Tony Becca CRICKET FANS around the world, and particularly so those who love to hear the sweet sound of bat hitting ball and who enjoy the sight of the ball racing away to the boundary, could not have asked for a better start to the new year - not after what happened in Sydney and Cape Town between January 2 and 6.
In Sydney, in the battle between world champions Australia and India, 1,747 runs, including 238 fours and four sixes, were scored off 442.4 overs for the loss of 25 wickets in five days of scintillating batting, and in Cape Town where the West Indies were up against number two South Africa, the tally after five glorious days was 1648, including 213 fours and 17 sixes, off 432.1 overs for the loss of 29 wickets.
On top of that, 11 batsmen - Sachin Tendulkar and Vangipurappu Laxman of India, Justin Langer and Simon Katich of Australia, Jacques Rudolph, Mark Boucher, Herschelle Gibbs and Jacques Kallis of South Africa, Christopher Gayle, Brian Lara and newcomer Dwayne Smith of the West Indies - scored centuries, and with India's Rahul Dravid scoring 90 not out, the fans were treated to some superb batting.
The treat, however, was more than so many runs off so few overs for the loss of a few wickets.
With the likes of Tendulkar - a classic stroke player, Laxman and Dravid - two attractive, exciting batsmen, Kallis - a solid, copybook batsman, Lara - a master stroke player, Gayle - a big powerful, striker of the ball, and Smith - a bold, adventurous batsman in action and obviously in the pink of form, the treat, which included every stroke in the book, was also a parade of different styles of batsmanship.
The parade was so good that it brought back memories of champions past - of batsmen like the elegant Frank Worrell of the West Indies, Peter May and Tom Graveney of England, Majid Khan of Pakistan and Greg Chappell of Australia, dashing rungetters like Dennis Compton of England, Everton Weekes of the West Indies, Neil Harvey of Australia and Polly Umrigar of India.
ATTRACTIVE AND EXCITING
Also attractive and exciting batsmen like Gary Sobers of the West Indies and Graeme Pollock of South Africa, an artist like Rohan Kanhai, and a supremely confident and vicious striker of the ball like Viv Richards.
The one batsman none of those in Sydney or Cape Town reminded of, however, was Lawrence Rowe - the Jamaica and West Indies master batsman who scored 214 and 100 not out against New Zealand at Sabina Park in 1972 on his debut, who stroked 302 against England at Kensington Oval in 1974, who charmed the gathering at Sydney in 1975-76 and at The Oval in 1976 with two delightful innings - one of 67 and one of 70, and who celebrated his 55th birthday on Thursday.
Rowe was something special - extra special.
As a stroke player with shots all around the wicket, he was as good as the best - especially so when driving through the offside and, with his left foot going out to the pitch of the ball, the bat coming down through a perfect arc and his balance perfect, particularly so while driving past point.
What really made Rowe special, however, what separated him from all other batsmen, was his touch, his timing and the elegance of his strokes - all of them. He seemed to have had a gift from God, and in fact, it was Worrell's father-in-law who once said that when he (Rowe) was born, God must have placed his hand on his head and said, son go thou and bat.
With a record of 2,047 runs from 30 Test matches, seven centuries and an average of 43.55, Rowe, despite being as good as any of them at his best, is not and cannot be numbered among the great batsmen of the game - certainly not when compared to the likes of Lara and Tendulkar, Sobers and Richards.
When it comes to elegance, however, to the kind of batting that sometimes makes runs scored secondary to strokes played, the kind of batting that makes people walk miles to see a stroke or two, he is the best batsmen that I have seen - so much so that if Lara and Tendulkar, Sobers and Richards were batting at Sabina Park and 'Yagga' Rowe was batting at Jarrett Park, I would be on my way to Montego Bay.
Maybe one day God will be kind to the game, to those who can never forget Rowe at bat, to those who are longing to see another like him, and to those who never saw him. Maybe, hopefully, one day God will place his hand on another boy somewhere around the world.
