Standing six feet eight inches, Joel Garner — 'Big Bird' — bowled the most accurate Test yorker of the 1980s, took 259 Test wickets at 20.97 and was the second pillar of Clive Lloyd's pace cartel alongside Malcolm Marshall.
Garner came up through the Barbadian league cricket of the 1970s and was selected for West Indies in 1977 at the age of 24.
His Test debut at Bridgetown in 1977 against Pakistan announced a wholly new fast-bowling type — extreme height with extreme accuracy.
Garner played 58 Tests between 1977 and 1987, taking 259 wickets at 20.97 — second only to Marshall among the great West Indian fast bowlers in average. His height delivered the ball from a release point of around 8 feet, generating extreme bounce; his control of the yorker length on a brittle subcontinental track was the stuff of legend. He was integral to the 1979 World Cup final win (5/39 against England, including 5 for 4 in a single spell), the 1984 Blackwash (29 wickets in five Tests) and the 1985-86 sequel. In ODIs he was unmatched in the era for economy: he conceded fewer than 3.10 runs an over across his career and his death-bowling was, by some distance, the best of the 1980s. Unlike Holding, Croft, Roberts and Marshall, Garner was famously gentle off the field — courteous, soft-spoken, devoted to his family in Christ Church, Barbados. The mismatch between persona and on-field hostility was part of his legend. He is in the ICC Hall of Fame and is considered by many fast-bowling specialists the most economical strike bowler the game has produced.
1979 World Cup final 5/39 (including 5/4)
1984 Blackwash: 29 wickets in 5 Tests
1985-86 Caribbean Blackwash: 27 wickets
Career economy rate of 3.09 in ODIs
Final Test 1987
1977
Test debut vs Pakistan, Bridgetown
1979
World Cup final 5/39
1984
29 wickets in the Blackwash
1985-86
27 wickets in Caribbean Blackwash
1987
Retires from Test cricket
“His yorker was the most accurate ball I have ever stood up to.”
“Big Bird never raised his voice on the field. He didn't have to.”
Garner retired in 1987 and returned to Barbados, where he served as president of Cricket West Indies in the 2010s.
The accuracy bowler in the world's most fearsome attack — and the man whose yorker remains the gold standard.
Inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame in 2010. His ODI economy rate is unmatched among bowlers of his era and his yorker length is taught as a coaching standard.
Yorkshire v Essex
1932-06-16
On 15-16 June 1932 Herbert Sutcliffe (313) and Percy Holmes (224*) put on 555 for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton, breaking the world first-class record for any wicket and adding a layer of folklore — including a scoreboard that read 554 for several minutes and a hastily reversed declaration — that has clung to the partnership ever since.
Australia v England
1933-02-14
With the fate of the Bodyline series in the balance and England 216 for 6 chasing 340, Eddie Paynter checked himself out of a Brisbane hospital where he was being treated for acute tonsillitis, taxied to the Gabba in pyjamas and a dressing gown, and batted for nearly four hours to score 83. England drew level on first innings, won the Test by six wickets and the series 4-1.
Australia
1934-09-25
Days after the 1934 Oval Test, Bradman fell seriously ill with appendicitis that progressed to peritonitis. With antibiotics not yet available, he was given little chance of survival; his wife Jessie left Adelaide on a sea voyage to England prepared for the worst. He recovered after weeks of intensive nursing in a London nursing home and returned to first-class cricket the following Australian summer.