Wilton St. Hill is the subject of a complete chapter in the famed Beyond a Boundary by CLR James. And the author was unequivocal in his assessment: “In my gallery, [St Hill] is present with Bradman, Sobers, George Headley and the three Ws, Hutton and Compton, Peter May and a few others … He saw the ball as early as anyone. He played it as late as anyone. His spirit was untameable, perhaps too much so. There we must leave it.”
James also mentioned how much St Hill meant to black Trinidadians, “[he was] one of us, performing in excels is in a sphere where competition was open ... Wilton St Hill was our boy.”
Perhaps because he was ‘our boy’ and a fellow Trinidadian, James overstated the merits of St Hill to the limits of ridiculousness.
Far from being comparable to Bradman, Sobers and all of them, Hill scored 1,948 runs from 43 First-Class matches at a rather mediocre average of 27.15. A member of the first ever West Indian Test team, his 3 Tests got him 117 runs at 19.50 with a highest of 38. His only England tour saw him score 262 runs at 10.92. Even the age-old and, by definition, unsubstantiated argument ‘numbers don’t reflect the true picture’ cannot really shield one against such figures.
Even during his era, taking ‘in those days’ arguments into consideration, players like George Challenor, Freddie Martin, Karl Nunes, Clifford Roach, Learie Constantine, George Francis, Herman Griffith and others were considerably more successful West Indian cricketers, to say nothing of George Headley,
Manny Martindale and the others that followed. Comparison to Headley, Sobers and the Ws are laughable in the West Indian context and it is plain absurd to put him beside the likes of Hutton, May and Compton, let alone Bradman.
St Hill was probably a talented cricketer. But, his career serves as warning as to how seriously misleading accounts of reputed and biased historians of the game can be.
Arunabha Sengupta
Career | M | In | R | NO | HS | Avg | BF | SR | 100s | 50s | 4s | 6s | Ct | St |
Test | 3 | 6 | 117 | 0 | 38 | 19.50 | -- | -- | 0 | 0 | -- | -- | 1 | 0 |
ODIs | 0 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | |
T20s | 0 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | |
World Cup | 0 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
Career | M | B | R | W | Avg | EC | SR | 5WI | 10WM | BBI | BBM |
Test | 3 | 12 | 9 | 0 | -- | 4.500 | -- | 0 | 0 | 0/9 | 0/9 |
ODIs | 0 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | ||
T20s | 0 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | ||
World Cup | 0 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
Test Debut
England v West Indies at Lord's Cricket Ground, St John's Wood, June 23, 1928
Last Test
West Indies v England at Queen's Park Oval, Port of Spain, February 1, 1930
A member of the first ever West Indian Test team, Wilton St Hill played just 3 Tests getting 117 runs at 19.50 with a highest of 38.
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