the first game, Jamaica's first defeat at home in a first-class game for ten years. The matches were played in a very competitive atmosphere, but scoring was slow and Yorkshire played attritional cricket. During the series, Headley demanded expenses, which were not normally granted to the players. The Jamaican Board were reluctant to pay but Headley pointed out that, as a professional cricketer, he was entitled to the same treatment as the Yorkshire players, whose expenses were provided. The Board eventually relented before the series ended.
In 1936 Headley returned to England, and played no more first-class cricket until the two trial matches for the 1939 tour of England
. These matches were played in Trinidad where it was believed the matting pitches would most closely replicate English conditions; Jamaica played Trindidad and a combination team. When Jamaica's captain, Crab Nethersole, withdrew from the tour due to political commitments, Headley led Jamaica in both matches and scored 160 and 103. Subsequently, he was chosen for his second tour of England, under the captaincy of Rolph Grant
. Headley opened his tour with fifties in his first two matches and by the time the Test series started, although the tourists had lost three matches, he had scored three centuries—103 against Cambridge University
, 116 not out in a victory over Essex
and 227 as the tourists defeated Middlesex.
In the first Test, West Indies suffered their only defeat of the series. However, Norman Preston
, the editor of Wisden, wrote: "the match provided a personal triumph for Headley", as he became only the second cricketer after Herbert Sutcliffe
to make two hundreds in the same Test match on two separate occasions, having previously done so against England in 1930. He became the first player to score two hundreds in a Lord's Test, a feat not repeated until 1990. In the first innings, Headley scored 106 with 13 fours. After sharing a big partnership with Jeff Stollmeyer
, he received little help from the other batsmen. He played cautiously during his 250-minute innings, as he was aware that his team were relying on his success. By the time West Indies batted again, England had established a lead of 127. Headley again batted defensively to score 107, taking two hours to reach 50, as West Indies needed to bat for a long time to secure a draw. However, he scored runs from any loose bowling and batted in all for 230 minutes, hitting eight fours. Preston, writing in Wisden, believed the West Indians relied too much on Headley's batting. He also noted that Headley had to play cautiously for his team and although he hit powerful shots, "he was not the same dashing batsmen that England knew in 1933". Headley had scored three centuries in consecutive Test innings, but he could not prevent England winning this first Test by eight wickets. He continued to score heavily in the tour matches, making an unbeaten 234 in an innings win over Nottinghamshire
, followed by 61 against Yorkshire on a sticky wicket
, one of the best innings Neville Cardus
had seen.
The second Test was drawn, after being badly affected by rain. Headley, although troubled by the English bowling on a difficult pitch, top-scored with 51 in West Indies' first innings but the other batsmen contributed little. Headley scored just five in West Indies' brief second innings, bringing to an end a sequence of six fifties in successive Test innings. After the Test, Headley scored 93 against Surrey but failed to reach fifty in his next three games, which included three single figure scores. West Indies needed to win the final Test to level the series and the team established a first-innings lead of 146. Headley played cautiously for 140 minutes, attempting to tire out the bowlers, but was run out for 65 in a misunderstanding with Vic Stollmeyer
. The remaining batsmen played well, attacking the English bowling. Preston believed this match demonstrated West Indies' ability to compete at the highest level. However, England were able to bat long enough to secure a draw. In the Test series, Headley scored 334 runs at an average of 66.80, but did not play again on the tour after the final Test, as the team were advised to abandon the last seven matches because of the deteriorating political situation in Europe. They arrived in Canada on the day that Britain declared war on Germany. In all first-class matches during the tour, Headley scored 1,745 runs at 72.70, placing him at the top of the season's first-class averages.
Wisden judged Headley to be the best batsman of the 1939 season, while other critics rated him among the best batsmen in the world, with favourable comparisons to Bradman. C. B. Fry, a former England captain turned journalist, wrote that Headley's "middle name should be Atlas", suggesting that he carried the team on his shoulders.
Prior to a visit by Barbados
in March 1947, Headley was officially appointed as Jamaican captain. Previous captains of island teams had been almost exclusively white. Around this time, Headley requested the Jamaican board provide support for low income players with their kit and transport costs. In the first game against Barbados, Headley scored 203 not out and 57 not out, took four for 40 in the tourists' first innings and another wicket in the second. Although the game was drawn, he had recorded Jamaica's highest score in a match between the Caribbean islands. The second match was also drawn; Headley made 79 before he had to retire when he fell and injured his knee. Another American tour followed, in which Headley was accompanied by promising young players, before he led the Jamaican team to British Guiana in October 1947. He played only two innings in the two matches, scoring 36 and 4 not out. A thumb injury in the first match meant he could not bat, although he bowled 44 overs in the game. Headley was verbally abused by a section of the crowd, who disapproved of a black captain; he was also dissatisfied with the impartiality of the umpires. Crab Nethersole, the Jamaican manager for the tour, reported that injuries to key players and the poor attitude of the crowd made the tour difficult, although Headley's captaincy was universally praised.
and John Goddard were given the captaincy of the second and third matches. In the event, Headley only played in the first Test. In the first innings, he scored 29 but strained his back while fielding. Batting towards the end of West Indies' second innings, he scored seven not out. Rain helped England to draw the match. Headley's back caused him to miss the second and third Tests, but he was fit enough to play for Jamaica when the tourists arrived there to play two games against the island before the fourth and final Test. After the first island game, in which he scored 65, Headley's request to miss the second match to rest his back was refused by the Jamaican Board. He scored 36 not out, but aggravated his back pains and he withdrew from the final Test. West Indies won this game under the captaincy of Goddard, who had earlier led West Indies to victory in the third Test. He was subsequently chosen to captain West Indies in India in 1948–49, despite Headley's availability and apparently superior claims to the position.
Selected for the Indian tour after a specific request by the Indian cricket authorities, Headley did not have much success in the early matches and in the drawn first Test he scored only two in a total of 631. West Indies then moved to Pakistan; in a non first-class game Headley took six wickets as a bowler, but then in a match against a representative Pakistan XI he fell and injured his side while attempting to take a catch. He batted in discomfort, scoring 57 not out. This injury meant that he played no further part in the five-match Test series against India. Although he continued to travel with the team, he was unable to play in any further matches until the final game of the tour, when he scored 100 against Ceylon Schools as the tourists travelled home via Ceylon
.
Headley played for the Kensington Club until 1950, when he resumed league cricket in England; he returned for a final season with Kensington in 1955 before retiring from Senior Cup cricket. Meanwhile, he took a new job as an insurance agent. This affected his availability for cricket as he was no longer able to take leave when playing for a team; if he did not work, he received no wages. Consequently, he did not accept the captaincy of Jamaica during the Test trials for the 1950 tour of England and did not travel with the team. Press reaction was unfavourable towards Headley but the West Indies Board still wanted to select him for the tour. However, Headley accepted a contract with Bacup
in the Lancashire League, to replace Everton Weekes
who was in the touring party.
For Bacup Headley scored 909 runs and took 20 wickets in 1950, before signing to play for Dudley
in the Birmingham League in 1951. He and his family moved to Birmingham, and in each the next four seasons Headley averaged over 65 with the bat and under 17 with the ball. In his second season, the club topped the league. In total, he scored 2,878 runs for Dudley and, resuming off spin bowling, took 102 wickets. While in England during this time, he played several first-class matches for a Commonwealth XI against an England XI; he scored 20 in 1951 and accumulated 98 and 61 in 1952.
struck Headley's arm. The latter injury kept him out of the first-class match between Jamaica and the MCC, but he played in the second where, although hampered by his injury, he scored 53 not out. The Test selectors had seen enough to include Headley in the team for the first Test. Reaction among critics was mixed, and Headley, nearing his 45th birthday, remains the oldest man as of March 2011 to play a Test match for West Indies. Headley batted at number six, and it appeared that England, under the captaincy of Len Hutton
, let Headley score an easy run to begin his innings, which Hutton later confirmed to be the case. However, Headley later argued that the run was given to ensure that he was batting at the beginning of the next over, so that England could try to get him out before he settled down.
Headley scored 16 and 1 in the match, his final Test appearance. He used his experience to influence the captain, Jeff Stollmeyer, advising him not to enforce the follow on and to use leg theory
bowling to slow down the tourists' scoring. These tactics helped West Indies to a 140-run win in a match they might have lost; Stollmeyer followed a similar approach in the following match. In 22 Tests, Headley scored 2,190 runs at an average of 60.83.
Headley finished his career at Dudley at the end of 1954; his son Ron played for the club from 1957, having already played for its second team in 1952 as a 13-year-old. After his final Test match appearance, Headley's only other first-class match was in the Commonwealth XI fixture in 1954, when he scored 64 in his final first-class innings. In a career total of 103 first-class games he aggregated 9,921 runs at 69.86, with 33 centuries, and took 51 wickets at 36.11.
magazine placed him in an all-time West Indian team, as did a panel of judges for another such team in July 2010, while in 2004, another panel of experts named him among the top five West Indian players. He was given the nicknames "the Black Bradman" and "Atlas" by commentators, and was the first world-class batsman from the West Indies who was black. According to historian Gideon Haigh, his role was made harder by the weakness of his colleagues, as few outstanding players find it easy to play in teams which lose frequently. Although he was a naturally attacking player, Headley felt the need to play cautiously owing to the way his team depended on him. C. L. R. James believed that no other great batsman had to carry such a burden for so long. In the years before the war, Headley scored 25.61% of the runs scored in Tests by West Indies, more than twice as many as the next best batsman, and two-thirds of the team's centuries, scoring ten of the team's first fourteen centuries in Test cricket. Headley usually batted at number three and as the opening batsmen were often dismissed quickly, he frequently began his innings early.
