Hall said and done!

The Wesley Hall we saw the other day on social media interacting with Virat Kohli Rohit Sharma and head coach Rahul Dravid in Barbados was a far cry from the strapping fast bowler whom cricket enthusiasts may have seen during his playing days or his cricket administrative time or bothA frail Hall 86 was seen happily presenting his book Answering The Call to the current stars Itrsquos no surprise that Hall became a Senator and preacher For he always seemed to be game for a chat and was happy to interact with cricket lovers especially the younger lotIn his prime cricketing years he was as swift as swift can be his pace and pitching feared by opposition batsmen his first book fittingly titled Pace Like FireIn India during the 195859 series Hall claimed 30 Test wickets at 1767 It was his first tour for the West Indies Among Indiarsquos below100 totals the 98 all out in the opening Test of the 196162 series at PortofSpain is the least talked about Hall started it all with the wickets of skipper Nari Contractor Vijay Manjrekar and Dilip Sardesai in four balls for eight runs In 13 Tests against India he claimed 65 wicketsmdashthe same number against England in 19 Tests but a good 20 scalps more than against Australia in a dozen Tests against them Sixteen wickets in three overseas Tests against Pakistan included a fifer at Lahore where he became the first West Indian bowler to bag a hattrickHis 30yard runup astounded those in the stands and the batsmen he hurled his thunderbolts atIn a preIndia v West Indies series article in 1983 for The Sportstar Bob Simpson the former Australia opening batsman captain and later coach revealed Sir Don Bradman believed Hall was unique ldquoHis pace alone was not the only reason for Hallrsquos success His magnificent action allowed him when he kept the ball up to also bowl a wicked outswinger an unplayable ball for a man of such pace He also hd the uncanny ability to get the ball up higher from a good length than any bowler that I have seen before or since Sir Donald Bradman at the time also contended that no one in his experience was able to extract the same lift from a good length as Hall could and didrdquo wrote SimpsonCricket lovers will remember Hall bowling the last over in Test cricketrsquos first tie at Brisbane in 1960 Probably the only advice he got from his captain Frank Worrell was to be calm and not bowl a noball The astute captain reminded his premier fast bowler that he wouldnrsquot be able to return to Barbados if he overstepped Hall didnrsquot and Australiarsquos last man Lindsay Kline played one wide of midon for Joe Solomon to pick it up and execute his 25yard direct hit which had No10 Ian Meckiff run outIf there was one bruised man in that Brisbane battle it was Australia opener Colin McDonald He took two nasty blows from Hall under the heart and chose to cover his sore ribs by tying a thigh pad to his body according to his teammate Norman OrsquoNeill who scored 181 in Australiarsquos first innings David Frith in the book The Fast Men revealed that McDonald presented Hall his battered sweater during that epic seriesHallrsquos last tour to Australia in 196869 was not a memorable one much like his final series against India on these shores in 196667 Two for 54 was the best he could come up with in the Brabourne Stadium Test At Chennai Farokh Engineer gave Hall and pace partner Charlie Griffith a pasting en route his century in just over a session ldquoEngineer treated them Hall and Griffith as if they were just mediumpace hacks mere trundlersrdquo wrote KN Prabhu in The Times of India He ended up with 192 wickets in 48 TestsHall played a significant role in West Indies cricket through the managing of touring teams He has played a good hand in mentorship tooIf Clive Lloyd ended his international career in 1985 as one of the most successful batsmen and captains of all time he can thank Hall Twelve years prior Lloyd sat in the Kensington Oval dressing room crying after he was told hersquod be 12th man for the Barbados Test against the 197273 Australians Hall came up to him and reminded him that he was chosen for the Presidentrsquos XI and the then West Indies captain Rohan Kanhai was nearing the end of his road Lloyd was pacified and smashed 178 in the Georgetown Test of the series In a yearrsquos time he was announced as West Indies captainThe late Malcolm Marshall too owed his emergence to Hall who was personnel manager at Banks Breweries in the late 1970s Thanks to Hall Marshall got employed as a store room attendant and the promising cricketer and was picked for the 197879 tour of India with only one firstclass game under his belt Hall was not manager on that tour but he managed the next West Indian side to India in 198384 when the visitors won 30 While that provided him a great deal of satisfaction being manager of the 1996 World Cup team here must have been depressing West Indies led by Richie Richardson and coached by Andy Roberts lost to Kenya in Pune and had no business to lose the semifinal to Australia in MohaliIt can be safely said that the highs outweighed the lows in Hallrsquos lifetime in cricketWhat we saw the other day was not the sprightly West Indian great Not very long ago cricket lovers would describe him as someone who radiated energy enthusiasm and effervescence But then age doesnrsquot spare anyone while taking its tollmiddayrsquos group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stanceHe tweets ClaytonMurzello Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper