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Alfred Valentine – West Indies Spinner

February 22nd, 2010 |

Author: Martinez Moore

One of the two spin twins who prefabricated their auspicious entry against England at Manchester in 1950; Alfred Louis Valentine was A slow left-arm orthodox spinner. Alf and Sonny tricked arts batsmen and led the West Indies to their prototypal Test and series victory on arts soil. The late Lord Kitchener, whose calypso had the following line, These lowercase pals of mine; Ramadhin and Valentine, immortalized them in song. Alf Valentine and Sonny Ramadhin had a long, productive partnership in the 1950s that cemented their locate as the spin legends of the West Indies-a region where spin is almost a sin now.

Valentine was born in Jamaica on April 28 1930. The lean, bespectacled youth prefabricated his entry for Jamaica in the 1949/50 season. His impact was immediate, as Alf earned a call-up to the West Indies’ 1950 journeying of England, where he prefabricated his entry in the same match as Sonny Ramadhin. He took 8/104 in England’s prototypal innings and 3/100 in the second. Alf’s effort did not support the West Indies stave soured finish in that match, but it proved to be their only expiration as Ramadhin and Valentine conspired to wreck England’s stuffing in the rest of the series.

The unassuming Valentine played 36 Tests for the West Indies between 1950 and 1962. He showed no love in dismissing batsmen 139 times for a Test bowling average of 30.32. Like Ramadhin he had an excellent frugalness evaluate (1.95), but a poor strike evaluate (93.1). That was no fault of Alf’s, since batsmen, particularly arts batsmen, chose to play him with their pads instead of their bats. It was a credit to Valentine that they were too afraid to play his deliveries-let alone try to score runs soured his bowling.

Valentine played for the West Indies and Jamaica only-a surprise since his figures at planetary level were quite superb. However, he was also hypersensitive to injuries and illness. Valentine bowled close to 34,000 deliveries over 125 First Class matches (and countless more in unofficial games)-making it no wonder that he was often injury-plagued.