As of April 2011, Headley's average in Test matches of 60.83 is third highest among those with 2,000 runs, behind Bradman and Graeme Pollock
, and but for the Tests he played after the war, he would have been above Pollock. In all first-class matches, he has the third highest average with 69.86, behind Bradman and Vijay Merchant
among those who played 50 innings. He averaged a century every fourth innings in which he batted, second again to Bradman, and did not suffer a poor series in his career before the war.
Manley describes Headley as just under medium height with sloping shoulders. His movements were precise and economical on the cricket field; his cap was usually at a slight angle and his sleeves were buttoned down to the wrist. Wisden noted in 1933 that his timing and placement of the ball was perfect. Exceptionally quick on his feet, he watched the ball onto the bat more than any other batsman. According to Wisden, all his shots were equally good but most notable was his on drive played from the back foot. He hit the ball hard and was very difficult to get out. He faced criticism for playing off the back foot so often, but R. C. Robertson-Glasgow
believed his square cut, late cut, and hook were exceptionally good. Headley was particularly effective on bad batting wickets. C. L. R. James calculated that Headley averaged 39.85 and passed fifty on seven occasions in thirteen innings on difficult wickets. According to James's reckoning, Bradman in similar conditions passed fifty once, and averaged 16.66 in fifteen innings. Headley himself preferred batting when the odds favoured the bowlers as he had to go for his shots and play his natural attacking game. He stated: "On a bad wicket, it was you and the bowler ...no nonsense."
Beyond cricket, Headley's success was regarded as important. Of Headley's meeting with the king of England in 1939, the West Indian writer Frank Birbalsingh said: "That one of us—a black man—could shake the hand of a king introduced possibilities formerly undreamt of in our colonial backwater of racial inferiority, psychological subordination and political powerlessness". Manley notes that Headley rose to success at a time of political awakening in Jamaica, when the black majority of the population were increasingly determined to end the minority rule of landowners and challenge the racism of the time. According to Manley, the middle classes saw in Headley "the reassurance which they needed. He demonstrated black capacity." The white upper classes were proud of his achievements as a West Indian, but Manley writes "it was to the black masses that Headley had the deepest significance ... [He] became the focus for longing of an entire people for proof: proof of their own self-worth, their own capacity. Furthermore, they wanted this proof to be laid at the door of the white man who owned the world which defined their circumstances." Manley sees the title of "Atlas" not just in sporting terms, but in his carrying "the hopes of the black, English-speaking Caribbean man ... He was black excellence personified in a white world and in a white sport."
his role involved encouraging school children to watch and play cricket, and trying to improve standards and facilities throughout the country. Headley became involved in the selection of teams, taking some of them overseas. At this time, he discovered the future West Indian Test player Roy Gilchrist
and future Jamaican cricketer Henry Sewell. However, critics in the 1960s complained that there were not enough Jamaicans in the Test side and blamed Headley and Fuller, although the government remained supportive of their performance. In 1961, Headley coached for six months in Nigeria and earned praise from the Nigerian Cricket Association. His official coaching role in Jamaica ended after a new government withdrew funding for coaching in 1962.
who was born two days after the end of the Lord's Test of 1939. Ron Headley went on to play professional cricket for the English counties Worcestershire
and Derbyshire, and represented Jamaica before playing two Tests for West Indies in 1973. Another son, Lyndie, reached the semi-finals of the 100 metres
and came fourth in the 100 metres relay at the 1964 Olympics
and won a gold medal with Jamaican sprint relay teams in the Central American and Caribbean Games
of 1966 and silver with the relay team at the Commonwealth Games
of the same year. Ron's son Dean
, Headley's grandson, played Test cricket for England; the family thus became the first to have three generations play Test cricket.
After his retirement from coaching, Headley remained associated with cricket, presenting awards and playing in friendly matches. He was the official representative of the Jamaican Cricket Board at Constantine's funeral in 1971. Official recognition came Headley's way when he was awarded the M.B.E.
in 1956 and was made an honorary life member of the MCC in 1958. In 1969, a bronze sculpture of his head was unveiled in Jamaica's National Stadium, and in 1973 the Norman Manley Foundation gave him the Award for Excellence in Sports. In the latter year, he also received the Order of Distinction
. He died in Kingston on 30 November 1983.
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
er who played 22 Test matches
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
, mostly before the Second World War. Considered one of the best batsmen to play for West Indies and one of the greatest cricketers of all time, Headley also represented Jamaica
Jamaica national cricket team
The Jamaica national cricket team is the representative first-class cricket team of Jamaica.-History:The team's history lasts back to 1895, when they played three matches against a touring side from England led by Slade Lucas, but because of the distance to the other cricketing countries, Jamaica...
and played professional club cricket in England. West Indies had a weak cricket team through most of Headley's playing career; as their one world-class player, he carried a heavy responsibility and the side depended on his batting. He batted at number three, scoring 2,190 runs
Run (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, a run is the basic unit of scoring. Runs are scored by a batsman, and the aggregate of the scores of a team's batsmen constitutes the team's score. A batsman scoring 50 or 100 runs , or any higher multiple of 50 runs, is considered a particular achievement...
in Tests at an average of 60.83, and 9,921 runs in all first-class matches at an average of 69.86. He was chosen as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year
Wisden Cricketers of the Year
The Wisden Cricketers of the Year are cricketers selected for the honour by the annual publication Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, based primarily on their "influence on the previous English season"...
in 1933.
Headley was born in Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
but raised in Jamaica where he quickly established a cricketing reputation as a batsman. He soon gained his place in the Jamaican cricket team, and narrowly missed selection for the West Indies tour of England in 1928. He made his Test debut in 1930, against England in Barbados
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...
, and was instantly successful. Further successes followed in series against Australia and in three more against England, as Headley dominated the West Indian batting of the period. Following his tour of England in 1933, Headley signed as a professional at Haslingden
Haslingden Cricket Club
Haslingden Cricket Club is a cricket club in the Lancashire League, which plays its home games at Bentgate in Haslingden. For the 2011 season its captain is Graham Knowles, and its professional is former Ramsbottom amateur Phil Hayes of England. The club has won the league on 12 occasions and the...
in the Lancashire League, where he played until the outbreak of war in 1939.
The war interrupted Headley's career; although he returned to Tests in 1948 he was hampered by injuries and did not achieve his previous levels of success. Even so, he was chosen as West Indies captain in 1948 against England, the first black player to be appointed to the position, although a combination of injuries and politics meant he only led his team for one Test match. He did not play Tests between 1949 and 1953, but resumed his career in English league cricket, first in Lancashire and later in the Birmingham League. His playing career ended in 1954 on his return to Jamaica, after a public subscription paid his fare from England. After retiring as a player, Headley was employed as a cricket coach by the Jamaican government until 1962. He lived until 1983; his son Ron
Ron Headley
Ronald George Alphonso Headley is a former West Indian cricketer who played in two Tests and one ODI in 1973. An opening batsman, in first-class cricket he scored 21,695 runs at an average of 31.12, with 32 hundreds and a highest score of 187.Headley spent most of his career in England, playing...
and his grandson Dean
Dean Headley
Dean Warren Headley is an English cricketer.He comes from a famous cricketing family, being the son of Ron Headley and grandson of George Headley. He was the first Test cricketer to be both the son and grandson of Test cricketers...
each played Test match cricket, for West Indies and England respectively.
Early life
Headley was born in Colón, PanamaColón, Panama
Colón is a sea port on the Caribbean Sea coast of Panama. The city lies near the Atlantic entrance to the Panama Canal. It is capital of Panama's Colón Province and has traditionally been known as Panama's second city....
on 30 May 1909, the son of DeCourcy Headley and Irene Roberts. Neither of Headley's parents was from Panama; his father was from Barbados and his mother from Jamaica, but they had moved to Panama while DeCourcey worked on the construction of the Panama Canal
Panama Canal
The Panama Canal is a ship canal in Panama that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. Built from 1904 to 1914, the canal has seen annual traffic rise from about 1,000 ships early on to 14,702 vessels measuring a total of 309.6...
. By the time Headley was five years old the Canal was complete, and the family moved to Cuba in search of further employment. In 1919, concerned by the amount of Spanish being spoken by her son, Headley's mother took him to Jamaica so he could be educated in an English-speaking school.
Headley moved in with his mother's sister-in-law Mrs Clarence Smith, in Rae Town, Kingston
Kingston, Jamaica
Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley International Airport to the rest of the island...
, and remained with her until her death in 1933. His mother returned to Cuba, but regularly exchanged letters with her son. He attended Calabar Elementary School, where he played for the school cricket team as a wicket-keeper
Wicket-keeper
The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being guarded by the batsman currently on strike...
, although a meagre sporting budget meant he had to do so without gloves. Later, he continued his education at Kingston High School. Taking part in all-day cricket matches at the local Crabhole Park, Headley began to attract local attention, and aged 16, he joined Raetown Cricket Club. In 1925 he scored his first century, batting at number three in the batting order
Batting order (cricket)
In cricket, the batting order is the sequence in which batsmen play through their team's innings, there always being two batsmen taking part at any one time...
in a match for Raetown against Clovelly.
