ROWE -Winston Sill photo
Tym Glaser, Associate Editor - Sport
LAWRENCE ROWE'S classic innings of 302 against England in Barbados 30 years ago was last night hailed as the greatest Test innings by a Jamaican at the Scotiabank West Indies Jubilee gala at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, New Kingston.
The event also saw the crowning of the island's top five Test cricketers of all-time and the best Test bowling and one-day performances by Jamaicans. Full details will be in tomorrow's Gleaner.
Fans around the island voted in their thousands and sprightly-looking 55-year-old Rowe was thrilled to have his triple century recognised as the greatest played by a Jamaican wearing the maroon cap of the West Indies.
"People sill talk about it today as the best innings they have seen," 'Yagga' Rowe said in an exclusive interview with The Gleaner before last night's extravaganza. "I'm overwhelmed, just this morning someone came up to me and said it as the best innings he had seen.
"In terms of length of time, I would regard it as my best innings," he said.
"I made 175 in World Series Cricket against Australia and (Dennis) Lillee and (Jeff) Thomson which was also a good knock and I made a hundred against South Africa but the 302 is what everybody still talks about and it's very flattering and humbling," Rowe, now based in Miami, said.
Rowe's 302 remains the highest Test innings by a Jamaican. When the votes were tallied he beat out arguably the island and the region's greatest batman, George Headley, for best Test innings honours.
Headley's 223 against England here during the 1929-30 series and dogged 107 versus the same foes on dodgy Lord's pitch in 1939 were voted the second and third best innings by a Jamaican all-time. Last night's five "best" Jamaicans go into regional pool of 30 players from which five will be selected as the greatest West Indians of all-time during the West Indies tour of England in July. Already Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana have selected their best.
