Collie Smith was destined for glory by Shan Razack Mon, Jul 31, 2017 at 1:28 AM
‘Collie’ Smith was destined for glory!
His death is probably the
most tragic blow ever sustained by West Indian cricket…
"He was three
years older than me and already a fine cricketer who seemed destined to become
even better. He was more than just an accomplished batsman, having scored big
100s against England and Australia. He was also developing into a very good
off-spin bowler. I am serious when I say that he had the potential to be a top
class all-rounder, probably one of the world's best."
Sir Garfield Sobers
There should have been four of them, but Roy Gilchrist did
not turn up. After waiting an hour, the others gave up and decided to start
without him. Fickle finger or fate, Garry Sobers says in his autobiography. If
Gilchrist had turned up on time, or if he waited a bit longer, the tragedy
might not have taken place at all.
That Summer Sobers was playing for Radcliffe in the
Lancashire League. Collie had been turning out for Burnley. Three months
earlier he had slammed an amazing triple hundred for them against Lowerhouse.
Medium-pace bowler Tom Dewdney was bowling for Darwen. The three met at
Manchester at the house of a Bajan fan.. After a jovial dinner, and some
fruitless hours waiting for Gilchrist, the three cricketers set out to drive
south of London, where they were supposed to play a charity game on Sunday.
They were in good humor, because by virtue of being late they had avoided the
heaviest of the London-bound traffic.
Smith was the one who took the wheels of Sobers's Ford
Perfect. After a while he handed it to Dewdney. And in the wee hours, it was
the turn of Sobers. Dewdney moved to the passenger seat and Smith went to sleep
in the back. The car was speeding along the A34 near Stone in Staffordshire. At
4.45 am, as they approached the Darlaston Bend, two dazzling headlights blinded
Sobers. He had no time to react. Everything went blank. Much later they learnt
that they had collided with a 10-ton cattle truck. Sobers regained
consciousness after a short while, heard Dewdney making a lot of noise and saw
Smith lying on the ground. "How are you little man?" he asked his
friend. Smith answered straight away, "I'm all right maan-go look at the
big boy."
An ambulance arrived and took the three to hospital
Dewdney, with facial cuts and some lost teeth, remained unconscious for a few
hours. Sobers had a dislocated bone in his wrist, a cut eye and a severed nerve
in a finger. For all his nonchalance of the moment, it was Smith who had been
hit the worst-with serious damage to his spinal cord.
Three days after the crash, a priest walked into the
hospital room in which both Sobers and Dewdney were lying, and start speaking
about the whims of fate, life, and uncertainties and tragedies. Finally he reveled
the news that Collie Smith was dead.
The cricket world was shocked. O'Neil Gordon Smith was the
favorite son of Jamaica, and had kindled the imagination of the cricket loving
island. At 26, he was just maturing into a genuinely great all-rounder. With
the supreme gifts of Sobers alongside him Smith could have propelled the West
Indies team into an unprecedented powerhouse of all-round strength.
Instead 60,000 mourners turned up in dis belief and dismay
at his cruelly premature funeral at Kingston shocked at the death of Jamaica's
favorite son.
With the three Ws in the evening of their great careers,
Smith was integral to the West Indian vision of the sixties. Especially with
his excellent record against England, he was expected to be of the key players
when Peter May's team would visit in the 1959-60 season. And suddenly it all
ended, on that highway in Staffordshire. The life of this vibrant cricketer was
snuffed out in its very prime. Smith's final figure show 1,331 runs at 31.69 and
48 wickets with his off-brake at 33.85 in 26 Tests,
He had hit 104 against Ray Lindwall, Keith Miller, Ian
Johnson, and Richie Benaud on debut and 161 against Fred Truman, Brian Statham,
his idol Jim Laker and Tony Lock in his first Test against England. He had been
named one of the Wisden Cricketers of the year in 1958.