On leaving school, Headley was appointed as a temporary clerk in a magistrate's court; this enabled him to play competitive cricket for the St Andrew's Police side in 1926, in a cup competition. Some impressive performances for the club earned him an invitation to practice with the Jamaica Colts team. However, his job made it impossible to attend, and he was not considered for the Jamaican side
Jamaica national cricket team
The Jamaica national cricket team is the representative first-class cricket team of Jamaica.-History:The team's history lasts back to 1895, when they played three matches against a touring side from England led by Slade Lucas, but because of the distance to the other cricketing countries, Jamaica...
against Lord Tennyson
Lionel Tennyson, 3rd Baron Tennyson
Lionel Hallam Tennyson, 3rd Baron Tennyson was known principally as a cricketer who captained Hampshire and England...
's English touring side in 1927. That year, Headley began working for Keeling–Lindo Estates, in St Catherine. The firm were enthusiastic cricket patrons, allowing employees time off to play in matches, so that Headley was able to attend practice with the Jamaica team on a regular basis. He also moved to the St Catherine Cricket Club, captained by his immediate superior in Keeling–Lindo. To generate more income, Headley took a second job, working for the Jamaica Fruit and Shipping Company, but he wanted a secure profession. To this end, he planned to move to America to pursue a career in dentistry. However, he was now on the verge of the Jamaica team and a delay in the arrival of the application forms for his American work permit allowed him to make his first-class
First-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...
debut for Jamaica against another touring team led by Lord Tennyson.
Early career
Headley made his Jamaica debut against Lord Tennyson's XI at Sabina ParkSabina Park
Sabina Park is the home of the Kingston Cricket Club, and is the only Test cricket ground in Kingston, Jamaica and is often referred to as "The Holiday Home of Cricket"....
on 9 February 1928, in a match won easily by the home team. Batting at number three, his first innings yielded 16 runs, but in the second innings, he scored 71, reaching fifty runs in as many minutes. In the second game against Lord Tennyson's XI which began in Kingston on 18 February, Headley scored his maiden first-class century
Century (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, a batsman reaches his century when he scores 100 or more runs in a single innings. The term is also included in "century partnership" which occurs when two batsmen add 100 runs to the team total when they are batting together. A century is regarded as a landmark score for...
. Having scored 22 not out
Not out
In cricket, a batsman will be not out if he comes out to bat in an innings and has not been dismissed by the end of the innings. One may similarly describe a batsman as not out while the innings is still in progress...
after the first day's play, he reached 50 runs by playing very carefully but subsequently played more adventurous shots. He hit the bowling of Alan Hilder for four consecutive fours
Boundary (cricket)
Boundary has two distinct meanings in the sport of cricket:# the edge or boundary of the playing field, and# a manner of scoring runs.-Edge of the field:...
and twice hit Lord Tennyson for three fours in a row. At one point, thirteen of his scoring shots in a row went for four. He was finally out for 211, the highest score at the time by a West Indian batsman against an English team. After the innings, Tennyson compared Headley to Victor Trumper
Victor Trumper
Victor Thomas Trumper was an Australian cricketer known as the most stylish and versatile batsman of the Golden Age of cricket, capable of playing match-winning innings on wet wickets his contemporaries found unplayable. Archie MacLaren said of him, "Compared to Victor I was a cab-horse to a Derby...
and Charlie Macartney, batsmen considered among the best who ever played. Headley concluded the series against Tennyson's team with innings of 40 and 71, to give him an aggregate of 409 runs at an average of 81.80. He also took his maiden first class wicket.
Following his success, Headley abandoned his prospective career in dentistry. Although some critics expected his selection for the West Indies tour of England in 1928, Headley was not chosen. While West Indies played their inaugural Test series during that tour, Headley continued to play for St Catherine's. He had another opportunity against English opposition in 1929, when a team led by Julien Cahn
Julien Cahn
Sir Julien Cahn, 1st Baronet was an entrepreneur, philanthropist and supporter of cricket.-His cricket XI:...
arrived to play two first-class games. Jamaica's distance from other Caribbean islands made it difficult for their cricketers to gain good-quality playing experience, so the frequent visits by English sides were important to the development of Jamaican cricket. These tours also served to build Headley's reputation. In the first match, Headley played a slow, defensive innings of 57, but he did not reach fifty in his other three innings. Even so, he was chosen by the Jamaican selectors for a West Indies XI, which included players from other islands, to play Cahn's team in their final tour match. The home side lost the toss and had to bat in very difficult conditions following rain. Headley found the fast bowlers difficult, but survived the period when the pitch was most difficult to bat on before he was out for 44. In the second innings, he attacked from the start and used a wide range of shots to reach 143 before he was run out
Run out
Run out is a method of dismissal in the sport of cricket. It is governed by Law 38 of the Laws of cricket.-The rules:A batsman is out Run out if at any time while the ball is in play no part of his bat or person is grounded behind the popping crease and his wicket is fairly put down by the opposing...
. In three matches against the tourists, Headley scored 326 runs, averaging 54.33.
A change in the location of his job meant that Headley moved to the Lucas Cricket Club
Lucas Cricket Club
Lucas Cricket Club is a cricket club in Kingston, Jamaica. The club was founded in 1895 as the Jamaica Cricket Club by ex-students of Calabar Elementary School, organised by David Ellington, a hackney cab driver. Robert Slade Lucas, the captain of a team from England visiting Jamaica at the time,...
in 1929. He visited America and played some exhibition matches for the Jamaican Athletic Club in New York, scoring a century against a touring team from Bermuda; his parents had moved to America by then, which enabled Headley to combine the cricket with his first visit to his parents in ten years.
Debut and first Test series
In 1930 the Marylebone Cricket ClubMarylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London founded in 1787. Its influence and longevity now witness it as a private members' club dedicated to the development of cricket. It owns, and is based at, Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, London NW8. MCC was formerly the governing body of...
(MCC) undertook a tour of the West Indies which included four Test matches—the first Tests to be played in the West Indies. The MCC side was not at full international strength; it included players who were either just beginning or just ending their international careers, and several star English bowlers were missing. The first Test was played in Barbados and Headley was selected, making his debut for the West Indies on 11 February 1930—to the disapproval of some Barbadians who thought his place should have gone to a local player. Batting at number three, he played aggressively in the first innings but the crowd barracked him and he was bowled for 21. However, in the second innings he scored 176, becoming the first West Indian to score a century on his Test debut and only their second centurion overall. He shared century partnerships
Partnership (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, two batsmen always bat in partnership, although only one is on strike at any time. The partnership between two batsmen will come to an end when one of them is dismissed or retires, or the innings comes to a close In the sport of cricket, two batsmen always bat in...
with both Clifford Roach
Clifford Roach
Clifford Archibald Roach was a West Indian cricketer who played in West Indies' first Test in their inaugural Test tour of England....
and Frank de Caires
Frank De Caires
Francis Ignatius de Caires - A sound right-handed batsman, Frank de Caires was born in Guyana on May 12, 1909 and died there on February 2, 1959, aged 49. His career spanned the years from 1929 to 1938 although in truth, after February 1931 his appearances became more and more sporadic...
, but these were insufficient to force victory, and the match was drawn. Headley remained in the Test side for the rest of the series, the only home player other than Roach to appear in all four Tests. In Trinidad, during the second Test, Headley found the unfamiliar conditions difficult—Trinidad was the only Test match ground in the Caribbean which was played on a pitch made from matting instead of grass. Headley scored eight and 39 as West Indies lost the match. The home side levelled the series with their first ever Test victory in the third match of the series, played in British Guiana. In this match Headley became the first West Indian, and only the fifth cricketer of any nation, to score two separate hundreds in a Test match. His first innings of 114 was played mainly in support of Roach, who scored a double century. In the second innings, Headley scored 112 as West Indies batted with a big first innings lead, attacking defensive English bowling.
While en route to the final Test in Jamaica, the West Indies team stopped in Panama and Costa Rica where official functions were held in Headley's honour. In Jamaica, where there was widespread jubilation, Headley attended several receptions and celebrations. When the cricket resumed, Headley scored 64, 72 and 55 in three innings against MCC for Jamaica. With the Test series level, it was agreed that the final match of the series would be played until one team won, regardless of how long it took—the other Tests had been limited to four days each. On the first three days, England scored 849. In reply West Indies could only manage 286, with Headley out for ten runs. England batted again, to set West Indies an evetual victory target of 836. This time, Headley batted for 390 minutes, faced 385 balls
Delivery (cricket)
A delivery or ball in cricket is a single action of bowling a cricket ball towards the batsman.During play of the game, a member of the fielding team is designated as the bowler, and bowls deliveries towards the batsman...
and hit 28 fours while scoring 223. He and Karl Nunes
Karl Nunes
Robert Karl Nunes was a West Indian cricketer who played in West Indies' first Test in their inaugural Test tour of England as wicketkeeper and captain....
added 227 for the second wicket. Headley played the hook very effectively and hit many short deliveries for runs. When Headley was stumped, he had made what was at the time the fourth highest individual score in all Test cricket and the highest in a second innings. When West Indies still needed 428 runs, rain fell for two days and the match had to be abandoned after its ninth scheduled day. Headley ended the series with 703 runs at an average of 87.87.
Australian tour
Headley was selected for the West Indian tour of Australia in the 1930–31 season, under the captaincy of Jackie GrantJackie Grant
George Copeland Grant was a West Indian cricketer who captained the side through several series.Grant was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. He captained the West Indies' team in the 1930-31, 1933, 1934-35 series...
