Balfour Patrick Patterson (born 15 September 1961) is a former fast bowler for the West Indian cricket team in the mid 1980s to early 1990s. He is remarkable in that,in an era when the West Indies dominated world cricket through strength of fast bowling,and produced a galaxy of fast bowling stars,he is frequently acknowledged as the fastest of those that played. The West Indies wicket keeper Jeff Dujon,who kept wicket to all of them,stated that Patterson was the quickest he had kept wickets to.[1]
Born in Portland,Jamaica to Maurice and Emelda,Patterson attended Happy Grove High School and Wolmer's School,receiving his Jamaica School Certificate.[2]
Patterson's father and grandfather played parish level cricket in Jamaica[2] and Patterson showed ability from an early age and made his debut for Jamaica in 1983. He also played for Lancashire in the English County Championship,between 1984 and 1990,and Tasmania in the Sheffield Shield 1984–85.
Career
Patterson arrived on the international scene in the absence of Michael Holding for the 1986 Sabina ParkTest against England,and was labeled as one of the fastest bowlers in the international game. Broadly built,aggressive and quick,Patterson took seven wickets on debut. He kept his place and became a regular new ball bowler for the West Indies.[1]Graham Gooch,the experienced England opener,remarked that Patterson frightened him with his fast bowling.[1]
Patterson returned figures of 5/24 in the first Test of the 1987/8 series against India,bowling them out in 30.3 overs,or little over one session of play on the first day.[3] In a Test Match in Melbourne,1988–89,during Christmas,just before second last days play,Steve Waugh decided to bounce Patterson. At the end of the day's play,Patterson stormed into the Australian dressing room and threatened to kill all the opposition batsmen on the pitch on the fifth and final day of play. Australia were then dismissed for 114 chasing 400. Patterson finished with five wickets in the innings and nine wickets for the match.[4]
He was dropped for disciplinary reasons after the 1992/3 tour to Australia,the last time the West Indies won a series in Australia. Patterson's career strike rate of 51.9 is amongst the best of all time,although his 93 Test wickets came at a slightly high average of 30.9 owing to his excessively attacking nature and subsequent field settings,which always provided opportunity for runs as well as wickets.[citation needed]
Post-retirement
In 2016,Andrew Miller wrote of Patterson,"[T]he utter anonymity of his post-cricket life merely adds to the legend. No one seems entirely sure what has become of him,lost back to the streets from whence he came."[5]
In 2017,after a number of years of trying to track him down,Indian journalist Bharat Sundaresan found Patterson in Kingston,Jamaica,where he has lived since he finished playing. Mental health issues have subdued him and separated him from his family,though lucid memories of his cricketing career remain.[6][7]
Sir Curtly Elconn Lynwall Ambrose KCN is an Antiguan former cricketer who played 98 Test matches for the West Indies. Widely acknowledged as one of the greatest fast bowlers of all time, he took 405 Test wickets at an average of 20.99 and topped the ICC Player Rankings for much of his career to be rated the best bowler in the world. His great height—he is 6 feet 7 inches (2.01 m) tall—allowed him to make the ball bounce unusually high after he delivered it; allied to his pace and accuracy, it made him a very difficult bowler for batsmen to face. A man of few words during his career, he was notoriously reluctant to speak to journalists. He was chosen as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1992; after he retired he was entered into the International Cricket Council Hall of Fame and selected as one of West Indies all-time XI by a panel of experts.
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Courtney Andrew Walsh OJ is a former Jamaican cricketer who represented the West Indies from 1984 to 2001, captaining the West Indies in 22 Test matches. He is a fast bowler and considered one of the all-time greats, best known for a remarkable opening bowling partnership along with fellow West Indian Curtly Ambrose for several years. Walsh played 132 Tests and 205 ODIs for the West Indies and took 519 and 227 wickets respectively. He shared 421 Test wickets with Ambrose in 49 matches. He held the record of most Test wickets from 2000, after he broke the record of Kapil Dev. This record was later broken in 2004 by Shane Warne. He was the first bowler to reach 500 wickets in Test cricket. His autobiography is entitled "Heart of the Lion". Walsh was named one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1987. In October 2010, he was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. He was appointed as the Specialist Bowling Coach of Bangladesh Cricket Team in August 2016.
Sir Garfield St Aubrun Sobers, AO, OCC, also known as Sir Gary or Sir Garry Sobers, is a former cricketer who played for the West Indies between 1954 and 1974. A highly skilled bowler, an aggressive batsman and an excellent fielder, he is widely considered to be cricket's greatest ever all-rounder and one of the greatest cricketers of all time.
Michael Anthony Holding is a Jamaican former cricketer and commentator who played for the West Indies cricket team. Widely regarded as one of the greatest pace bowlers in cricket history, he was nicknamed "Whispering Death" due to his silent, light-footed run up to the bowling crease. Holding was a key member of the West Indies team that won the 1979 Cricket World Cup, and had the most wickets for his team at the tournament. His bowling action was renowned for being smooth and extremely fast, and he used his height to generate large amounts of bounce and zip off the pitch. He was part of the fearsome West Indian pace bowling battery, together with Andy Roberts, Joel Garner, Colin Croft, Wayne Daniel, Malcolm Marshall and Sylvester Clarke, that devastated opposing batting line-ups throughout the world in the late seventies and early eighties. Early in his Test career, in 1976, Holding broke the record for best bowling figures in a Test match by a West Indies bowler, 14 wickets for 149 runs (14/149). The record still stands. During his first-class cricket career, Holding played for Jamaica, Canterbury, Derbyshire, Lancashire, and Tasmania. In September 2021, Holding announced his retirement from being a commentator.
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Devon Eugene Malcolm is a former English cricketer. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Malcolm played in 40 Test matches and 30 One Day Internationals for the England cricket team.
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