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West Indian
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West Indies
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WI
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Courtney Walsh
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Courtney_walshjpg
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Right-handed batsman (RHB)
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Right-arm Fast (RF)
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132
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936
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754
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0/0
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30
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50031
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519
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2444
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22
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3
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7/37
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29/0
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205
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321
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697
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0/0
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30
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18034
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227
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3047
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1
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5/1
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27/0
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1 January
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2005
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(born
October 30 ,
1962 ,
Kingston ,
Jamaica ) is a former international
Cricket er (
Fast Bowler ) who represented the
West Indies from
1984 to
2001 , captaining the West Indies in 22
Test Match es. He is best known for holding the record of most Test
Wickets from
2000 , when he broke the record of
Kapil Dev , to
2004 , when his record was broken by
Muttiah Muralitharan and later passed by
Shane Warne and
Glenn McGrath .
Walsh's first claim to fame came in
1979 when he took 10 wickets in an
Innings in school cricket, which was a record at that level. Three years later, he made his
First Class debut.
Walsh made his Test debut against
Australia in
Perth in
1984 , taking 2 wickets for 43 runs. Later that season, he also made his
One-day International debut against
Sri Lanka at
Brisbane . He first played for
Gloucestershire in
1984 and was a mainstay of the side until
1998 .
In
1987 , Walsh was named as one of the ''
Wisden ''
Cricketers Of The Year . In
1989 , he took 10 wickets in a Test match for the first time. In
1994 , he was appointed captain of the West Indies Test team for the tours of
India and
New Zealand after
Richie Richardson was ordered to rest because of "acute fatigue syndrome". In
1995 , he took 62 Test wickets at an average of 21.75 runs per wicket, a performance which he bettered in
2000 when he took 66 Test wickets at an average of 18.69, including 34 wickets in the Test series against
England at an average of 12.82 runs per wicket. He came close to (but did not beat) the record for a West Indian bowler of 35 wickets in a Test series (set by
Malcolm Marshall in
1988 ). In the
1990s , his partnership with
Curtly Ambrose was one of the most feared bowling attacks in world cricket.
During the first part of his career, Walsh served as the "stock" bowler in an attack featuring Marshall,
Garner and later Ambrose, but after the retirement of Marshall and Garner took the role as opening bowler. His action lacked the elegance of those bowlers, but its economy and his natural athleticism ensured he was accurate and durable, even over very long spells and used his height (about 198cm, or six-foot-six) to extract occasionally vicious bounce. Even as he lost pace in the latter stage of his career he continued to take wickets at an undiminished rate; teams tended to defend against he and Ambrose and attack the weak third and fourth bowlers.
Walsh played his last One-day International against
New Zealand in
2000 and his last Test match against
South Africa in his homeland, Jamaica, in
2001 .
Walsh is one of only 4 bowlers to have bowled over 5000 of Sri Lanka and
Shane Warne of Australia, and
Anil Kumble of
India . These four, in addition to
Glenn McGrath are also the only bowlers to have taken 500 or more Test wickets. Among the four, Walsh is the only one who has not taken 8 or more wickets in an innings. Walsh took 519 Test wickets, which was the world record until passed by Muttiah Muralitharan in
Zimbabwe in 2004. In One-day Internationals, Walsh was not as successful although he will be remembered for his best performance, 5 wickets for just 1 run. In first-class cricket, he took 5 wickets in an innings more than 100 times and 10 wickets in a match 20 times. As of May 2004, he and
Wasim Akram are the only 2 cricketers to have played over 100 Test matches and taken fewer than 50 catches.
Walsh's feats with the bat are rather less flattering, as indicated by an average of seven in both Test cricket and one-day internationals. He also holds the record for the most Test ducks (43), but has also been left "not out" 61 times. His highest score, co-incidentally, was 30 in both forms of the game. By the end of his career, he had such a reputation for poor batting that the crowd would cheer every ball he faced. Whether this was in appreciation of his batting or an attempt to wind up the bowling side is open to interpretation. That said, Courtney is a much loved and respected cricketer and the West Indies have arguably yet to find a fast bowler with anything approaching his talents.
Walsh is also famous for his sportsmanlike gesture of not
Mankading last man Salim Jaffer of
Pakistan in a
World Cup match in 1987, which cost the West Indies the match and a place in the semi-finals.