. After a brief visit to New Zealand where they played a non-first-class match against Wellington
Wellington Firebirds
The Wellington Firebirds are one of six New Zealand first-class cricket teams that make up New Zealand Cricket.It is based in Wellington. It competes in the State Championship first class competition, the State Shield domestic one day competition and the State Twenty20 Cricket Tournament.The...
, the tourists arrived in Sydney. Headley made a good start to the tour and attracted praise from the press in Australia and West Indies. The first match of the Australian leg was against New South Wales
New South Wales Blues
The New South Wales cricket team are an Australian first class cricket team based in Sydney, New South Wales...
, where the West Indians were bowled out for 188 and Headley was stumped for 25. However, his runs came in less than two overs
Over (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, an over is a set of six consecutive balls bowled in succession. An over is normally bowled by a single bowler. However, in the event of injury preventing a bowler from completing an over, it is completed by a teammate....
and Learie Constantine
Learie Constantine
Learie Nicholas Constantine, Baron Constantine MBE was a West Indian cricketer who played 18 Test matches before the Second World War. He took West Indies' first wicket in Test cricket and was the team's leading all-rounder and opening bowler for the entirety of his career...
later rated this as one of Headley's best innings. In the second innings, Headley made 82, the top score, but could not prevent the tourists losing. The next match was also lost, as Bert Ironmonger
Bert Ironmonger
Herbert Ironmonger was a Victorian and Australian cricketer....
took thirteen wickets in the match for Victoria
Victorian Bushrangers
The Victorian cricket team, nicknamed the Bushrangers, is an Australian cricket team based in Melbourne, that represents the state of Victoria. It is administered by Cricket Victoria and draws its players from Melbourne's Premier Cricket competition...
. In the first innings, Headley scored 131 out of 212, regarded by one critic as one of the best centuries scored on the ground, and top-scored again with 34 in the second innings. By this stage the Australian bowlers had realised that Headley excelled when hitting the ball through the off side, and they began to alter their tactics accordingly. In the final match before the Test series began, against South Australia
Southern Redbacks
The South Australia cricket team, nicknamed the Southern Redbacks and known as the West End Redbacks due to their sponsorship agreement with local brewers West End, are an Australian first class cricket team based in Adelaide, South Australia, and represent the state of South Australia...
, Headley had problems playing the Australian bowlers, particularly the leg spin
Leg spin
Leg spin is a type of spin bowling in the sport of cricket. A leg spinner bowls right-arm with a wrist spin action, causing the ball to spin from right to left in the cricket pitch, at the point of delivery. When the ball bounces, the spin causes the ball to deviate sharply from right to left, that...
of Clarrie Grimmett
Clarrie Grimmett
Clarence Victor "Clarrie" Grimmett was a cricketer; although born in New Zealand, he played most of his cricket in Australia. He is thought by many to be one of the finest early spin bowlers, and usually credited as the developer of the flipper.Grimmett was born in Caversham a suburb of Dunedin,...
. The Australians bowled at Headley's leg stump with fielders concentrated on the leg side
Leg side
The leg side, or on side, is defined to be a particular half of the field used to play the sport of cricket.From the point of view of a right-handed batsman facing the bowler, it is the left hand side of the cricket field...
, making it difficult for him to score runs. Headley scored 27 and 16 as his team were heavily defeated. These bowling tactics were used in subsequent matches, and Headley found difficulty in countering them.
At the beginning of the first Test, West Indies were bowled out 296 as Grimmett took seven wickets, including Headley first ball. In the second innings, with West Indies 80 behind, Grimmett again attacked Headley's leg stump. After having his scoring restricted, Headley lost patience and after scoring 11 was stumped, trying to hit Grimmett. Bowled out for 249, West Indies lost by ten wickets. After scoring only three in the following tour match against Tasmania
Tasmanian Tigers
The Tasmanian cricket team, nicknamed the Tigers, represents the Australian state of Tasmania in cricket tournaments. They compete annually in the Australian domestic senior men's cricket season, which currently consists of the first-class Sheffield Shield, the limited overs Ford Ranger Cup, and...
, Headley contributed 14 and two in an innings defeat in the second Test. After two heavy Test defeats for the tourists, some critics believed that the series was too one-sided and that some of the five Tests should be cancelled. Headley's poor run of form continued in the West Indian victory over Queensland
Queensland Bulls
The Queensland cricket team, nicknamed the Bulls, are the Brisbane-based Queensland representative cricket team in Australia's domestic cricket tournaments:*Sheffield Shield, 4-day matches with first-class status, since the 1926/27 season...
and, having put on weight, he was also struggling with his fitness. In an effort to overcome Australia's leg stump attack Headley had altered his batting stance; instead of standing at right angles to the bowler, he turned his body more front-on, to enable him to improve his placement of the ball on the leg side. His quick footwork enabled him to alter his position if necessary to play the ball on the off side. He also eliminated from his strokes a risky cover drive he had developed on Caribbean pitches. During the third Test at Brisbane, Headley made his first substantial contribution to the series, after Australia scored 558 batting first. Facing Grimmett's leg side tactics, Headley managed to score freely, and forced Grimmett to alter to an off stump attack. With ten fours in total, Headley became the first West Indian to score a century against Australia, and was left 102 not out when West Indies were bowled out for 193. Forced to follow-on
Follow-on
Follow-on is a term used in the sport of cricket to describe a situation where the team that bats second is forced to take its second batting innings immediately after its first, because the team was not able to get close enough to the score achieved by the first team batting in the first innings...
, West Indies were dismissed for 148 of which Headley made 28, the highest score of the innings. Ironmonger tricked him into playing the leg glance and he was caught by the wicket-keeper who had moved across in anticipation of the shot.
Headley maintained his good form in matches against Victoria and South Australia after the third Test, scoring 77 and 113 in the first match and 75 and 39 in the second. Although neither match was won, the West Indians needed to take only one more wicket to win the first match when it ended drawn, and lost the second by a single wicket. However, the fourth Test was lost by an innings as Ironmonger again caused difficulties for the West Indies batsmen. Headley top-scored with 33 out of the first innings total of 99 but made only 11 on his second attempt, being dismissed both times by Ironmonger. By now the tour was making a financial loss, forcing the tourists to take economy measures such as travelling by tram. In conversation with a member of the Australian Board of Control, Headley, Constantine and fellow tourist Tommy Scott
Tommy Scott (cricketer)
Oscar Charles Scott was a West Indian cricketer who played in West Indies' inaugural Test tour of England in 1928....
suggested the authorities should produce faster pitches to enable the public to see more attacking cricket. It seems this advice may have been heeded; the pitch was faster in a match against New South Wales, won by the West Indians, in which Headley scored 70 and two. In the fifth Test, West Indies won the toss and batted first, which proved an advantage in a match plagued by uncertain weather. Headley and fellow Jamaican Frank Martin
Frank Martin (cricketer)
Frank Reginald Martin was a West Indian cricketer who played in West Indies' first Test in their inaugural Test tour of England....
scored centuries on the first day despite bowling from the Australians which the Jamaican newspaper Daily Gleaner described as good. Headley, playing Grimmett comfortably by now, batted for 146 minutes, and hit 13 fours. In the course of the innings he achieved the rare feat in Australia of reaching 1,000 first-class runs on the tour. Grant, the West Indies captain, declared the innings closed
Declaration and forfeiture
In the sport of cricket a declaration occurs when a captain declares his team's innings closed and a forfeiture is when a captain chooses to forfeit an innings. Declaration and forfeiture are covered in Law 14 of the Laws of cricket...
after rain had fallen to make the pitch more difficult for batting. Australia were then bowled out for 224, 126 runs behind West Indies. The tourists scored 124 more runs in their second innings, of which Headley made 30, before more rain fell and Grant declared for the second time in the match. Subsequently, the bowlers dismissed Australia for 220 to give West Indies their first win over Australia, although the series ended 4–1 to the home side. Headley scored 336 runs in the Test matches at an average of 37.33, and 1,066 runs at 44.41 in all first-class games.
On their return home, the West Indian players were well received by the public and officials; Headley received praise and once again attended functions arranged in his honour. In Australia Donald Bradman
Donald Bradman
Sir Donald George Bradman, AC , often referred to as "The Don", was an Australian cricketer, widely acknowledged as the greatest batsman of all time...
, the star Australian batsman, praised Headley, particularly for the way in which he had overcome his problems against Grimmett. C. L. R. James, the writer and historian, later wrote that Headley's success demonstrated his mastery of batting. Headley arrived in Australia as a primarily off-side player which accounted for his difficulty against the Australian bowlers' tactics. However, James notes: "What he did, under fire, so to speak, was to reorganise his batting to meet the new attack." So successful was Headley that he was described by Grimmett as the best on-side batsman against whom the bowler had played.
Tour by Lord Tennyson's team
Headley resumed playing for Lucas on his return to Jamaica, attracting great crowds and high expectations. Once the cricket season ended, he embarked on another trip to America to play exhibition matches, visiting his parents on the journey. On his return for the 1931–32 season, he was appointed captain of Lucas and began preparing for the forthcoming tour of Jamaica by another team led by Lord Tennyson. In addition to his regular practice, Headley began a programme of running and swimming to improve his overall fitness. After performing well in the trial matches for Jamaica, he was selected in the first match against the tourists. Jamaica made an uncertain start, losing five wickets by the time their score reached 215 but Headley had scored 130. He then shared a partnership of 487 for the sixth wicket with Clarence PassailaigueClarence Passailaigue
Charles Clarence Passailaigue - Passailaigue was born in Kingston on August 4, 1901 and died at Montego Bay, St. James, Jamaica on January 7, 1972, aged 70. Although his career spanned the entire decade of the 1930s, in truth Passailaigue played first-class cricket only sporadically...
