In a tortured 1982 season, when they usually had to sit and suffer, Warwickshire‘s followers could at least take comfort from the disciplined brilliance of Alvin Isaac Kallicharran. The little West Indian left-hander was the only batsman on the county circuit to score 2,000 first-class runs, hitting three double-centuries and five other hundreds in the Schweppes Championship. He also played one great innings in limited-overs cricket, his 141 not out against Somerset at Taunton securing a shock NatWest Trophy quarter-final success. One shot in this innings will be particularly treasured by those who saw it. When the 6ft 8in Joel Garner came round the wicket to bounce one at him, perfectly positioned, 5ft 5in Kallicharran hooked his towering adversary high over square leg for six with stunning power.
Alvin Kallicharran, the left-handed dasher, was an integral part of the dominant West Indies outfit of the 1970s and a longtime Warwickshire stalwart. He was named a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1983.
Captain Bob Willis provided an apt testimony when he said: “Alvin’s Taunton knock contained a myriad of high-class shots. His stock-in-trade pulls and hooks were supplemented by a series of silken drives on the rise through the off. Somerset came apart at the seams.”
Not that a bonanza summer was unexpected. A sequence of events paved the way for Kallicharran’s prolific output. Following two lean series, against England and Pakistan, he was dropped by West Indies, having scored 4,399 runs for them in 66 Tests at an average of 44. Then Transvaal stepped in with a lucrative winter contract. The first West Indian to compete in South Africa’s Currie Cup, he averaged nearly 60 to finish third in the national list and inspire Transvaal to win the Benson and Hedges Floodlit Cup.
Banned by West Indies for having been to South Africa, Kallicharran returned to Birmingham with fire in his belly, a profusion of runs bursting to get out of him. And there was the added incentive of his 1983 county benefit being just a year away. Behind the sunny smile lies a steely, resolute character. His first century came at Dartford, followed by a career-best 235 at Worcester, his maiden double-hundred in first-class cricket.
He had been, briefly, at the centre of the storm which broke around Mr. Packer in the English summer of 1977. Having signed for World Series Cricket, he discovered that he was in breach of another contract with a Queensland radio station. His subsequent, much-publicised withdrawal led to his being appointed captain of West Indies midway through the 1977/78 series against Australia in West Indies. With Clive Lloyd, from whom he took over, and the other Packer West Indians unavailable, Kallicharran had mixed fortunes as a Test captain, though his influence and experience were of inestimable value to West Indies during a difficult and unsettled period in their cricket history.
If, for political reasons, his Test career proves now to be over, there are, on the evidence of his 1982 form, both for Warwickshire and Transvaal, still many runs to come, at county and provincial level, from one of cricket’s most nimble talents.
Alvin Kallicharran featured in 66 Tests and 31 ODIs for the West Indies. He scored 4,399 runs in Tests at 44.43 and was a part of the World Cup winning teams in 1975 and 1979.
This article first appeared in the 1983 Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack. You can pre-order this year’s Almanack here.
