In this week’s edition of In Search of West Indies Cricket, Roger Seymour reflects on his boyhood batting hero Alvin Kallicharran.
It is hard to pinpoint exactly why Alvin Kallicharran became the cricketer I wanted to emulate when we played as kids. We were both left-handed at bat and adored the hook shot. A Kalli hook off of a tearaway fast bowler was a sight to behold, as he got right behind the line of the ball, and turned his wrists over at the last split second, executing perfect timing. Or was it the running between the wickets? Kalli was lightning quick and with Clive Lloyd’s long looping strides, they routinely conjured two runs out of singles. Kalli was swift in the field and possessed an electrifying return from the deep. He was diminutive, 5’5″, just slightly bigger than us kids, almost schoolboy-like in appearance, and a real life Merlin with a cricket bat!