; 236 not out after the first day's play, Headley went on to score an unbeaten 344, after batting for 407 minutes and hitting 39 fours. Jamaica totalled 702, and won the match by an innings. During his innings, Headley passed the previous highest score by any West Indian batsman, 304 not out by Percy Tarilton
Percy Tarilton
Percy Hamilton "Tim" Tarilton was a Barbadian cricketer who represented the West Indies in the days before they achieved Test status. A good driver of the ball, he made his first-class debut for Barbados in 1905 and played until 1930. He hit his maiden first-class century against Marylebone...
in 1920, and the highest score in the West Indies by any batsman, Andy Sandham
Andy Sandham
Andrew Sandham was an English cricketer, a right-handed batsman who played 14 Test matches between 1921 and 1930. He scored over 40,000 first-class runs, but bowled only very rarely; he took just 18 wickets in his career.Sandham made his Surrey debut in 1911, and was capped in 1913...
's 325 in 1930. His partnership with Passailaigue took 248 minutes, and as of March 2011 remains a world record for the highest sixth wicket partnership in a first-class match. The success of two home batsmen led to celebrations in Jamaica and praise from the English bowlers for Headley's batting. Headley continued his success in the second game, opening the batting and top-scoring with 84 in the first innings. In the second innings, opening again, he made 155 not out to guide West Indies to their victory target of 363. In the final match, Headley scored his third century of the series after returning to number three, accumulating 140 of Jamaica's total of 561. Jamaica won the match to win the series 3–0; Headley scored 723 runs at an average of 361.50. In the remainder of the season, Headley led Lucas to victory in the Senior Cup, scoring a century in the final.
1933 tour of England
After playing in two trial matches, Headley was selected to tour England in 1933West Indian cricket team in England in 1933
The West Indies cricket team toured England in 1933, playing three Test matches, losing two of them and drawing the other. In all, the side played 30 first-class matches, winning only five and losing nine....
under the continuing captaincy of Jackie Grant. The English press speculated on Headley's ability to cope with English conditions, while expecting him to perform to a high standard. In the event, Wisden believed he justified the expectations and increased his reputation. In the first match of the tour he scored 52 out of a total of 129 against Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire County Cricket Club
Northamptonshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Northamptonshire. Its limited overs team is called the Northants Steelbacks. The traditional club colour is Maroon. During the...
, in difficult batting conditions on a wet pitch
Sticky wicket
Sticky wicket is a metaphor used to describe a difficult circumstance; it originates from difficult circumstances in the sport of cricket.-Origins:...
. He scored fifties in each of his next three matches before scoring a century against the MCC during his first appearance at Lord's Cricket Ground
Lord's Cricket Ground
Lord's Cricket Ground is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and Wales Cricket Board , the European Cricket Council and, until August 2005, the...
. In the second innings of this match, a short ball from Bill Bowes
Bill Bowes
Bill Bowes was one of the best bowlers of the interwar period and, for a time, the most important force behind Yorkshire's dominance of the County Championship...
struck Headley on the chest, and as a result of this injury he missed three games, but when he returned to the team he scored 129 against Glamorgan
Glamorgan County Cricket Club
Glamorgan County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the historic county of Glamorgan aka Glamorganshire . Glamorgan CCC is the only Welsh first-class cricket club. Glamorgan CCC have won the English County...
and 224 not out against Somerset
Somerset County Cricket Club
Somerset County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Somerset...
. A quieter match followed against Middlesex
Middlesex County Cricket Club
Middlesex County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Middlesex. It was announced in February 2009 that Middlesex changed their limited overs name from the Middlesex Crusaders, to the...
, but Headley reached his second double century of the tour in the match against Derbyshire
Derbyshire County Cricket Club
Derbyshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the England and Wales domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Derbyshire...
, which took him past 1,000 runs for the season. Despite Headley's contributions, the West Indians won only one of these matches and subsequently lost the first Test against England by an innings. Headley scored 13 in the West Indies first innings, and his 50 was the highest score when West Indies followed-on
Follow-on
Follow-on is a term used in the sport of cricket to describe a situation where the team that bats second is forced to take its second batting innings immediately after its first, because the team was not able to get close enough to the score achieved by the first team batting in the first innings...
. Critics were impressed by Headley's second innings performance, in which he scored his runs out of 64 added while he was batting. Between the first and second Tests, in matches where conditions were difficult for batting and ideal for spin bowlers, Headley scored three fifties and achieved his side's highest score in each of four innings.
West Indies drew the second Test, avoiding defeat for the first time in a Test in England. Headley scored 169 in 375 minutes with 18 fours, sharing a partnership of 200 in 205 minutes with Ivan Barrow
Ivan Barrow
Ivanhoe Mordecai Barrow was a cricketer who played 11 Tests for the West Indies.A wicket-keeper and opening batsman, he was the first West Indian to score a century in a Test Match in England...
—who became the first West Indian to score a Test century in England, minutes before Headley became the second. When the innings ended, Headley was still not out and the crowd gave him an excellent reception. Wisden described Headley's batting as magnificent, displaying "a ready adaptability and perfection of timing". The West Indies bowlers used Bodyline
Bodyline
Bodyline, also known as fast leg theory bowling, was a cricketing tactic devised by the English cricket team for their 1932–33 Ashes tour of Australia, specifically to combat the extraordinary batting skill of Australia's Don Bradman...
tactics in the England innings; England's Nobby Clark
Edward Clark (cricketer)
Edward Winchester 'Nobby' Clark was a Northamptonshire cricketer of the inter-war period during which they were one of the weakest counties ever to play in the County Championship...
used the tactic in the West Indian second innings, in which Headley scored 24 runs. He was one of the few of his side's batsmen able to resist the bowling tactics.
After scoring an unbeaten 257 in a minor match against Norfolk, Headley scored 89 in his team's victory over Glamorgan and 182 against Warwickshire
Warwickshire County Cricket Club
Warwickshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Warwickshire. Its limited overs team is called the Warwickshire Bears. Their kit colours are black and gold and the shirt sponsor...
. However, he failed in the third and final Test, scoring nine and 12 as West Indies were defeated by an innings. The tourists thus lost the series 2–0; in the three Tests Headley's aggregate was 277 runs at an average of 55.40, the best figures for the team. After the Test matches were over, Headley had an operation to remove a sebaceous cyst
Sebaceous cyst
A sebaceous cyst is a term that loosely refers to either epidermoid cysts or pilar cysts . Because an epidermoid cyst originates in the epidermis and a pilar cyst originates from hair follicles, by definition, neither type of cyst is strictly a sebaceous cyst...
from his forehead and missed several games, before returning for an end-of-season festival match in which he scored 167 against an England XI. When the tour concluded, Headley had scored 2,320 runs with seven hundreds, at an average of 66.28. This was over 1,000 runs more than any other tourist and placed him third in the English first-class batting averages for the season. Ivan Barrow believed Headley reached his batting peak during the tour. He recalled how many bowlers tried to hit his pads with the ball but Headley simply flicked the ball away. Headley's performances earned him selection as one of Wisden's Cricketers of the Year
Wisden Cricketers of the Year
The Wisden Cricketers of the Year are cricketers selected for the honour by the annual publication Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, based primarily on their "influence on the previous English season"...
. The accompanying article called his tour "almost a triumphant march" and described him as "the best batsman the West Indies have ever produced". Wisden editor Sydney Southerton also described him as a giant in the team and wrote: "From what we had been told by English players who had been to the West Indies, we were fully prepared for Headley's success, but even so, he astonished most of us." Headley bowled more than he had previously: prior to the tour, he had taken three first class wickets, but took 21 wickets in England at an average
Bowling average
Bowling average is a statistic measuring the performance of bowlers in the sport of cricket.A bowler's bowling average is defined as the total number of runs conceded by the bowlers divided by the number of wickets taken by the bowler, so the lower the average the better. It is similar to earned...
of 34.33, bowling off spin
Off spin
Off spin is a type of bowling in the sport of cricket which is bowled by an off spinner, a right-handed spin bowler who uses his or her fingers and/or wrist to spin the ball from a right-handed batsman's off side to the leg side...
.
During the tour, Headley received news that his aunt had been killed by floods in Kingston which had also destroyed his home. Headley was greatly affected by the news, particularly the nature of her death. Although not able to attend the funeral, he wanted to leave England on an earlier ship than the rest of the team, but this could not be arranged in time.
Lancashire League
Following his success in England in 1933, Headley was offered a two-year contract to play professional cricket for HaslingdenHaslingden Cricket Club
Haslingden Cricket Club is a cricket club in the Lancashire League, which plays its home games at Bentgate in Haslingden. For the 2011 season its captain is Graham Knowles, and its professional is former Ramsbottom amateur Phil Hayes of England. The club has won the league on 12 occasions and the...
in the Lancashire League for £500 per season, the highest of several offers. The money was far more than he was earning from working as a fruit picker in Jamaica, and after consulting the Jamaican Cricket Board, who advised him to accept, he signed with the club on 8 September 1933. There was a special provision which allowed Headley to be released to play for West Indies. Living in Haslingden where there were few, if any, other black people, Headley faced some prejudice from residents. However, he was generally welcomed and accepted. His first season was in 1934 and his first match was against Nelson
Nelson Cricket Club
Nelson Cricket Club, based at Seedhill in Nelson, Lancashire, are a cricket club in the Lancashire League. They play at the Seedhill ground in Nelson. Their captain for the 2011 season is Thomas Lord and their professional is New Zealand international player Luke Woodcock.Nelson Cricket Club was...
