Larry Gomes

Strange. During his formative years as a Middlesex player he displayed touches but no real hint of what was to come. Too diffident, some said. The Packer years gave him his first international opportunity for West Indies and later, when the fences had been mended, he still kept his place as the slim, calm figure of reason amongst the mayhem that was created by the massive strokemakers that surrounded him. In this regard he was not a Caribbean batsman at all: slightly built, upright, elegant in that way that left handers have, but an efficient batsman in times of strife rather than an exhuberant destroyer. Bowlers might prefer to face him rather than one of the thunderbats but it made their task no less difficult. Six centuries against Australia, none better than that on a bouncy Perth strip in 1984 that set up an innings victory, tell their own tale of a quiet achiever. Mike Selvey