(Part III)
By Winston McGowan
This series of articles focuses on the six Guyanese cricketers who have scored only one century in their Test career. The previous instalments dealt with Robert Christiani and Bruce Pairaudeau who made the first two centuries by Guyanese in Test cricket-Christiani 107 against India at Delhi in November 1948 and Pairaudeau 115 against the Indians at Port of Spain in January 1953.This third segment will focus on Joe Solomon.
Joseph Stanislaus Solomon, who was born in the Corentyne in Berbice in August 1930, occupies a special place in the history of Guyanese cricket for at least four reasons. Firstly, he is the only Guyanese or West Indian batsman to begin his first-class career with three successive centuries -114 not out against Jamaica and 108 against Barbados at Bourda in October 1956 and 121 against the Pakistani tourists in March 1958.
Secondly, apart from the short career of Leslie Wight, Solomon has the best record for a batsman representing Guyana in first-class cricket. Wight achieved an average of 68.83 in 20 innings in 11 matches for his country between 1950 and 1953, whereas Solomon in 34 innings in 23 matches between 1956 and 1969 scored 1905 runs, including nine hundreds and four fifties, at an average of 68.03 runs an innings.
Thirdly, Solomon was one of four Berbician cricketers (the others being Rohan Kanhai, Basil Butcher and Ivan Madray) who in the mid 1950s drastically altered the composition of the national team from being invariably a side consisting almost exclusively of players from Georgetown. Thereafter there were usually at least three Berbicians in the team and sometimes as many as five.
Fourthly, Solomon, Kanhai, Butcher and Lance Gibbs in the late 1950s and early 1960s enabled British Guiana to make a valuable contribution to the West Indies team for the first time since the region began to play Test cricket in 1928.They were all members of the team when West Indies became world champions for the first time in 1965.
Solomon was a sound sensible right-handed middle-order batsman who had an excellent defence, but was limited in stroke play. His approach to batting, especially in Tests, was patient and stolid. He valued his wicket and was difficult to dismiss, often serving as sheet anchor. He usually batted at Number 6 or 7 for the West Indies, but in two Tests he opened the batting with the regular opener, the Barbadian Conrad Hunte, without success. He was valued especially for the useful partnerships in which he was involved, often with the lower order, when the team was in need.
He was also a useful leg-break change bowler and a good fieldsman. He is remembered in particular for running out two Australian batsmen at the end of the famous tied Test at Brisbane in December 1960.
Solomon scored his only Test hundred, 100 not out, at Delhi in February 1959 in the last Test of the West Indies’ second tour of India. From his debut in the second Test at Kanpur he had been consistently reliable, with scores of 45 and 86, 69 not out, and 43 and 8 not out. In the final match Solomon, batting at Number 6, came to the wicket to join the Jamaican, Collie Smith, with the team’s score 390 for 4, 25 runs short of India’s first innings total of 415.
He proceeded to have a series of useful partnerships-65 with Smith, 69 with Garfield Sobers, 41 with the skipper, Franz Alexander, and 70 with Eric Atkinson, respectively for the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth wicket. He completed his hundred, which included nine fours, in 281 minutes.
Alexander immediately declared the innings closed with the score 644 for 8, made in only 657 minutes. This total is still the highest West Indies score against India, surpassing their previous best of 631 in the first Test on the same ground in 1948 when Robert Christiani made his only Test century. It was also then the record total for a Test in India and was equalled by India in 1979 at Kanpur in the final Test against the West Indies team led by Alvin Kallicharran.
In the innings when Solomon scored his first and only Test hundred, two other players made centuries – the opener, John Holt (123) and Collie Smith (100). All the other batsmen who were dismissed scored at least 25, an unusual feat in Test cricket – Hunte (92), Butcher (71), Sobers (44), Kanhai (40), Atkinson (37) and Alexander (25).
In spite of this productive batting, the game ended in a draw. The West Indies, who then dismissed India for 275 owing to penetrative bowling by Smith, an off-spinner, and the paceman, Roy Gilchrist, needed only 47 runs to win the match, but time did not permit them to begin their second innings. A victory would have given them a fourth successive win in the rubber. Instead the West Indies won the series by three games to nil, with the first and final Tests drawn.
Solomon’s hundred was one of nine centuries made by the West Indies in the series-three being made by Sobers, two by Butcher and one by Holt, Kanhai and Smith. He followed the example of his fellow Berbicians, Kanhai and Butcher, who had made their maiden Test century earlier in the series. This was the first of only two series in which more than one Guyanese made his maiden Test hundred. The other such series was the one against New Zealand in the Caribbean in 1972 when Kallicharran and Roy Fredericks scored their first Test century.
The undefeated century by Solomon enabled him to top his team’s batting averages for the series, the first time a Guyanese had achieved this honour in the thirty years the West Indies had been involved in Test cricket. Butcher was second and Kanhai fourth, the first occasion Guyanese had contributed so much to the West Indies batting. Until then the highest position attained by a Guyanese batsman in a Test series averages was third by Francis de Caires against England in the Caribbean in 1930.
Solomon’s performance in India in 1958-59 was the first of only two occasions that a Guyanese topped the regional team’s batting averages in his first Test series. His example was followed thirteen years later by Alvin Kallicharran against New Zealand in the Caribbean in 1972.
In the Test series in India when Solomon made his century, in six innings he scored 351 runs with an excellent average of 117 runs an innings. It was the first time any Guyanese had scored more than 300 runs or achieved an average of more than 50 in a Test series. This feat was also performed by Butcher (486 runs, average 69.42) and Kanhai (538 runs, average 67.25). Until then the highest aggregate and average by a Guyanese in a Test series was 294 and 42 respectively by Robert Christiani in India in 1948-49.
Solomon’s achievement in India in 1948-49 was only the fifth occasion in Test cricket that a West Indian had achieved an average of over 100 runs an innings in a series. The four previous occasions were the accomplishment of Barbadians -147 runs an innings by Frank Worrell against England in the Caribbean in 1948; 111.28 by Everton Weekes in India in 1948-49; 147 by John Goddard in New Zealand in 1956; and 137.33 by Garfield Sobers against Pakistan in the Caribbean in 1958.
Significantly, Solomon’s performance in India in 1958-59 proved to be a rare occasion when a Guyanese achieved an average of over 100 in a Test series. It remained the highest average attained by a Guyanese in a rubber for sixteen years, that is, until 1975 when it was surpassed by Alvin Kallicharran’s 125.50 runs an innings in a short two-match series in Pakistan. Subsequently, only Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s phenomenal recent exploits
have equalled or eclipsed their achievements.
The series against India in 1958-59 proved to be Solomon’s only outstanding rubber. Although he continued to be a regular and useful member of the West Indies team, he never made another Test hundred. He came nearest to that coveted landmark again in an innings of 96 against India at Kensington Oval in Barbados in March 1962, his team’s top score.
On the whole Solomon’s Test career was modest. It was, however, markedly better than that of Robert Christiani and Bruce Pairaudeau, the first Guyanese to score only a single Test hundred. In 46 innings in 27 Tests Solomon scored 1326 runs, including one century and nine fifties, with a decent average of 34 runs an innings.
