"Cricket all-rounder, leader, educator, counsellor, senator, author, humanitarian, a man of class...the West Indies first black captain. The year 2010 marks the 50th anniversary of this significant milestone." At the age of 36, belatedly in 1960, when he was finally anointed as the West Indies cricket captain, after much lobbying especially from CLR James, Barbadian born Frankie Worrell was already past his cricketing prime having risen to one of the world's best and most loved cricketers.
That he was to captain the West Indies for just 15 Tests until his last in 1963 (he had already played in 39) did not minimise the legacy of one of the Caribbean's outstanding icons. Volumes have been documented on his cricketing statistics as well as the number of other spheres in which he left his indelible marks as cricket all-rounder, leader, educator, counsellor, senator (Jamaica), author, humanitarian...the West Indies first black captain. This year marks the 50th anniversary of this significant milestone.
As fate would have it in his first Test match as captain, he led the West Indies in what is the most thrilling of Test matches that ended in the first ever tied Test at Brisbane, Australia in December 1960 before huge crowds of adoring fans. The popularity they had gained under Worrell's leadership saw estimates of upwards of a quarter of a million Australians lining the streets of Melbourne to bid them farewell at the end of the Test series never before or since heard of.
His meteoric rise as a 17-year-old Combermere High school left arm orthodox spinner batting at number 11, to one of the world's classiest batsmen ever, is truly remarkable. By age 18 he was plundering the likes of T&T's Prior Jones, Lance Pierre and Gerry Gomez for 188 and 68 at the Queen's Park Oval, signs of greatness to follow. Not content with having taken T&T bowlers to task, he again stamped his authority on them the following year at age 19 in 1944, at Kensington with a mammoth record 308 not out, T&T using ten bowlers in their vain efforts to dislodge him (including Pierre, Jones, Gomez, Stollmeyer, Trestrail, Pouchet, Sealy, and Tang Choon).
He followed up in 1945, back at the Queen's Park Oval, in two games with scores of 74, 61 and 113. As if to emphasise his likeness for Trini bowling, yet again at the Queen's Park Oval, he and Clyde Walcott literally massacred the T&T bowlers in an unbroken stand of 574, with Worrell scoring 255 not out and Walcott 314 not out. He is the only player listed in Wisden 2007 to be involved in two 500+ First Class partnerships the other being 502 with John Goddard.
A testament to his stabilising influence when at the wicket is the fact that he starred in some 20 100+ partnerships at the Test level alone. Two of these were over 300, one of 399 with Garfield Sobers, the other 338 with Weekes, the latter at the Queen's Park Oval against England. Some of his big Test hundreds included 261, 191 not out, 197 not out against England and 237 versus India while some of his regional hundreds included 188, 308 and 255, all against T&T. For the Commonwealth XI he had some big tons as well notably 223 not out, 161, 165 and 143 against India.
In 1948 at the Queen's Park Oval he played in his first of 51 Test matches for the West Indies versus England where, batting at number four, scored 97 and 28 not out. By 1951 he was Wisden's Cricketer of the Year. In his 51-match Test career he had best bowling figures of 6-38 (vs Aust) and 7-70 (vs Eng) and tallied 3,860 runs with an average of 49.48 including 9 hundreds and 22 fifties and held 43 catches. From his first Test in 1948 to his last in 1963 he played alongside and eventually captained many of the greats of West Indian cricket. In 1962 at home, his team vanquished the visiting Indians 5-0 with the skipper himself topping the batting averages with 88.
His batting was best described as strong of wrist, quick of foot, not typically West Indian, with the capacity to guide or wave the ball away rather than blast it...reflective of his non-violent nature one might say. Once appointed as captain, he ended the cliques and rivalries between the players of various islands to weld together a team which in the space of five years became world champions. He was a man of true political sense and feeling, a federalist who surely would have made even greater contributions to the history of the West Indies had he not died so early.
He retired from Test Cricket after the victorious (3-1) West Indies-England series in 1963 passing the captaincy on to Garfield Sobers.
When he left professional cricket he served in various positions at the University of the West Indies, at the St Augustine and Mona campuses where he served in various capacities of Hall Warden, Dean of Studies, Director of Sports and Rector also becoming a senator in the Jamaican parliament under Bustamante.
Sadly he died prematurely in 1967 at the age of 42, a month after returning to Jamaica from India and was buried on the campus of the University of the West Indies (Cave Hill, Barbados). His death reverberated around the world as tributes poured in for a man who is forever linked to the triumvirate of the legendary Barbadian Three Ws, along with Everton Weekes and Clyde Walcott. Worrell managed the West Indies during the 1964-65 visit by Australia, and accompanied the team to India in the winter of 1966-67. It was while in India that he was diagnosed with leukaemia.
Worrell regarded cricket as the most powerful unifying force in the West Indies and is considered one of the most influential and greatest West Indians of the 20th century, who like Sir Learie Constantine before him, was instrumental in injecting positive characteristics into the West Indies cricket team. One might say that he possessed Obama-like qualities of charm, confidence and diplomacy or vice versa. He was also described as a creative catalyst and bridge builder in human relationships.
As a testament to his impact beyond the boundaries of the West Indies, there is an annual Sir Frank Worrell day in India where people donate blood. And to think that he never played a Test match in India (he did however tour India with three Commonwealth teams). He was the first to donate blood in the successful efforts to save the life of Indian batsman Nari Contractor who was struck by a nasty blow in the head by West Indian fast bowler Charlie Griffith in 1962 in Barbados. In India, too, during a lecture tour to universities he was conferred with an honorary Doctorate of Law degree by Punjab University.
Yet another testimony to his 'greatness' was that upon his death, he was paid tribute to in a memorial service at Westminster Abbey in England, the only time it was ever done so for a sportsman. Flags flew at half mast in Radcliffe, Lancashire and in Jamaica and Barbados. As a tribute to him the West Indies and Australia compete for the Frank Worrell Trophy. He is an inductee in the US Black Athletes Hall of fame in Connecticut. He became a popular professional in the Lancashire league and there is a street in Radcliffe named in his honour.
His photo adorns a Barbadian $5 note and postage stamps. There are the Sir Frank Worrell grounds at the St Augustine campus of UWI Trinidad, Frank Worrell UWI scholarship fund, Frank Worrell memorial gardens around his burial site, the 3 Ws pavilion at Kensington Oval. A number of Frank Worrell momentos are lodged at Lord's museum. He is an ICC hall of fame inductee and there is a sculpture of him at the famous Madame Toussauds Wax museum in London. He was one of five great West Indian cricketers of all time as selected in 2004 to commemorate 75 years of Test as a regional team (other four were George Headley, Garfield Sobers, Viv Richards and Brian Lara). In 1964 he was knighted for his contribution to cricket.
He performed one last service to the region, managing the West Indians in their crushing home-series defeat of Australia in 1965. The Frank Worrell Hall at the University of West Indies, Barbados, is named after him as well as the Sir Frank Worrell Cricket Development Centre and Cricket ground in Trinidad. A memorative plaque at his boyhood home was unveiled by the Barbados PM in 1991 and in 2007 the home was torn down to make way for a museum in his honour.
More Info
Frank Mortimer Maglinne Worrell
Born-August 1, 1924, Bank Hall, St Michael, Barbados
Died-March 13, 1967, Mona, Kingston, Jamaica (aged 42 years 224 days) Major teams-West Indies, Barbados, Jamaica, Commonwealth XI, Radcliffe
Batting style-Right-hand bat
Bowling style-Left-arm fast-medium, Left-arm slow orthodox
Test debut: WI v England at Port of Spain, Feb 11-16, 1948