Where are the Crowd Pullers? (Part 1)

Gilchrist retires from international cricket!

This news item shook me. He probably belonged to the last of the crowd pullers left in the game.

Who is a crowd puller? According to the Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms, a crowd puller is something or someone that many people are keen to go and see.

I have watched the game for close to three decades. There have been players who have captured my imagination over the years.

The West Indian team of the eighties was for me the greatest crowd pullers. I do not think any other team, including the current Aussie team, who were as feared as these people were. When they batted, they murdered bowling attacks, but without losing their flair. When they bowled, they bowled very fast but there was some grace in their effort!!



I cannot think of anyone who cut and pulled as ferociously as Gordon Greenidge. A short ball and a moment later, the ball was fetched from the point boundary or the square leg boundary. His partner-in-crime was the gum-chewing Desmond Haynes. Today’s generation talk glowingly about the Hayden-Langer partnership. I may sound biased probably but it was wonderful watching the West Indian duo play.

Whenever the first West Indian wicket fell, in walked another gum-chewing batsman. I cannot remember any player who created a fan following as much for his swaggering walk to the crease as much for his destructive batting. I follow tennis and watch Federer play unbelievable, yet attractive tennis (most of the time in utter disbelief)—I dare say Richards was like that. He could play incredible shots! I never saw him play with a helmet—he had such a tight technique! It was magic to see him walk up to the batting crease and score those runs.

Clive Lloyd was a giant, in every sense! He was a tall figure—he could be intimidating whenever he crouched, leave alone hold a bat! The sight of Lloyd in the first slip with Richards and Roger Harper for company was not something the batsman looked forward to—it was exhilarating to see them move effortlessly to pull off those blinders! Watching them pouch catches was a treat to behold!


The West Indians made fast bowling a treat to behold. Who can forget Andy Roberts running in and bowl a sharp bouncer, just about missing the batsman’s head? The next ball would be a fuller length delivery and the batsman is gone, caught on the crease, and ‘caught behind’! If the batsman played out a Roberts over, they had to reckon with Holding! Holding’s motion to the crease was like Rolls Royce (not my term!). Then you had the Big Bird, Joel Garner. He was 6 ft 6 inches tall and he bowled deliveries from almost 9 feet. Imagine him bowl to a batsman like Gavaskar who was 5 feet 5 inches—it can give you goose bumps! Marshall was an unconventional fast bowler—short and ever smiling. I can vividly remember him run from a long run-up, round the wicket and aimed at the batsman’s body. After "the strike," he would walk to the top of his run-up with an endearing smile.

Those were the smiling ‘assassins’! We would throng the TV sets to watch these guys play. They were never short of intensity and played the game ‘hard’ (don’t ask me what that means!). But they did so with some amount of grace ala the great Federer!