Popular belief remains that the number were bound to
improve with time. If fate not snatched him from our midst and he had played
for another decade, one wonders what he could have achieved. Smith had shown
only glimpses of his enormous potential.
Some claimed he was
as great a talent as Sobers. The tragic untimely death may have led to tribute
tinged with tendency to exaggerate, spilling into the panegyric. But the very
fact that such comparison could be tempted underlines what might have been.
Sobers himself, a close friend and a roommate on tours to
England and Pakistan, was mortified-not least because he had been the one
driving the car when the fatal collision took place. Few days after the
incident, he was charged with careless driving and fined 10 pounds. He was
devastated by the implications, the burden of responsibility. He later wrote in
his prologue to his autobiography that for awhile the events of that night
dominated his thoughts and cricket remained a distant second. When the shock
and sorrow subsided, Sobers played against England in the first Test of the
1959-60 series at Bridgetown. He batted 10 hours and 47 minutes to score 226
before being bowled by Fred Truman. According to the great all-rounder he had
realized that from then on he would have to do the job of both Garry Sobers and
Collie Smith.
The Australians
had completed their first tour to the Caribbean in 1955. For the first time the
West Indies had failed to win a Test against Australia. Worst, they suffered
their first defeat at home. From the West Indies point of view there were,
apart from Sobers, two developments of significance for the future. In the game
against Jamaica which opened the tour, a young man made his international
debut, batting at number six.
From a poor background, he had early in his life come under
the influence of a great social worker and cricket lover, the Revd. Hugh
Sherlock of the local Methodist Church. I remember the Revd wrote the national
anthem of Jamaica. Wait awhile! There seem to be a similarity between Jamaica
and Guyana. Isn't a priest wrote Guyana's national anthem? My son Shan Razack
Jr. confirmed that it was the Rev Archibald Leonard Luker who wrote the lyrics
for the national anthem…Dear Land of Guyana, of Rivers and Plains… a month
before Independence in 1966. Luker was an Anglican priest in-charge of the All
Saints' Church in New Amsterdam, Berbice. The Revd Hugh Sherlock created a club
for the youngsters in the ghetto in the western part of Kingston. He had named
it Boys’ Town and guided its development into a most valuable institution,
which has been responsible for the salvage of hundreds of young boys, who might
otherwise have been crushed by the brutalities of ghetto life.
The young man,
who faced the might of Australia’s two most feared bowlers, Lindwall and Miller
in 1955 was just 21, and remains the most notable personality to emerge from
Mr. Sherlock’s deeply caring attention. He was O.G. “Collie” Smith. He made 169
for Jamaica and was promptly included in the West Indies side in the first
Test. His Test debut was equally auspicious when his 104 in the second innings
helped Walcott add certain respectability for the West Indian statistics of
that match. Also a useful off-spinner, Collie Smith did not do much else of
note during that tour but already, he had established himself as a fixture in
the side where he remained until his early death in 1959.
It was this tragedy that kept Collie Smith from the
position for his he seemed destined from the outset to be a captain of the West
Indies. He would have probably succeeded Worrell in the post. But that is a
different story. It was not only that Smith batted with aggressive fluency and
bowled inspired spells of off-spin. There was much more to the man. His
infection enthusiasm and hugh grin made it apparent that he was enjoying his
cricket enormously, and it made him a joy to watch. His natural inclination was
to belt every ball, but he had learnt to curb his instincts to attack with some
semblance of restraint. He had the knack of picking up valuable wickets with
his off-breaks. And he had the ability to lift the spirit of the entire side
with his magnificent fielding.
The death of O’Neil ‘Collie’ Smith in September, 1959, is
probably the most tragic blow ever sustained by West Indian cricket. For one
thing, Smith who played his first Test match in March, 1955, and his last in
March in 1959 was only twenty-six years old when he died. Sobers who felt that
Collie Smith was a greater all-rounder than himself; someone who was the
people’s hero in Jamaica, and someone who magic spirit was tragically cut short
at a tender age.
