By Edwin Seeraj
A few days ago (Thursday, September 29 to be precise), one of Guyana’s finest sons and cricketing icon, Lancelot Richard Gibbs, celebrated his 87th birth anniversary without a great deal of pomp and ceremony.

Presently residing in Florida in the United States of America, he is no doubt reflecting on his journey in life that has been primed with fulfillment, fun and famous moments that have touched the lives of family, friends and fans for over eight decades.

Gibbs was a truly world-class off-spinner who played with immeasurable pride and passion for Demerara, Guyana, Warwickshire and the West Indies, and represented the latter in 79 Test matches in a distinguished career between 1958 and 1976.

On the local scene, he turned out for the Demerara Cricket Club (DCC) and started off as a leg-spinner, only switching to off-breaks after the late West Indian middle-order batsman, Robert Christiani, got stuck into him.

He was a tall, lean figure who delivered the ball from a great height through his long, supple fingers which allowed him to extract turn and bounce from almost any wicket. He was also a master in the art of variation and the subtle use of the crease which proved time and again to be the bugbear of batsmen the world over.

Gibbs first played for Guyana against the touring MCC side in 1954 and was engaged in 330 first-class matches bagging 1024 wickets at 27.22 runs each. He made his Test debut at the Queen’s Park Oval, Trinidad, in the second game of the five-match series during Pakistan’s first visit to the Caribbean in 1958.

He duly topped the bowling averages with 17 wickets at 23.05 runs apiece and subsequently booked a spot on the West Indies team to India and Pakistan later that year. However, his performances in Asia were overshadowed by the brilliance and domination of speed aces, Wes Hall and Roy Gilchrist.

In the historic series against Australia in 1960-61, he did not play in the first two Tests but by the end of the tour, he did not only head the averages again with 19 scalps at 20.78 runs each, but had established himself as one of the finest exponents of his craft.

At Sydney, in his first game (the third of the series), he took three wickets in four balls and helped his team to surge to a comprehensive victory by 222 runs. In the next Test in Adelaide, he completed the hat-trick, the first in Australia since 1903-04 as he dismissed Ken MacKay, Wally Grout and Frank Mission with consecutive deliveries.

His best bowling figures were achieved against the Indians in the Barbados Test of 1962 when he ended with eight for 38 off a marathon 53.3 overs. Incredibly, all eight wickets were snarled in a magical spell after lunch in which he sent down 15.3 overs, 14 maidens and conceded a mere six runs as the West Indies were propelled to another huge win.

At this juncture of his career, Gibbs had fortified his place in the team and in the 1960s he went on additional tours to England (1963, 1966, 1969); India (1966-67) and Australia and New Zealand (1968-69). He also played at home against the Australians (1965) and Englishmen (1968).

During this period he reaped rich rewards but as Wes Hall and Charlie Griffith became less effective, he was used more as a stock bowler and was burdened with a heavy workload.
By the end of the decade the wickets dried up and in the 1971 and 1972 series in the Caribbean he lost his place as the selectors tried newcomers, Jack Noriega, Tony Howard, Arthur Barret, Inshan Ali and Raphick Jumadeen.

In 1968, he commenced his five-year relationship with Warwickshire and claimed his best first-class bowling analysis of eight for 37 against Glamorgan in 1970. The following season was phenomenal as he had a bountiful harvest of 131 wickets at a measly 18.89 runs apiece.

Gibbs was recalled for the 1973 series against the visiting Australians under the captaincy of his fellow countryman, Rohan Kanhai, and though the West Indies went down 2-0, he had a splendid series. He, along with the late Max Walker, took the most wickets in the series (26) but Gibbs had sent down 50 overs more than his rival as he was carrying the weight of a docile attack.

He was on the successful trip to England in 1973 and played in the drawn rubber when the Englishmen paid a return visit a year later.
Under new captain and cousin, Clive Lloyd, he toured India and Pakistan in 1974-75 and took seven for 98 in the first innings of the deciding fifth and final Test in Bombay (Mumbai) which went a far way in ensuring a West Indies win of the encounter.

His final series was on the ill-fated tour to Australia in 1975-76 when the West Indies were drubbed 5-1. Among the few highlights of the West Indies party on tour was the master craftsman having Ian Redpath caught by Michael Holding in the final Test to overtake England’s paceman Fred Truman’s then world record of 307 Test victims.

He then departed the Test arena rather reluctantly as the regional team implemented the four-pronged pace policy with the emergence of a stream of high-calibre fast bowlers.

He was the first spinner to reach the 300-wicket landmark in Tests and in the process claimed no less than 18 five-wicket hauls and two ten-wicket bags. His eventual tally of 309 victims is some 151 more than his nearest West Indian spin rival of the 1950s, Sonny Ramadin, who ended with 158 wickets from 43 Tests.

The twilight of Gibbs’ career was the dawning of the One- Day International game but he still managed three matches including the West Indies inaugural ODI encounter against England at Headingley in 1973, and one of the opening fixtures of the very first World Cup in 1975 against Sri Lanka in Manchester.

Gibbs was one of the legends that were involved in the now defunct Adam Stanford Twenty/20 Regional Tournaments that were held in 2006 and 2008, and consistently continues to perform ambassadorial roles for companies and organisations seeking to promote their products and services.