Left: Lawrence Rowe.   Right: In this Gleaner file photo, Jamaica batsman Lawrence Rowe cuts a David Holford delivery past Seymour Nurse at slip during his innings of 72, the top score on the Jamaica scoresheet, on the opening day of their Shell Shield cricket fixture against Barbados at Sabina Park on April 24, 1971. Holford was Barbados' top wicket-taker, bagging five for 99 with his leg spin. Non-striking batsman is opener Samuel Morgan, who contributed 40 to the Jamaica total of 293.

WHEN THE umpire calls play for the opening World Cup match between West Indies and Pakistan at Sabina Park on March 13, Lawrence Rowe will most likely be in the stands.

Rowe, 58, now lives in South Florida. He scored runs aplenty at the club, first-class and Test level at the Kingston stadium including a hundred and double ton on Test debut for the West Indies against New Zealand in 1972.

Interestingly, the elegant right-hander, who many consider the most gifted strokeplayer the game has seen never played in a World Cup.

In December 1975, six months after the West Indies defeated Australia in the inaugural final at Lord's, Rowe made his one-day international debut against the Aussies at the Adelaide Oval.

'Test' of character

He played the last of his 11 limited-over internationals in February the next year against New Zealand during the West Indies' acrimonious tour of that country.

Rowe's record in the shorter game pales to his statistics in Tests. He scored 136 runs from eight innings with a top score of 60; his final average is a miserable 17.00.

Most fans, however, remember Rowe's achievements in the Test arena. He tallied 2,047 runs in 30 appearances for the Windies, including seven centuries at an average of 43.55.

Many of Rowe's admirers live in Barbados. The Bajans warmed to him after his epic 302 against England at the Kensington Oval in 1974; one of the persons he made an impression on was a young fast bowler named Malcolm Marshall.

In an interview with the Caribbean News Agency in the 1990s, Marshall rated Rowe as the best batsman he ever bowled to.

Sadly, Lawrence Rowe's legacy will forever be tainted by his captaincy of two 'rebel' West Indian teams to then apartheid South Africa in 1983 and 1984.

The players on those tours were given life bans by the West Indies Cricket Board of Control. They were overturned in 1989.

- H.C.