By Tony Becca, Contributing EditorTHE JAMAICA leg of the Scotiabank West Indian Jubilee banquet will be held at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, New Kinston next Tuesday and for cricket fans from every corner of the island it should be a memorable evening an occasion when the country's best cricketers since 1928 will be the toast of the gathering.
In what promises to be a glittering affair, Jamaica's top five cricketers of all time, as decided by the people who have been casting their votes for their choices during the past few weeks, will be announced and so too the best batting and bowling performances by a Jamaican in Test cricket and the best performance, batting or bowling, by a Jamaican in one-day internationals.
Selected from a short list of 21 players who have represented the West Indies, the 15 players from whom the top five will be selected are: Jimmy Adams, Franz Alexander, Jeffrey Dujon, Christopher Gayle, Roy Gilchrist, George Headley, Jackie Hendriks, Frank Martin, Michael Holding, Patrick Patterson, Allan Rae, Lawrence Rowe, Collie Smith, Alfred Valentine and Courtney Walsh, and numbered among them are some of the West Indies and the world's best.
Gilchrist, for example, was rated the fastest bowler of his time and Alexander once held a share of the world record for dismissals in a series by a wicketkeeper.
Then there was Headley, who scored four centuries before his 21st birthday and was, for 36 years, the youngest batsman to score a double-century, Valen-tine took the first eight wickets in his first Test innings and Rowe was the first man to score separate centuries in his debut Test and remains the only one to score a double-century and a century on debut.
Holding, the 'Rolls Royce' of fast bowlers, took 14 wickets in a Test match, and Walsh, the first man to take 500 wickets, is the world record holder for the most wickets in the history of Test cricket.
From now until next Tuesday the question on everyone's lips will be this: who are the top five, and with so many champions on the list, it will be really interesting to see who ended up with most of the people's votes.
Will Rae, the left-handed opening batsman who scored 106 in the famous victory at Lord's in 1950 and 109 in the fourth and final Test, be one of them, will Smith, the 'Mighty Mouse' who scored a century on debut against the mighty Australia, who scored 161 in the first Test against England in 1957 and 168 in the third, be one of them.
The toss in Hendriks, considered the finest wicketkeeper ever
