DIGICEL’s Guyanese International Cricketer No. 9

CHRISTIANI, Robert Julian
D.O.B:  July 19, 1920 (Georgetown)
Teams:  British Guiana, West Indies
Robert Christiani was undoubtedly the most versatile Guyanese cricketer and one of the best of the region to have played for the West Indies.

He began his first-class career in 1938 principally as a wicketkeeper and lower order batsman but was a remarkable close-to-the-wicket fielder and a cunning right-arm leg-spinner.
He narrowly missed out on selection for West Indies tour to England in 1939 as a specialist wicketkeeper. When war broke out the same year and international cricket was suspended, Christiani spent the intervening years working on his batting.
The tall, bespectacled, languid right-hander dominated the local arena during his time (1938-1954), contesting 88 matches and aggregating 5 103 runs. He registered 12 centuries and 27 fifties at the top-tier average of 40.50 per innings. 
He was renowned for his fluent off-drives, superb hooking and his dancing down the pitch to thwart the spinners.
His batting exploits at the local and regional level earned him a place in the West Indies team against England in Barbados for the first Test of the 1948 series. Batting at number six in the order he made scores of one and 99 to become the first and only West Indian to date and only the second player at the time to be dismissed one short of a century on debut.
Christiani did enough during the series to book a place to India in 1948 but although he played in all five Tests, he suffered from batting too late in the order in a strong line-up that included the likes of Alan Rae, Jeffrey Stollmeyer, Clyde Walcott and Everton Weekes.
In fact, in the first Test match in Delhi he batted at number eight but still managed to strike his first and only Test ton (107) in a mammoth West Indies total of 631. In doing so be became the first Guyanese to reach three figures and the first West Indian to score a Test hundred from that position.
Christiani also took three Indian top order wickets in the second innings with his leg-breaks, sending down 23 overs and conceding only 52 runs. His victims were the distinguished trio of Rusi Modi, Vijay Hazare and Dattaray Phadkar.
To further give credence to his multi-talented nature, he took over the gloves from the injured Walcott during the Calcutta Test and proceeded to take one catch and effect two stumpings.
He was the lone Guyanese to tour England in the historic 1950 series but although he had good overall returns in other first class games, his Test figures were poor. In fact he totalled a paltry 82 runs in six innings at a measly average of 16.40 runs per innings.
Between 1951 and 1954, he visited Australia and New Zealand and was involved in Tests at home against India and England. The last of his 22 Tests was played in front of his home fans at Bourda when he made 25 and 11 as England romp to victory by nine wickets.
He carried the country’s flag single-handedly at the international level for six years until players of the calibre of Rohan Kanhai, Basil Butcher and Joe Soloman arrived.
His brothers Cyril, Ernest and Harry represented Guyana at the first class level. Cyril played four Test matches as wicketkeeper in 1935.
Robert Christiani died in Canada in 2004.
RECORD 
TESTS: 22 RUNS: 896 AVG: 26.35 HS: 107 v India, Delhi 1948
WKTS: 3 BB: 3/52 v India, Delhi 1948
CATCHES: 19 (one as wkpr in addition to 2 stumpings)
(DIGICEL: Guyana’s Bigger, Better Network)

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