Smith’s career slots nearly into a period of rebuilding in
the second half of the 1950s when West Indies were shedding distinguished,
ageing players in favor of new blood. Cognoscenti of the day fully expected
that the great batting triumvirate of Weekes, Worrell and Worrell would be
replaced by three promising stars-Sobers, Kanhai and Smith.
Since we know the glorious heights later reached by Sobers
and Kanhai, there is every reason to believe that Smith was destined for
similar glory. This expectation was not based only on runs and wickets; it also
had to do with Smith’s warmth, generosity, and the overall exuberance of his
personality, whether on or off the field.
In his first Test match at his home ground at Sabina Park,
Australia had made 515 for nine declared, and in reply West Indies had mustered
up 101 for five wickets when Smith entered to partner Walcott. Consider the
circumstances; the five top order West Indian batsmen, including Worrell and
Weekes, had already gone, and an inexperienced 21-year-old, last of the
accredited batsmen, stood alone between Australia and almost certain victory.
Nothing daunted, he stood his ground steadfastly, while Walcott pushed the
score merrily along at the other end. The partnership realized 128 runs, of
which Smith contributed 44. It was a magnificent start. But Smith’s baptism did
not end with this tough-minded first innings performance. Since only Atkinson
and the bowlers were left, once Smith was out, West Indies collapsed for 295 in
their first innings. Facing a deficit of 256, they had reached a slender total
of 22 for two wickets in their second innings when, in a move that seemed to
border on panic, skipper Dennis Atkinson plucked Smith out from his relaxed
position at number seven, and thrust him in at number four, straight into the
limelight to face the full fury of Lindwall, Miller and Johnson and Richie
Benaud.
Admittedly, Worrell was hurt and Atkinson’s options were limited.
But consider again what might be expected from a youth in his first Test
against the likes of Lindwall and Miller! Whatever his hopes, Atkinson could
never have expected the new youngster to lash the Australian bowlers for 104
dazzling runs and achieve the distinction of a Test century on debut. Smith did
not maintain this high level of performance during the rest of the Australian
tour: he ended with a batting average of 25.75 in eight innings, while he took
five wickets for 68 apiece.
In his next series against New Zealand, he fared worst; but
in the ill-fated West Indies tour to England in 1957, he topped the Test
aggregate and averages with 396 runs for an average of 39.60. In the third Test
in 1957, West Indies followed on, 256 behind England. Greater disaster loomed,
as they sank to 56 for four wickets in their second innings. But Smith entered
and once again asserted the situation, fighting qualities by scoring 168,
including three lofty sixes, one of which was straight driven with such power
and daring that the bowler Statham had to applaud as the ball sailed backward
high over his head.
After 1957, Smith did not excel, although he scored well
enough. His fourth and last hundred (exactly 100) was against India in Delhi in
February, 1959. In the end, the tragedy of Smith’s loss lies in the combined
impact on the game of his unfilled promise, his exuberant personality, useful
bowling, enthusiastic fielding and sterling character. Collie Smith, however,
was a player whose natural capacities were considerable but not touched by the
quality of genius. On the other hand, he had immense character. He approached
life as a challenge to be overcome by though, by reflection, by analysis and by
the harnessing of talent through discipline.
He was a born leader. Perhaps, George Headley had a hand in
the making of Collie Smith, batsman and cricketer. That six over the head of a
fast bowler of Statham’s reputation and the many rearguard battles which Smith
fought for the West Indies are reminiscent of numerous innings that the
greatest of all West Indian batsmen played in the 1930s. Such a connection
illustrates a distinct batting tradition in a region notorious for either the
absence of traditions or the fragmentation. But even if something of George
Headley was reincarnated in Collie Smith, the reincarnation was short-lived,
flashing like a shooting star that, for a mere instance in celestial time,
brilliantly lit up the firmament, both heaven and earth, before suddenly,
tragically, fading away from our view.
