Published: May 03, 2013, 11:18 AM (IST)
Edited: Aug 24, 2014, 04:14 PM (IST)
Captain Alvin Kallicharran (L) scored a timely 126 to come to hold the crumbling West Indies second innings. The next highest score in the innings was 27 © Getty Images
On May 3, 1978 Australia’s tour of the West Indies ended on an unexpected note. Australia needed one wicket to win the fifth and the final Test match, but the crowd disturbance halted the victory march of the visitors. Sarang Bhalerao looks at one of cricket’s most controversial episodes.
This was the time when Kerry Packer was busy signing Caribbean players for the World Series cricket. Australian Cricket Board had not selected any of the Packer players as a result the greenhorns took the field in the Test series. Bobby Simpson came out of retirement and led the Australians. He led Australia to a 3-2 victory against India earlier that summer.
West Indies dominated Australian in the first two Test matches and finished off the games within three days. By the end of the second Test match, relations between West Indies players and the board was strained. West Indian players owing allegiance to Kerry Packer, pulled out of the third Test match at Guyana and the second string West Indies side was below-par. The Alvin Kallicharran-led West Indies team lost the Guyana Test by three wickets, but did well to win the fourth Test at Port of Spain by 198 runs.
Australia’s victory over Jamaica followed the Trinidad drubbing. In that game umpire Douglas Sang Hue twice called Bruce Yardley for chucking. The Australians were bewildered by those calls. When Sang Hue was appointed for the final Test match as an umpire, the Australians did not condone that. They protested Sang Hue’s appointment. The West Indies board dropped Hue and replaced him with Wesley Malcolm. Experienced Ralph Gosein was the other umpire in the Test.
The fifth Test match at Jamaica was dominated by Australia. Peter Toohey (122) top-scored in Australia’s irst innings in Australia’s first innings total of 343. Trevor Laughlin picked up five for 101 as West Indies were bowled out for 280. In their second essay Toohey (97) and Graeme Wood (90) allowed captain Bobby Simpson — playing his last Test — to declare at 305 for three, leaving West Indies the challenge of surviving the entire fifth day.
Defeat looked certain for the West Indies, with the scoreboard reading 88 for five, with only Alvin Kallicharran defying the Australian attack by scoring 126. At 258 for eight, Vanburn Holder was given out caught behind by umpire Malcolm off the bowling of Higgs. Australia were now just one wicket away from clinching the Test match and had 38 balls to pick up the last wicket.
But the crowd was fuming over Holder’s dismissal — a reason good enough for them to invade the playing arena. In an interview to ESPNCricinfo,Toohey said: “Jamaica was a volatile place: crime was rampant and we were warned not to go out alone at night. The robbers “don’t just steal your ring, they chop your wrist off”, we were told. Things weren’t much better at the ground. A few West Indian players warned us against disputing the umpire’s decisions, as the crowds were notorious for the way they behaved. Apparently some fans even carried guns into the stands. There was wire netting circling the ground, from the grandstands to the fence, to arrest any crowd invasions.
“Vanburn Holder was legitimately dismissed, caught behind off the glove. He showed no dissent, but on his way back he took his gloves off, and out of disgust at himself for getting out, hit them against his hip.
“That did it. The crowd thought it was a bad decision. Suddenly, as we were celebrating the wicket, we found stones and all kinds of stuff — bottles, chairs even — being thrown across the ground at us. Some of it even reached us at the wicket, where we were grouped. We began to get a little worried. The dressing room was under the grandstands and there was no chance we could make it back safely,” said Toohey.
The detritus of empty bottles, debris and stones on the pitch made it impossible for the play to continue on the fifth day. An attempt to finish the game on the next day failed as umpire Gosein refused to officiate the game. His argument was that there was no provision in the law or the playing conditions for the match to be extended. Even the stand-by umpire John Gayle refused to officiate for the aforementioned reasons.
Toohey recalled: “Finally, after about 40 minutes, the riot police arrived and escorted us back. Relieved to be in safer confines, we had just started to laugh about the incident when we heard gunfire and hit the deck. Apparently people were setting the stands on fire and the cops were firing blanks in the air, and then teargas to disperse the crowds. A little later real bullets were fired as well. We needed an armed escort to get back to the hotel. After the ruckus died down we realised how close we had been to victory. Simmo (Simpson) strongly wanted to play a sixth day, and the WICB [West Indies Cricket Board] were willing. Some of us players were reluctant, but a vote was taken and it was decided we would play. But while umpire Wesley Malcolm was willing and brave enough, his partner Ralph Gosein refused. A third umpire, John Gayle, too said no. So the game was declared a draw. We had had about six overs the previous evening. We would have won, no doubt about that. The match was taken away from us.”
West Indies won the series 3-1. It was a series bedeviled by malice and ended on a controversial note.
Brief scores:
Australia 343 (Peter Toohey 122; Raphick Jumadeen 4 for 72) and 305 for 3 declared (Peter Toohey 97, Graeme Wood 90; Raphick Jumadeen 2 for 90) drew with West Indies 280 (Larry Gomes 115; Trevor Laughlin 5 for 101) and 258 for 9 (Alvin Kallicharran 126; Bruce Yardley 4 for 35).
(Sarang Bhalerao hails from a family of doctors, but did his engineering. He then dumped a career in IT with Infosys to follow his heart and passion and became a writer with CricketCountry. A voracious reader, Sarang aspires to beat Google with his knowledge of the game! You can follow him on Twitter here)