, for whom Headley's West Indian Test colleague Learie Constantine played. Headley had a difficult match. As the professional, he was expected to open the bowling although as a spinner, he would normally have bowled later in an innings. When he batted he was run out for a duck
Duck (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, a duck refers to a batsman's dismissal for a score of zero.-Origin of the term:The term is a shortening of the term "duck's egg", the latter being used long before Test cricket began...
by Constantine after facing one delivery
Delivery (cricket)
A delivery or ball in cricket is a single action of bowling a cricket ball towards the batsman.During play of the game, a member of the fielding team is designated as the bowler, and bowls deliveries towards the batsman...
, and Haslingden lost the match. After this poor start, Headley scored 1,063 runs in the season at an average of 50.62, with three centuries. He changed his bowling style to medium pace and took 59 wickets at an average of 16.59. In 1935 he scored over 900 runs at an average of 61.13, and took 34 wickets; his contract was renewed for another two years. In 1936 he again scored over 900 runs, and took 54 wickets. In 1937 he broke the record for most runs scored by any player in a Lancashire League season, accumulating 1,360 at an average of 97.15, with five centuries; he also took 41 wickets. Headley's final two-year contract with the club covered the seasons 1938 and 1940, since he was expected to tour England with the West Indies team in 1939. The war prevented him playing in 1940, so his last season with Haslingden was 1938. Although in that year his overall batting performance declined, to 677 runs at an average of 37.61, he took 76 wickets at 9.70 and had success in the Worsley Cup competition, including one innings of 189 not out in a match played over five evenings.
Career in mid-1930s
Headley did not play any first-class cricket in the West Indies in 1933–34, but returned to Jamaica in readiness for the 1934–35 MCC tour. The visiting team, under the captaincy of Bob WyattBob Wyatt
Robert "Bob" Elliott Storey Wyatt was an English cricket player. He played for Warwickshire, Worcestershire, and the English cricket team....
, was stronger than English teams that had previously toured the Caribbean; despite some shortcomings, Wisden and other critics considered it strong enough for the task in hand.
The first Test in Barbados was badly affected by rain which made the pitch almost impossible to bat on. West Indies batted first and were bowled out for 102; Headley's 44 was the highest score of the match. In reply, England had scored 81 for seven when Wyatt declared in an attempt to make West Indies bat while the pitch was difficult. In the second innings, Headley was out for a duck and Jackie Grant declared when West Indies had scored 51 for six, so that England required 73 to win; they did so after losing six wickets. In the second Test, Headley scored 25 in his first innings; in the second, he adopted a cautious approach as his team led by 44, hitting 93 in 225 minutes. West Indies subsequently bowled out England to win the match and level the series. The rain-affected third Test was drawn, with Headley's 53 his side's top score.
The MCC went to Jamaica for the final leg of their tour. Headley played two matches for Jamaica against the tourists; he failed in the first game but scored 127 in the second. The teams went into the fourth and final Test with the series still level at one win apiece. West Indies batted first, facing accurate bowling. The local press criticised the West Indies batsmen for slow batting on the first day, but Headley scored 132. The Daily Gleaner noted that Headley maintained the controlled approach he had established in the season. On the second day, he took his score to 270 not out, and the Gleaner described him as "the genius we all know, scoring with all his old freedom and audacity". In total, he batted for 495 minutes and hit 30 fours, recording the highest score by a West Indian batsman. It remained a West Indian record until Garfield Sobers
Garfield Sobers
Sir Garfield St Aubrun Sobers AO, OCC is a former cricketer who captained West Indies. His first name of Garfield is variously abbreviated as Gary or Garry. He is widely regarded as one of cricket's greatest ever all-rounders, having excelled at all the essential skills of batting, bowling and...
scored 365 not out in 1958, and was the team's highest against England until Lawrence Rowe
Lawrence Rowe
Lawrence George Rowe is a former West Indian cricketer.Lawrence, also known as "Yagga", was an elegant right-handed batsman described by Michael Holding, his team mate, as "the best batsman I ever saw". It was felt that his ability was so extraordinary that Sobers believed he could have been the...
scored 302 in 1974. West Indies scored 535 for seven and bowled out England twice to record their first victory in a Test series. Headley contributed 485 runs at an average of 97.00.
Headley returned to England to play for Haslingden in the 1935 English season, and played a single first-class game, scoring a century for Sir L Parkinson's XI against Leicestershire. In the 1935–36 season, the Yorkshire team toured Jamaica, playing three first-class matches, winning one and drawing the others. The touring county considered Headley the key batsman, and targeted him by bowling defensively in an attempt to frustrate him. Headley lost his wicket through impatience in the first match, although he scored a pair of fifties, but scored a century in the third game. In total, he scored 266 runs at an average of 53.20, but Yorkshire won the series after winning the first game, Jamaica's first defeat at home in a first-class game for ten years. The matches were played in a very competitive atmosphere, but scoring was slow and Yorkshire played attritional cricket. During the series, Headley demanded expenses, which were not normally granted to the players. The Jamaican Board were reluctant to pay but Headley pointed out that, as a professional cricketer, he was entitled to the same treatment as the Yorkshire players, whose expenses were provided. The Board eventually relented before the series ended.
Second tour of England
West Indian cricket team in England in 1939
The West Indies cricket team toured England in the 1939 season to play a three-match Test series against England. England won the series 1-0 with two matches drawn. A total of 25 first-class matches was played and the West Indian side won eight of them and lost six, with the others drawn...
. These matches were played in Trinidad where it was believed the matting pitches would most closely replicate English conditions; Jamaica played Trindidad and a combination team. When Jamaica's captain, Crab Nethersole, withdrew from the tour due to political commitments, Headley led Jamaica in both matches and scored 160 and 103. Subsequently, he was chosen for his second tour of England, under the captaincy of Rolph Grant
Rolph Grant
Rolph Stewart Grant was a West Indian cricketer who captained them in their 1939 tour of England.Grant was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.-References:...
. Headley opened his tour with fifties in his first two matches and by the time the Test series started, although the tourists had lost three matches, he had scored three centuries—103 against Cambridge University
Cambridge University Cricket Club
Cambridge University Cricket Club is a first-class cricket team. It now plays all but one of its first-class cricket matches as part of the Cambridge University Centre of Cricketing Excellence , which includes Anglia Ruskin University...
, 116 not out in a victory over Essex
Essex County Cricket Club
Essex County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the historic county of Essex. Its limited overs team is called the Essex Eagles, their team colours this season are blue.The club plays most of its home games...
and 227 as the tourists defeated Middlesex.
In the first Test, West Indies suffered their only defeat of the series. However, Norman Preston
Norman Preston
Norman Preston, MBE was an English cricket journalist.He began his career with the old Pardon's Cricket Reporting Agency in 1933 and served on three overseas tours as Reuters' correspondent. He succeeded his father, Hubert Preston, as editor of the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack and was in charge for...
, the editor of Wisden, wrote: "the match provided a personal triumph for Headley", as he became only the second cricketer after Herbert Sutcliffe
Herbert Sutcliffe
Herbert Sutcliffe was an English professional cricketer who represented Yorkshire and England as an opening batsman. Apart from one match in 1945, his first-class career spanned the period between the two World Wars...
to make two hundreds in the same Test match on two separate occasions, having previously done so against England in 1930. He became the first player to score two hundreds in a Lord's Test, a feat not repeated until 1990. In the first innings, Headley scored 106 with 13 fours. After sharing a big partnership with Jeff Stollmeyer
Jeff Stollmeyer
Jeffrey Baxter Stollmeyer was a Trinidad and Tobago cricketer and footballer. He played 32 Tests for the West Indies, captaining 13 of these....
, he received little help from the other batsmen. He played cautiously during his 250-minute innings, as he was aware that his team were relying on his success. By the time West Indies batted again, England had established a lead of 127. Headley again batted defensively to score 107, taking two hours to reach 50, as West Indies needed to bat for a long time to secure a draw. However, he scored runs from any loose bowling and batted in all for 230 minutes, hitting eight fours. Preston, writing in Wisden, believed the West Indians relied too much on Headley's batting. He also noted that Headley had to play cautiously for his team and although he hit powerful shots, "he was not the same dashing batsmen that England knew in 1933". Headley had scored three centuries in consecutive Test innings, but he could not prevent England winning this first Test by eight wickets. He continued to score heavily in the tour matches, making an unbeaten 234 in an innings win over Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club
Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Nottinghamshire, and the current county champions. Its limited overs team is called the Nottinghamshire Outlaws...
, followed by 61 against Yorkshire on a sticky wicket
Sticky wicket
Sticky wicket is a metaphor used to describe a difficult circumstance; it originates from difficult circumstances in the sport of cricket.-Origins:...
