LAMBERT, Clayton Benjamin
D.O.B: February 10, 1962 (Berbice, Guyana)
Teams: Guyana, Northern Transvaal, West Indies, USA
Clayton Lambert was a powerfully-built left-handed opening batsman with an unorthodox stance who played five Test matches and 11 One Day Internationals for the West Indies between 1990 and 1998. He also contested a solitary ODI for the United States of America towards the end of his career.
He complemented his batting prowess with his right-arm medium pacers and was a superbly athletic fielder whether close to the wicket or in the deep.
He first gained the attention of local cricket followers during his primary schooldays when he reeled off an aggressive century while carrying an injured hand and later in 1980-81 when he represented Guyana in the regional youth tournaments.
Consistent performances for his club sides Bermine and the Guyana Defence Force propelled him into the Berbice team for the senior inter-county first-class encounter against Demerara in 1983.
Then early the following year he debuted nationally against the Windward Islands at Bourda in the regional Shell Shield competition partnering the late Andrew Lyght at the top of the order.
He scored consistently in the three matches he played and totalled a handy 315 runs at the extremely impressive average of 78.75 per innings and for the next 15 years of his first-class career he was the nation’s premier opener.
Although three lean regional tournaments followed he bounced back with a vengeance in 1988 – the inaugural Red Stripe Cup competition – to plunder 550 runs at 78.57 including hard-hitting hundreds against Trinidad and the Windward Islands.
At this juncture, Lambert was churning out runs at will in regional tournaments but just could not break into the West Indies team due to the brilliance of Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes coupled with the fact that the West Indies were winning.
As a consolation he was rewarded with a tour to Zimbabwe with the West Indies A team in 1989 and in two hastily arranged One Day Internationals against England at Bourda in 1990 when bad weather disrupted the Test.
The first game was abandoned without a ball being bowled and the West Indies won the second comfortably by seven wickets as they got to the target of 167 for the loss of three wickets in 40.2 overs.
The debutant acquitted himself well in partnership with the seasoned Greenidge with whom he put on 88 for the first wicket before he was dismissed attempting an over-ambitious reverse sweep off the spinner Eddie Hemings for an accomplished 48.
He was not a member of the original party to England for the five-Test series in mid-1991 but was summoned while playing league cricket there to cover for the injured Greenidge. In five first-class outings before he debuted in the final Test at the Oval he averaged a staggering 112 runs per innings and could not have been ignored.
The West Indies went into the Oval game with a 2-1 lead but the series ended level as they lost the game by five wickets triggering the retirement of three great cricketing stalwarts – Viv Richards, Malcolm Marshall and Jeff Dujon.
The English, batting first, compiled a formidable 419 and the regional team were comfortably placed at 158-3 with the opener Desmond Haynes and Lambert (batting at number five) having already added 60 runs for the fourth wicket.
It was then disaster struck as the first-timer launched into a wild, ungainly swing at the very first delivery of a new spell from the left-arm spinner Phil Tufnell and was caught by a gleeful Mark Ramprakash. The West Indies collapsed dramatically thereafter, losing seven wickets for a paltry 18 runs to be bundled out for 176 and being asked to follow on.
They fared better second time round, accruing 385 with Lambert getting 14 from number three but England got to the required target with five wickets in hand. Lambert, for his indiscretion did not get a chance at Test level for another seven years.
He did play four ODIs in the Wills Trophy tournament in Sharjah towards the end of 1991 but from thereon had to be content with indulging in regional competitions and for Northern Transvaal in Southern Africa.
In 1993, at Skeldon he pummelled the Windward Islands for a record-breaking unbeaten 263 – the then highest individual score in regional-sponsored first-class cricket – as Guyana won the title that year.
All told he contested 120 first-class matches and accumulated 8 405 runs at a healthy 42.88 runs per innings and struck 22 hundreds in the process.
Despite his best efforts he was consistently overlooked as the selectors trialled a host of juvenile openers with meagre success in the absence of the retired Greenidge and Haynes.
Suddenly, the regional run machine, now aged 36, was selected for the final two Tests against England in Barbados and Antigua in early 1998.
In tandem with the swashbuckling Philo Wallace they put on 82 and 72 at Kensington Oval with Lambert chalking up scores of 55 and 29. They bettered this in the final game with a stand of 167 as ‘The Beast’ got to his maiden (and only) Test century (104) which propelled the West Indies to a massive innings and 52-run victory.
He was involved in all five ODIs immediately after the Tests and registered his solitary ODI hundred (119) in the final game in Port-of-Spain.
In late 1998 he played his last ODI in West Indies colours in the Wills International Cup  final against South Africa in Dhaka and he ended his Test career against the Proteas the same year after aggregating a mere 43 runs at just 10.75 per innings in the first two matches.
Six years later, Lambert turned out for the USA against New Zealand at the Oval in the 2004 version of the ICC Champions Trophy and he is currently their coach.
RECORD
TESTS: 5 RUNS: 284 AVG: 31.55         HS: 104 v England, Antigua, 1998
ODIs: 12 RUNS: 407 AVG: 33.91         HS: 119 v England, Trinidad, 1998
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