Hail, Desmond Lewis
Dear Editor,
Desmond Lewis, Jamaica and West Indies cricketer, died on March 25, 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Lewis went to All Saints’ School in the late 50s. He played locally first for youth clubs before going on to represent Kensington Cricket Club in the Senior Cup Competition.
My good friend Karl Goodison, who went to school with Lewis told me that, in the 60s, Lewis would help sell the famous Sportslife magazine produced by the late Foggy Burrows and then go to Kensington to practise his cricket every day as he seriously wanted to excel at the game.
A talented right-handed batsman and competent wicketkeeper, he did well in club cricket in Jamaica and was selected to represent Jamaica in 1970 on their tour to England.
In 1971 the Indian cricket team visited the West Indies. In their ensuing match against Jamaica Lewis’s scores were 96 and 67 not out. This performance apparently caught the eyes of the selectors and resulted in securing his place on the Test team, replacing wicketkeeper Michael Findlay, who had scored only 37 runs in the first two Tests.
In his three Tests he scored 259 runs (twice not out) averaging 86.33. D J Rutnagur reported in Wisden 1972, “Lewis…proved an obdurate customer.” One is left to wonder why he was left out of the team for the following series after such an excellent start. It seemed as if the selectors decided to go for the specialist ‘keeper Findlay.
He never missed a game for Jamaica during his entire career of 33 matches (1970 to 1976). In 1976, while playing for Jamaica against Trinidad & Tobago at Queen’s Park Oval, Lewis was the cause of some excitement on the field. Play was held up for a while during an over being bowled by the Jamaican captain Maurice Foster. Lewis (the wicketkeeper) began gesticulating to Foster indicating smoke was coming from his pad. As the fielders came around, one of them took a lit cigarette from between his pads and his burnt flannels. Years later, Lewis confessed to me that he, in fact, went on the field with the cigarette.
Dicky Hall reminded me of a Senior Cup match, Kensington versus Melbourne at Derrymore Road, which attracted the largest crowd ever witnessed at a Senior Cup match. The road was blocked with motor vehicles. Kensington’s team included, among others, Lawrence Rowe, Desmond Lewis, Basil Williams, and Herbert Chang. Melbourne countered with the likes of Michael Holding, Cecil Lawson, Arthur Barrett (recently deceased). Rowe, at that time Jamaica’s favourite, was at the pinnacle of his success just returning from an overseas tour with the West Indies. The massive crowd attended to see Rowe, especially against Holding and the strong Melbourne bowling attack. Well, suffice it to say, that when the play was called for the day, the gallery was treated to a magnificent undefeated century by Desmond Lewis. I believe Yagga hadn’t even been to the crease.
Lewis migrated to the Atlanta, Georgia, in 1979 and helped to establish a cricket league there and also did some coaching.
In 2013 he was inducted into the USA cricket Hall of Fame.
In his first class career (including Tests) he played 36 games scoring 1,623 runs averaging 31.82. He scored 12 fifties and had 67 catches and 11 stumpings.
In 2017, Desmond, while working in the snow, fell and hit his head resulting in him being disoriented for a while. He subsequently suffered two strokes and died some months later from complications related to them. He was the 137th player to represent the West Indies in Tests.
Carl Bell
carl_bell@hotmail.com