by West Indies cricketer Joe Solomon, who has died aged 93, was the man whose loss to Australian Ian Meckiff led to the first drawn Test match – in Brisbane in 1960.
Solomon’s contribution to one of the most celebrated cricket matches in history was especially impressive given the tense circumstances of its finale. With the scores level and one wicket remaining, Australia needed just one run off the last two balls to win. When Lindsay Kline entered the frame after Wes Hall’s second-to-last delivery, he seemed to have done enough to win. But Solomon stepped up, picked up the ball perfectly and, with only one stump to aim at, brought down the wicket with a straight shot before Kline’s batting partner Meckiff could cross the line.
Wild scenes of celebration followed, even among some Australian fans who, although hurt by the result, appreciated the thrill of witnessing such a rare event. It was the first drawn match in the Test’s 84-year history, and there has only been one more since: India against Australia in 1986 in Madras (now Chennai).
As Solomon’s teammate Garfield Sobers said after the match, Australia might have had a chance of making that final run if someone other than the brilliant Solomon had fielded the ball. “They picked the wrong man: there was no one better than Joe,” he said. Before his revealing last-gasp intervention, Solomon had also dismissed Alan Davidson earlier in Australia’s second innings, again with a direct hit off stump to aim for, described by Sobers as “a piece of fielding brilliance.” who saved the game.”
Solomon’s batting talent, which earned him selection in 27 Tests for the West Indies from 1958 to 1965, rarely reached the levels of his fielding excellence, but he was nevertheless very useful in the middle order for his equipment. Although he was naturally free-flowing in regional cricket, at Test level he adopted a more confident and opinionated outlook as a counterpoint to the aggressive nature of star performers like Sobers and Rohan Kanhai. Patient at the crease, he provided a stabilizing influence when the going got tough, something he demonstrated to great effect in both innings of the drawn Test, in which he made 65 and then 47 to keep things together for his team.
Born in Port Mourant, in the Berbice region of British Guiana (now Guyana), Solomon was the third of five children of John, butler to the general manager of the local sugar plantation, and Marian. His parents were Catholics of Tamil origin, whose ancestors had traveled to Guyana as indentured laborers to work on sugar plantations.
Solomon was one of many Guyanese cricketers, including Kanhai and Basil Butcher, who benefited from a smart decision by the local Sugar Producers Association (SPA) to appoint West Indies Test player Clyde Walcott as organizer of cricket for the country’s sugar plantations. While attending the local Corentyne High School, Solomon had developed his throwing accuracy by knocking mangoes off trees and aiming flat stones at fruit stems to bring them to the ground unharmed. After honing other skills under Walcott, he played first for Port Mourant and then for the East Indies cricket club (later renamed Everest) in the capital, Georgetown.
Representative matches for Berbice followed, and he made his first-class debut for British Guiana against Jamaica in 1956, compiling 114 not out in that match, followed by 108 against Barbados in the same season and 121 in his next match, against the Berbice team. tour of Pakistan in 1958, earning himself the extraordinary and unique feat of scoring a hundred in his first three first-class innings. Selected for the 1958-59 West Indies tour to India and Pakistan, he proved his worth with a series of important innings in the middle order, including scores of 45 and 86 on debut in the second Test against India at Kanpur. and an impeccable 100 not out in the fifth match in Delhi.
Finishing at the top of the averages at that stage of the tour, he also did well in Pakistan, but had less joy the following year in two home Tests against England, in one of which he was asked to open the batting. Returned to the middle order in the 1960-61 series in Australia, he became one of the most popular visiting players, so much so that Australian captain Richie Benaud was booed by his own fans in Melbourne when Solomon’s cap fell on his stumps. , prompting a successful appeal by Benaud for the hit wicket.
Solomon was an excellent team man and was especially valued as a friend and confidant by his captain, Frank Worrell, whose energetic leadership helped make the Australia series such a spectacle that the West Indies players were cheered on the streets of Melbourne. at a dizzying pace. parade of ribbons to mark its conclusion.
Solomon played four of five tests at home against India in 1961-62 and appeared in all five of the tour to England in 1963 before their last series, at home against Australia in 1965. Having been more or less ever present since their debut, he was dismissed at the age of 34, but continued to play for Guyana until 1969. In his Test career he scored 1,326 runs at an average of 34, and in first-class cricket he averaged 41.54. An occasional leg-spinner, he also took 51 wickets, four of them in Tests.
Parallel to his cricket career, Solomon had worked for several years in the accounting office of a sugar plantation, often taking leave on half pay when called on tour. In 1961, the SPA appointed him a cricket advisor to help Walcott continue to train and organize young talent on the sugar plantations of Guyana.
After retiring as a player, he continued in that line of work while also holding various positions on the Guyana Cricket Board, including chairman, honorary secretary and selection chairman. In addition, he was Guyana’s representative on the West Indies Cricket Control Board, for which he acted as selector.
In 1978 he was appointed manager of the West Indies tour to India, just as the team had been bereft of most of its best players by defections in Kerry Packer’s breakaway tournament. Thanks in part to Solomon’s man management skills, learned under Worrell and Walcott, a young and largely inexperienced team emerged with a creditable 1-0 series defeat.
In the mid-1980s, Solomon moved to New York, although he continued to visit his homeland regularly. His wife, Betty (née Dharry), whom he married in 1959, predeceased him.
• Joseph Stanislaus Solomon, cricketer, born 24 August 1930; died December 8, 2023
