Raphick Jumadeen died on July 25, 2023, aged 75. He had 29 wickets from 12 Test matches and 347 wickets in first-class cricket, and was remembered in the 2024 Wisden Almanack.
JUMADEEN, RAPHICK RASIF, who died on July 25, aged 75, was a tall, floppy-haired left-arm spinner who was exceptionally accurate, and especially effective on the turning tracks often produced in Trinidad during his time. Called up at Port-of-Spain’s Queen’s Park Oval for the final Test of New Zealand’s tour early in 1972, he returned miserly match figures of 64-31-64-1. It established a pattern for Jumadeen’s career: he played six Tests there, and six elsewhere. He was not helped by Clive Lloyd’s decision to concentrate on pace, which was crystallised early in 1976 when India chased down 403 – despite the presence of Jumadeen and two other slow bowlers. “We had this stupid notion that spinners would get people out in Trinidad,” said Lloyd. “And they’ve never done so. That’s not to say there wasn’t turn at Queen’s Park, but it turned slowly.”
Jumadeen survived to tour England later in 1976, where he did well enough, finishing with 58 wickets at 30, which included 10 in the county game at Trent Bridge and nine at Northampton. But he appeared in only one of the Tests, taking a solitary wicket at Lord’s. The victim was 45-year-old Brian Close, who top-scored with 60, and was livid after bunting a full toss to extra cover. “I lost it above the sightscreen,” he grumbled. “It must have been the worst ball sent down all day.”
After the obligatory Port-of-Spain call-up when Pakistan toured early in 1977, Jumadeen might have been lost to Test cricket, but was recalled in the wake of the mass defections to Kerry Packer. Part of a new-look West Indian side early in 1978, he took 11 wickets in two Tests against Bob Simpson’s similarly callow Australians, and earned a tour of India, where he made little impact. He played on for Trinidad & Tobago until 1981, finishing with just under 350 first-class wickets. That included 10 in the match against Jamaica at Queen’s Park in February 1972. On the final morning, Jumadeen and his fellow left-armer, wrist-spinner Inshan Ali, had arrived early and started bowling at the Jamaicans in the nets. When their captain, Joey Carew, arrived, he told them off for helping the opposition, who needed to bat all day to save the game. Jumadeen recalled: “Inshan turned to me and said: ‘Don’t worry Jumas. We will bowl them out.’ So said, so done: we bowled out Jamaica for 116. Inshan 4-58, and I took 6-31.”
Jumadeen went into coaching and administration, becoming chairman of Trinidad & Tobago’s selectors; he also had a spell on the West Indian panel, chaired by Clyde Butts, who also died in 2023. His brother and two nephews played for T&T as well. The West Indian team wore black armbands in Jumadeen’s memory during the first one-day international against India in Barbados in July.
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