, one of the best innings Neville Cardus
Neville Cardus
Sir John Frederick Neville Cardus CBE was an English writer and critic, best known for his writing on music and cricket. For many years, he wrote for The Manchester Guardian. He was untrained in music, and his style of criticism was subjective, romantic and personal, in contrast with his critical...
had seen.
The second Test was drawn, after being badly affected by rain. Headley, although troubled by the English bowling on a difficult pitch, top-scored with 51 in West Indies' first innings but the other batsmen contributed little. Headley scored just five in West Indies' brief second innings, bringing to an end a sequence of six fifties in successive Test innings. After the Test, Headley scored 93 against Surrey but failed to reach fifty in his next three games, which included three single figure scores. West Indies needed to win the final Test to level the series and the team established a first-innings lead of 146. Headley played cautiously for 140 minutes, attempting to tire out the bowlers, but was run out for 65 in a misunderstanding with Vic Stollmeyer
Vic Stollmeyer
Victor Humphrey Stollmeyer was a West Indian cricketer who played in one Test in 1939.Vic Stollmeyer was the older brother of West Indian captain Jeff Stollmeyer....
. The remaining batsmen played well, attacking the English bowling. Preston believed this match demonstrated West Indies' ability to compete at the highest level. However, England were able to bat long enough to secure a draw. In the Test series, Headley scored 334 runs at an average of 66.80, but did not play again on the tour after the final Test, as the team were advised to abandon the last seven matches because of the deteriorating political situation in Europe. They arrived in Canada on the day that Britain declared war on Germany. In all first-class matches during the tour, Headley scored 1,745 runs at 72.70, placing him at the top of the season's first-class averages.
Wisden judged Headley to be the best batsman of the 1939 season, while other critics rated him among the best batsmen in the world, with favourable comparisons to Bradman. C. B. Fry, a former England captain turned journalist, wrote that Headley's "middle name should be Atlas", suggesting that he carried the team on his shoulders.
After the war
Following the outbreak of war, the Lancashire League clubs cancelled professionals' contracts, meaning Headley did not complete his final year with Haslingden. Having returned to Jamaica, he worked in the Labour Department for the government and played cricket for Lucas, enjoying batting success and captaining his team to victory in the Senior Cup on three occasions. Headley continued to play for the team until 1947, when he left to play for the Kensington Club. Unlike other Caribbean teams, Jamaica did not take part in inter-island competition, and although Headley played some exhibition matches in America in 1945, it was not until June 1946 that he took part in his next first-class match. Trinidad played three matches in Jamaica and Headley scored 52 in the second game but only reached his best form when he scored 99 in the third. However, he was successful as a bowler, taking five for 33 in the first game, the only five wicket return of his career. This included a spell of three wickets without conceding a run in 14 deliveries, prompting a pitch invasion by the crowd. Headley also captained Jamaica in the final two matches of the series against Trinidad after the official captain was injured during the home team's win in the first match—the other two were drawn.Prior to a visit by Barbados
Barbados national cricket team
The Barbadian cricket team is the representative first class cricket team of Barbados.It does not take part in any international competitions , but rather in inter-regional competitions in the Caribbean, such as the Regional Four Day Competition and the WICB Cup, and the best players may be...
in March 1947, Headley was officially appointed as Jamaican captain. Previous captains of island teams had been almost exclusively white. Around this time, Headley requested the Jamaican board provide support for low income players with their kit and transport costs. In the first game against Barbados, Headley scored 203 not out and 57 not out, took four for 40 in the tourists' first innings and another wicket in the second. Although the game was drawn, he had recorded Jamaica's highest score in a match between the Caribbean islands. The second match was also drawn; Headley made 79 before he had to retire when he fell and injured his knee. Another American tour followed, in which Headley was accompanied by promising young players, before he led the Jamaican team to British Guiana in October 1947. He played only two innings in the two matches, scoring 36 and 4 not out. A thumb injury in the first match meant he could not bat, although he bowled 44 overs in the game. Headley was verbally abused by a section of the crowd, who disapproved of a black captain; he was also dissatisfied with the impartiality of the umpires. Crab Nethersole, the Jamaican manager for the tour, reported that injuries to key players and the poor attitude of the crowd made the tour difficult, although Headley's captaincy was universally praised.
Resumption of Test career
For reasons related to class and race, it had been unthinkable before the war for the West Indies to appoint a black Test captain, but the postwar world saw social and political changes in the Caribbean. Although opinion was still divided over the merits of a black captain, Headley was appointed as one of the West Indian captains for the series against the England team which toured the Caribbean in 1948. Crab Nethersole, the former Jamaican captain and member of the Board of Control for cricket, argued Headley should be outright captain but a compromise was reached. Headley was scheduled to captain the first and fourth Test matches, played in Barbados and Jamaica, and the white players Gerry GomezGerry Gomez
Gerry Ethridge Gomez was a West Indian cricketer who played 29 Tests for the West Indies between 1939 and 1954, scoring 1,243 runs and taking 58 wickets. He captained in one match for the West Indies when England toured in 1947/8.Gomez was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad...
and John Goddard were given the captaincy of the second and third matches. In the event, Headley only played in the first Test. In the first innings, he scored 29 but strained his back while fielding. Batting towards the end of West Indies' second innings, he scored seven not out. Rain helped England to draw the match. Headley's back caused him to miss the second and third Tests, but he was fit enough to play for Jamaica when the tourists arrived there to play two games against the island before the fourth and final Test. After the first island game, in which he scored 65, Headley's request to miss the second match to rest his back was refused by the Jamaican Board. He scored 36 not out, but aggravated his back pains and he withdrew from the final Test. West Indies won this game under the captaincy of Goddard, who had earlier led West Indies to victory in the third Test. He was subsequently chosen to captain West Indies in India in 1948–49, despite Headley's availability and apparently superior claims to the position.
Selected for the Indian tour after a specific request by the Indian cricket authorities, Headley did not have much success in the early matches and in the drawn first Test he scored only two in a total of 631. West Indies then moved to Pakistan; in a non first-class game Headley took six wickets as a bowler, but then in a match against a representative Pakistan XI he fell and injured his side while attempting to take a catch. He batted in discomfort, scoring 57 not out. This injury meant that he played no further part in the five-match Test series against India. Although he continued to travel with the team, he was unable to play in any further matches until the final game of the tour, when he scored 100 against Ceylon Schools as the tourists travelled home via Ceylon
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
.
Headley played for the Kensington Club until 1950, when he resumed league cricket in England; he returned for a final season with Kensington in 1955 before retiring from Senior Cup cricket. Meanwhile, he took a new job as an insurance agent. This affected his availability for cricket as he was no longer able to take leave when playing for a team; if he did not work, he received no wages. Consequently, he did not accept the captaincy of Jamaica during the Test trials for the 1950 tour of England and did not travel with the team. Press reaction was unfavourable towards Headley but the West Indies Board still wanted to select him for the tour. However, Headley accepted a contract with Bacup
Bacup Cricket Club
Bacup Cricket Club, based at Lanehead in Bacup, Lancashire, are a cricket club in the Lancashire League.The club started in 1892 when the Lancashire League was formed. Their professional for the 2008 season was Chris Harris. Their captain for the 2011 season is David Warren and their professional...
in the Lancashire League, to replace Everton Weekes
Everton Weekes
Sir Everton DeCourcy Weekes, KCMG, GCM, OBE is a leading former West Indian cricketer. Along with Frank Worrell and Clyde Walcott, he formed what was known as "The Three Ws" of West Indian cricket.-Youth and early career:...
who was in the touring party.
For Bacup Headley scored 909 runs and took 20 wickets in 1950, before signing to play for Dudley
Dudley
Dudley is a large town in the West Midlands county of England. At the 2001 census , the Dudley Urban Sub Area had a population of 194,919, making it the 26th largest settlement in England, the second largest town in the United Kingdom behind Reading, and the largest settlement in the UK without...
in the Birmingham League in 1951. He and his family moved to Birmingham, and in each the next four seasons Headley averaged over 65 with the bat and under 17 with the ball. In his second season, the club topped the league. In total, he scored 2,878 runs for Dudley and, resuming off spin bowling, took 102 wickets. While in England during this time, he played several first-class matches for a Commonwealth XI against an England XI; he scored 20 in 1951 and accumulated 98 and 61 in 1952.
End of Test career
Headley's success for Dudley was watched keenly in Jamaica and commentators began to discuss his availability for the 1954 series against England. A public subscription to finance his travel to Jamaica, opened by the Daily Gleaner, raised over £1,000, and despite his reservations, Headley returned to Jamaica. Playing in a fund-raising match, he sustained a hand injury and playing for the Combined Parishes in a minor match against the MCC, a short ball from Fred TruemanFred Trueman
Frederick Sewards Trueman OBE was an English cricketer, generally acknowledged as one of the greatest fast bowlers in history. A bowler of genuinely fast pace who was widely known as Fiery Fred, Trueman played first-class cricket for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1949 until he retired in 1968...
struck Headley's arm. The latter injury kept him out of the first-class match between Jamaica and the MCC, but he played in the second where, although hampered by his injury, he scored 53 not out. The Test selectors had seen enough to include Headley in the team for the first Test. Reaction among critics was mixed, and Headley, nearing his 45th birthday, remains the oldest man as of March 2011 to play a Test match for West Indies. Headley batted at number six, and it appeared that England, under the captaincy of Len Hutton
Len Hutton
Sir Leonard "Len" Hutton was an English Test cricketer, who played for Yorkshire County Cricket Club and England in the years around the Second World War as an opening batsman. He was described by Wisden Cricketer's Almanack as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket...
