ALL ABOUT WALSH

Until Usain Bolt shot to world attention in last year's Beijing Olympics, Jamaica's most famous son (post Bob Marley) was Courtney Walsh.

Born in 1962, the 6'5" fast bowler from Kingston played Test cricket into his 39th year, a remarkable physical feat, taking six wickets in his 132nd and last appearance for West Indies - on his home ground of Sabina Park in an emphatic win against South Africa.

That gave him the grand total of 519 Test victims at 24.45 apiece, then comfortably more than any other bowler in Test history. He retired a national hero in April 2001, soon to become an "ambassador" for his country, who rewarded him with a diplomatic passport.

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While Walsh was not the most feared quick bowler of the battery that were produced in the Caribbean in 1970s and '80s, he remains by some way the highest Test wicket-taker for West Indies. Curtly Ambrose, his great friend and new ball partner in their latter years in the side together, managed 405, admittedly in 34 fewer Tests.

Malcolm Marshall is the only other West Indian to have joined the elusive 300-wicket club. Walsh will go down as the most durable of performers, a pedigree workhorse who maintained outstanding consistency throughout his 16-year Test career. He possessed skill, stamina and guts in equal measure.

If other fast bowlers of his era were quicker, he could increase his pace without any discernible change in his action. That made him particularly dangerous, and he hit batsmen with his bouncer more than any West Indian of his time. He also developed a lethal slower ball, having begun as a leg-spinner at school.

And unlike any of the other fast bowlers, he had to shoulder the responsibility of captaincy for a period. Typically, when he was relieved of it, he returned uncomplainingly to the ranks and got on with the business of what he did best: getting international batsmen out.

For Gloucestershire, Walsh provided magnificent service over a dozen years or so of county cricket. A popular figure in the west country which he loved, he was a fearsome sight for many years at the Cheltenham festival, terrorising batsmen on what, in those days, were fast and bouncy college pitches. He helped the county to second place in the championship in 1986, going past 100 first-class wickets. He repeated that feat in 1998.

Unashamedly uncompromising on the field of play, as Devon Malcolm will remember from his peppering in the Kingston Test of 1994-5, Walsh was a much-liked figure off it. He now spends several months a year out of Jamaica, commentating for radio and television, but when he is at home, he is heavily involved in coaching and development programmes for Jamaican youth, true to his roots in Kingston, where he still lives.

WALSH'S FAVOURITE TEN

1) Sabina Park

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