sylvester clarke

[sylvester clarke]

late sylvester clarke one the great bowlers of history the fastest bowler of his time but only played 11 tests for his nation.
sylvester was known as the most vicious bowler of his time batsmen say he was much threat than his fellow west indian bowlers. he could bowl so fast that the bounced over the wickeys head and bounced once before the boundary and those days boundaries were bigger.

some say he died because of alcohol abuse. who of you know sylvester clarke ?

[Ernest]

http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/inli...ge/51476.html?

I have seen him play but it was some time ago - so a little vague.
I have looked up his stats and found he had a great strike rate under 60 which IMO is of more value than just a good average.

How he died I don't know, all I know is what I have read and seen.

[sylvester clarke]

He was also suspended from cricket for throwing a spectator in pakistan with a boundary marker. He died of some illness about 8 - 9 years ago.

Its a pity he couldnt fefull his career.

[tim93au]

My dad says he remembers him vaugely (can i spel).

In a book i picked up at a 2nd hand book shop (The Wisden Book Of Cricket Heroes - Bowlers) It says: He is 6.2 and doesnt really have a long run-up but sprints in. It also says he bowls a brilliant bouncer and he is prone to injury, Maybe thats why he only played a handfull of tests?

[ll0OoO0ll]

Short run up, awkward bowling action and a tall, barrel-chested strongly built man (he weighed 15 stone during his international career) that made him look like a Tarzan, in my opinion, he was one of the most difficult pace bowlers to play. I remember in 1981 Paki batting line up falling like a hay stack against him.
Quite often I wondered about him and didnt know he passed away. I guess he was one of a kind and very sad that he couldnt play for long. What a fearsome bowler was he !!!

[Milo]

I saw him play quite a few times in England. He really was a vicious bowler. He was dropped after the tour of Pakistan although he bowled exceptionally well. He was disappointed by this and wasn't too impressed with the lack of support from the West Indian management after the episode with a spectator.

He quickly put his name to the Rebel tours to South Africa (with another player to suffer huge drinking problems, Collis King) and was clearly the best bowler to ever perform in the rebel tours. In the 82-83 season he took 12-100 to win one game and took a shed load of wickets in the series of 83-84 with 10-68 in the last 'test' and five wickets in an innings of another couple of occasions. This was a really strong South African side, and he showed there (and at Surrey where he regular finished in the top ten of the averages) that the test arena lost quite a few other players because of South Africa's ban.

He died a couple of weeks after Malcolm Marshall and his passing was almost unnoticed. He particularly mentioned that he outbowled Marshall on the Indian tour and couldn't understand why he was then subsequently dropped for Marshall on the tour of australia and New Zealand in 80.

[Wanderer]

I never saw much of him during the rebel tours, but thereafter he joined (what was then) Orange Free State. Back then, this side had players like Alvin Kallicharan, Sylvester Clarke....and a VERY young, fresh-faced teen just joined the side...A boy called Alan Donald...

Yeah, along with Clive Rice's Transvaal mean machine, this Free State side was THE domestic side to beat...Until Kepler Wessels joined Eastern Province, of course...

Oh my, I'm getting side-tracked...Yes, Sylvester Clarke. Boy, was he quick. And he did not mind playing that chin music at all...And that GLARE when a batsman tried to hook him!

I don't need a picture of Clarke, I can still see him in my mind's eye...That's the kind of impression the guy left you with.

Oh, we used to call him Sylvester de Klerk (The Afrikaans angle, you know...playing for Free State and all...)

[John]

I saw him in England. One of the first cricketers I saw after becoming interested in cricket. Sad he passed away.
He was the sort of player on his day he could be unplayable on certain days have them 25-5.
I went to watch a one day match with a Surrey friend of mine his picture is on the wall in the pavilon there with all of the Surrey greats.

[mikesiva]

Originally Posted by tim93au

My dad says he remembers him vaugely (can i spel).

In a book i picked up at a 2nd hand book shop (The Wisden Book Of Cricket Heroes - Bowlers) It says: He is 6.2 and doesnt really have a long run-up but sprints in. It also says he bowls a brilliant bouncer and he is prone to injury, Maybe thats why he only played a handfull of tests?

Actually, he came along at the wrong time. The windies had a fearsome battery of pacers in Roberts, Holding, Garner, Croft, Marshall, etc. Clarke came in for Holding, when the Jamaican was injured, and had a good tour of Pakistan - until that brick in the crowd thing....

HOlding even went as far as to say that he feared he had lost his place to Clarke. then, Holding got his place back (thanks to the brick?), and never looked back. Sadly, it seems as if Clarke allowed drink to get the better of him. He didn't have the self-discipline of the other pacers.

[Quagmire]

Originally Posted by sylvester clarke

he could bowl so fast that the bounced over the wickeys head and bounced once before the boundary and those days boundaries were bigger

You have to be quick to do that its a little like Jeff Thomson who was also know to do that, occasionally he bowled ones for wides that went over the fence without bouncing. I would have hated to face either of them.