, let Headley score an easy run to begin his innings, which Hutton later confirmed to be the case. However, Headley later argued that the run was given to ensure that he was batting at the beginning of the next over, so that England could try to get him out before he settled down.
Headley scored 16 and 1 in the match, his final Test appearance. He used his experience to influence the captain, Jeff Stollmeyer, advising him not to enforce the follow on and to use leg theory
Leg theory
Leg theory is a bowling tactic in the sport of cricket. The term leg theory is somewhat archaic and seldom used any more, but the basic tactic still plays a part in modern cricket....
bowling to slow down the tourists' scoring. These tactics helped West Indies to a 140-run win in a match they might have lost; Stollmeyer followed a similar approach in the following match. In 22 Tests, Headley scored 2,190 runs at an average of 60.83.
Headley finished his career at Dudley at the end of 1954; his son Ron played for the club from 1957, having already played for its second team in 1952 as a 13-year-old. After his final Test match appearance, Headley's only other first-class match was in the Commonwealth XI fixture in 1954, when he scored 64 in his final first-class innings. In a career total of 103 first-class games he aggregated 9,921 runs at 69.86, with 33 centuries, and took 51 wickets at 36.11.
Style, technique and legacy
Headley is regarded by critics as one of the best batsmen from the Caribbean and one of the greatest batsmen of all time. In his history of West Indies cricket, Michael Manley described Headley as "the yardstick against whom all other West Indian batsmen are measured". In 1988, The CricketerThe Cricketer
The Cricketer was an English cricket magazine published between 1921 and 2003 when it was merged with Wisden Cricket Monthly and relaunched as The Wisden Cricketer....
magazine placed him in an all-time West Indian team, as did a panel of judges for another such team in July 2010, while in 2004, another panel of experts named him among the top five West Indian players. He was given the nicknames "the Black Bradman" and "Atlas" by commentators, and was the first world-class batsman from the West Indies who was black. According to historian Gideon Haigh, his role was made harder by the weakness of his colleagues, as few outstanding players find it easy to play in teams which lose frequently. Although he was a naturally attacking player, Headley felt the need to play cautiously owing to the way his team depended on him. C. L. R. James believed that no other great batsman had to carry such a burden for so long. In the years before the war, Headley scored 25.61% of the runs scored in Tests by West Indies, more than twice as many as the next best batsman, and two-thirds of the team's centuries, scoring ten of the team's first fourteen centuries in Test cricket. Headley usually batted at number three and as the opening batsmen were often dismissed quickly, he frequently began his innings early.
As of April 2011, Headley's average in Test matches of 60.83 is third highest among those with 2,000 runs, behind Bradman and Graeme Pollock
Graeme Pollock
Robert Graeme Pollock, known as Graeme, is a former cricketer. He played in 23 Test matches for South Africa and represented Transvaal and Eastern Province at domestic level....
, and but for the Tests he played after the war, he would have been above Pollock. In all first-class matches, he has the third highest average with 69.86, behind Bradman and Vijay Merchant
Vijay Merchant
Vijaysingh Madhavji Merchant , real name Vijay Madhavji Thakersey was an Indian cricketer. A right-hand batter and occasional right-arm medium pace bowler, Merchant played first class cricket for Mumbai cricket team as well as 10 Test matches for India between 1929 and 1951...
among those who played 50 innings. He averaged a century every fourth innings in which he batted, second again to Bradman, and did not suffer a poor series in his career before the war.
Manley describes Headley as just under medium height with sloping shoulders. His movements were precise and economical on the cricket field; his cap was usually at a slight angle and his sleeves were buttoned down to the wrist. Wisden noted in 1933 that his timing and placement of the ball was perfect. Exceptionally quick on his feet, he watched the ball onto the bat more than any other batsman. According to Wisden, all his shots were equally good but most notable was his on drive played from the back foot. He hit the ball hard and was very difficult to get out. He faced criticism for playing off the back foot so often, but R. C. Robertson-Glasgow
R. C. Robertson-Glasgow
Raymond Charles 'Crusoe' Robertson-Glasgow was a British cricketer and cricket writer....
believed his square cut, late cut, and hook were exceptionally good. Headley was particularly effective on bad batting wickets. C. L. R. James calculated that Headley averaged 39.85 and passed fifty on seven occasions in thirteen innings on difficult wickets. According to James's reckoning, Bradman in similar conditions passed fifty once, and averaged 16.66 in fifteen innings. Headley himself preferred batting when the odds favoured the bowlers as he had to go for his shots and play his natural attacking game. He stated: "On a bad wicket, it was you and the bowler ...no nonsense."
Beyond cricket, Headley's success was regarded as important. Of Headley's meeting with the king of England in 1939, the West Indian writer Frank Birbalsingh said: "That one of us—a black man—could shake the hand of a king introduced possibilities formerly undreamt of in our colonial backwater of racial inferiority, psychological subordination and political powerlessness". Manley notes that Headley rose to success at a time of political awakening in Jamaica, when the black majority of the population were increasingly determined to end the minority rule of landowners and challenge the racism of the time. According to Manley, the middle classes saw in Headley "the reassurance which they needed. He demonstrated black capacity." The white upper classes were proud of his achievements as a West Indian, but Manley writes "it was to the black masses that Headley had the deepest significance ... [He] became the focus for longing of an entire people for proof: proof of their own self-worth, their own capacity. Furthermore, they wanted this proof to be laid at the door of the white man who owned the world which defined their circumstances." Manley sees the title of "Atlas" not just in sporting terms, but in his carrying "the hopes of the black, English-speaking Caribbean man ... He was black excellence personified in a white world and in a white sport."
Coaching career
Following the 1955 cricket season, Headley was invited to become a national coach, a post created by the Jamaican government, which involved working mainly with young people. Headley and his second son travelled back to Jamaica, while the rest of the family remained in England. Headley had a heavy workload, particularly in rural areas; together with his assistant Dickie FullerDickie Fuller
Richard Livingston Fuller was a West Indian cricketer who played in one Test in 1934-35....
his role involved encouraging school children to watch and play cricket, and trying to improve standards and facilities throughout the country. Headley became involved in the selection of teams, taking some of them overseas. At this time, he discovered the future West Indian Test player Roy Gilchrist
Roy Gilchrist
Roy Gilchrist was a West Indian cricketer who played 13 Tests for the West Indies in the 1950s. He was born in Saint Thomas, Jamaica and died of Parkinson's disease in St Catherine, Jamaica at the age of 67....
and future Jamaican cricketer Henry Sewell. However, critics in the 1960s complained that there were not enough Jamaicans in the Test side and blamed Headley and Fuller, although the government remained supportive of their performance. In 1961, Headley coached for six months in Nigeria and earned praise from the Nigerian Cricket Association. His official coaching role in Jamaica ended after a new government withdrew funding for coaching in 1962.
Family and retirement
Headley married Rena Saunders in 1939. He had nine children in total, including Ron HeadleyRon Headley
Ronald George Alphonso Headley is a former West Indian cricketer who played in two Tests and one ODI in 1973. An opening batsman, in first-class cricket he scored 21,695 runs at an average of 31.12, with 32 hundreds and a highest score of 187.Headley spent most of his career in England, playing...
who was born two days after the end of the Lord's Test of 1939. Ron Headley went on to play professional cricket for the English counties Worcestershire
Worcestershire County Cricket Club
Worcestershire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Worcestershire...
and Derbyshire, and represented Jamaica before playing two Tests for West Indies in 1973. Another son, Lyndie, reached the semi-finals of the 100 metres
100 metres
The 100 metres, or 100-metre dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, it is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896...
and came fourth in the 100 metres relay at the 1964 Olympics
1964 Summer Olympics
The 1964 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVIII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event held in Tokyo, Japan in 1964. Tokyo had been awarded with the organization of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but this honor was subsequently passed to Helsinki because of Japan's...
and won a gold medal with Jamaican sprint relay teams in the Central American and Caribbean Games
Central American and Caribbean Games
The Central American and Caribbean Games are a multi-sport regional championships event, held quadrennial , typically in the middle year between Summer Olympics...
of 1966 and silver with the relay team at the Commonwealth Games
Commonwealth Games
The Commonwealth Games is an international, multi-sport event involving athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930 and takes place every four years....
of the same year. Ron's son Dean
Dean Headley
Dean Warren Headley is an English cricketer.He comes from a famous cricketing family, being the son of Ron Headley and grandson of George Headley. He was the first Test cricketer to be both the son and grandson of Test cricketers...
, Headley's grandson, played Test cricket for England; the family thus became the first to have three generations play Test cricket.
After his retirement from coaching, Headley remained associated with cricket, presenting awards and playing in friendly matches. He was the official representative of the Jamaican Cricket Board at Constantine's funeral in 1971. Official recognition came Headley's way when he was awarded the M.B.E.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
in 1956 and was made an honorary life member of the MCC in 1958. In 1969, a bronze sculpture of his head was unveiled in Jamaica's National Stadium, and in 1973 the Norman Manley Foundation gave him the Award for Excellence in Sports. In the latter year, he also received the Order of Distinction
Order of distinction
The Order of Distinction in Jamaica is the fifth in order of precedence of the Orders of Societies of Honour, which were instituted by an Act of Parliament – The National Honours and Awards Act.The Motto of the Order is "Distinction Through Service"....
. He died in Kingston on 30 November 1983.