Well deserved honour for Lloyd

Clive Hubert Lloyd is now Sir Clive an honour which ought to have been bestowed on him by English royalty many years agoFor Lloyd is a Lancashire legend alright through his 1968 to 1986 county stint and has contributed in no small measure to the popularising of cricket in the 1970s and 1980sIf the red rose county and Guyana the place of his birth are dear to him so is the city of Mumbai It is here where he made his encouraging Test debut in 1966 scoring 82 and 78 not out in the opening Test of the threematch seriesHe was all set to be confined to the reserve bench for that Test but Seymour Nurse failed a fitness test for his injured finger and Lloyd was told that he would be playing half an hour before the start of the TestHe walked in to bat with the scoreboard reading 823 and he struggled a bit against BS Chandrasekhar who came in first change after ML Jaisimha and Ajit Wadekar opened the bowling for India Once he got his eye in he swept and drove with comfort putting on 110 with Conrad HunteIn the second innings on December 18 1966 he was told by his captain to get a move on en route the victory target of 192 because Sobers wanted to be at the Mahalaxmi race course by 3 pm Both captain and rookie stayed unbeaten to see the visitors home with six wickets to spareIn Living for Cricket Lloyd apologised to the readers of his book for not being able to tell whether Sobers tipped by his English jockey friend Josh Gifford won anything at the race course that afternoon But this newspaperrsquos redoubtable horse race correspondent Prakash Gosavi tells me that a threeyearold filly called River Haven E Eldin astride clinched the Indian 1000 Guineas Grade I raceThe West Indies ended up winning the series 20 and the next time Lloyd arrived on Mumbai soil was for the 197475 series By then Wankhede Stadium was ready to host its maiden Test and Lloyd made it a memorable one through his 242 not out in the first innings A young man jumped over the fence to congratulate Lloyd when he reached his double century and what followed was a riot because the policeman beat up the intruder ldquoIn front of everyone they police used their long bamboo sticks the lathis with a vengeance on the poor boy and incensed the crowd to such an extent that by tea there was a fullscale riot which left the place looking like a battlefieldrdquo wrote LloydThe Indians could have got him out four times according to reports and excaptain Ajit Wadekar who had made his Test debut along with Lloyd in 1966 described the fielding in Sportsweek as ldquoraggedrdquoInterestingly even as Wadekar praised Lloyd for being ldquomature and professionalrdquo he felt the innings of the match was played by Sunil Gavaskar who smashed 86 in Indiarsquos first digLike in 1966 West Indies won the Test and Lloyd had the satisfaction of winning his first series as captainHe was still the West Indies captain when they played the fourth Test of the 198384 series in Mumbai The drawn Test meant the Caribbeans couldnrsquot lose the series with two Tests to go Lloyd was run out for 67 in the first innings a ldquousual robust inningsrdquo in the words of Sportsweek expert Dilip Sardesai while the magazinersquos associate editor Sharad Kotnis termed it a ldquosafe and surerdquo effort in an unsuccessful bid to surpass Indiarsquos total of 463Lloyd has visited Mumbai many times in his postplaying days On one of his tripsmdashin June 1995mdashto promote the World Masters Series he agreed to speak to me about his teenaged son Jasonrsquos miraculous recovery from GuillainBarreacute syndrome the previous year ldquoItrsquos a huge relief to all of us Jasonrsquos recovery has given us a new purpose in life and I would like to thank all those wonderful people who prayed for his recovery It shows that you cannot beat the power of prayerrdquo said LloydLloydrsquos knighthood has come after having witnessed the highs and lows of West Indies cricket He was all set to leave the West Indies and happy to be a county professional at Lancashire when he was dropped for the Barbados Test against Australia in 197273 but was counselled appropriately by his mentor Wes Hall He faced immense pressure after losing 15 on the Australia tour of 197576 but regrouped himself and his team to make it one of if not the finest sides in history West Indies didnrsquot lose a Test series after their 01 loss in New Zealand in February 1980 to February 1995 and Lloyd played a big part in that seriously enviable world dominationYes him unleashing a fourpronged fast bowling attack did not attract universal approval Indeed many pundits felt that the West Indies used intimidatory tactics to beat the opposition But Lloyd was a fine leader Had it not been for him who asked Malcolm Marshall if he can bowl with his left arm in plaster at Leeds in 1984 we wouldnrsquot have seen one of the most courageous acts in the gamersquos history He was also successful in getting a bunch of cricketers belonging to different countries to play as a unit for the West IndiesHe never allowed captaincy to affect his batting In 110 Tests he plundered 7515 runs at 4467 and scored 19 hundreds He scored more Test runs 2344 and centuries 7 against India than any other country Yet he is one of the bestloved opposition cricketers on these shoresArise Sir Clivemiddayrsquos 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