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Part 8
Pratham: Another Final Tour That You Made to A Different Place – The Subcontinent in ’74 -’75.
Lance Gibbs: India.
Pratham: Yeah.
Pratham: I Was Earlier Talking About The Spin “Quartet” – You Outbowled Them There In That Series.
They had Success as well, But You Did A Pretty Good Job to Trump That.
Pratham: This Was Also The Last Series That Tiger Patudi, The Nawab …
Lance Gibbs: He died.
Pratham: Yes, Sadly.’74-’75 Was The Last Series He Captained.
Pratham: You’d Seen Him Play On His Very First Tour (India Tour to Caribbean in ’61 -’62 Where
Gibbs Took 8 for 6) Till Now. What Did You Make Him As A Person & Captain?
Lance Gibbs: He was a nice fella, real nice.
Lance Gibbs: He was a Super Captain. You know, you could always go what he was going to do.
I Could TELL What He’s Going To Do.
Pratham: I’ve Heard He Would Gamble A Lot in Terms of Selection?
Lance Gibbs: I’ve Never Really Gone Into The Selection of Opposition Teams and Things.
Pratham: Fair Enough. Were You Guys Friends?
Lance Gibbs: Yeah. My Wife Stayed At His House As A Guest.
Pratham: Your Final Test Tour and Series in General Was in Australia in ’75 -’76.
Pratham: When I Hear About People Speaking About It From The West Indian Camp, They Offen
Mention That It Had A Very Lasting Influence on The Psyche of West Indian Cricket to Some Extent.
Pratham: The Argument is that in Being in that in Cauldron An Environment and Losing in
Manner The West Indies Did (5-1 Loss) Did Really Spark The Trend and Push Towards A Different
Pace Dominant Approach From The West Indian Team on a Whole.
Pratham: Pardon Me, But There’s Anecdote From Ian Chappell About The Tour That I Always Did
Want To Ask You About.
Lance Gibbs: What Was It?
Pratham: Hey Said That Jeff Thomson Was Bowling To You and You Approached Him (Ian
Chappell).
Pratham: And You Told Him – “I’ve got a Wife and Kid at Home, Please Make Sure That He Doesn’t
Blow My Head Off. “
Lance Gibbs: Hahahaha!
Pratham: Do you Remember Jeff Thomson?
Lance Gibbs: Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!
Pratham: Was He Quickest Bowler You Ever Saw?
Lance Gibbs: One of Them.
Lance Gibbs: (On The Quote) Man, Listen – When You Are Batting At Number 11, And You Go Out
There, All The Fellas Are Trying to Get An Extra Wicket (Chuckles).
Pratham: ALL RAMPING UP (Their Pace).
Lance Gibbs: Hahahaha!
Pratham: There is One Moment i was gonna ask you about.
Pratham: 31st January, 1976. This Is Your Final Test Match That Australian Tour. Ian Redpath,
Bowled Gibbs, Cought Holding.
Pratham: Number 308. This is the Leading Wicket That You Take To Go Past Fred Trueman As The Leading
Leading Wicket Taker in The World.
Pratham: So now We’ve Reached The Mount Everest of Bowling If You Want To Put It That Way.
Pratham: Do You Have Any Memory of What Was Going In Your Mind When You Were Almost There
And when you got there?
Lance Gibbs: Not Really, Not Really.
Lance Gibbs: I Play Cricket Hard to The End, You Know. To end, I play hard. When Walking Off The
Field, It’s A Different Thing.
Pratham: There was a discussion I Heard Of Having A Benefit Match Versus For You in ’76
When they toured. Like Giving You A Final Game There. And That Idea Was Not Proceeded With?
Lance Gibbs: I’m Not Aware of That at All.
Pratham: Oh, okay.
Pratham: After You Retired, Did You Think About Coaching Any Spin Bowlers That Were
coming up in the Caribbean?
Lance Gibbs: No.
Lance Gibbs: You see, You Would Know the Bowlers As They Come On The Test Side. And to
Pull Them Aid and Start Looking After Them Alone … It’s A Different Thing.
Pratham: After You Retired, You Went Into The Shipping Business? Is That Correct?
Lance Gibbs: MMHHMM.
Pratham: And So What Made You Interested In That?
Lance Gibbs: I Was in Shipping Before I became a cricketer.
Pratham: I see. So You Just Went Back To …
Lance Gibbs: Something I like.
Pratham: Fair Enough. And What Was Your Motivation Shifting to Miami?
Lance Gibbs: That’s Where The Shipping Was All About. Major Commercial Vessels.
Lance Gibbs: If you know a guy in Miami – You Want To Ship Something, You’ll Get In Touch
Lance Gibbs. Cause You Know Him.
Pratham: What Was Your Involvement In Setting Up The Broward County Cricket Stadium That We
See in Lauderhill? My understanding Is That You Involved In That to Degree.
Lance Gibbs: Getting The Ground Right.
Pratham: So You Oversaw Pitch Preparation …
Lance Gibbs: Getting Good Wickets … Cause You Know, You’re Given a Ground. And you got you
Wickets on The Ground But They Are Not Well Prepared And Stuff. I helped Along the line.
Pratham: Do You Go Sometimes to Watch Matches?
Lance Gibbs: Yeah, Yeah – I Go There Steady!
Pratham: You’re Married to Your Wife Joy for 50 Years Now. At Your Wedding In ’63, The Late
Sir Clyde Walcott Was Your Best Man.
Pratham: What Kind of A Role Has Your Wife Played During Your Career? And what Kind of Role has begun
Clive Played As A Source of Support? I Know He Retired Earlier – 1960 Was His Last Game.
Pratham: But What Sort Of Role Have Both Played In Supporting Your Career?
Lance Gibbs: Whatever Advice You Could Want.
Lance Gibbs: My Wife Knows All The Cricketer’s Names and Different Things and That. So I didn’t
Have to worry – Look at that.
Lance Gibbs: I Could Have What Happened in So So So So So So, and She Would Know!
Pratham: She has begun on Encyclopedic Kind of Memory … Okay!
Pratham: So Just A Couple of Final Questions.
Pratham: You played Three One International Games at The End of Your Career. And One of Them,
The Last of Them actually, Was A Game Against Sri Lanka in The First Ever Cricket World Cup in ’75.
Pratham: What did you make of the format at The Time? Did You Feel You Needed to Bowl A Little
Bit Differently Compared to Test Cricket in Odis?
Lance Gibbs: No, I bowled The Same Way. Whoever I Gotta Bowl Against, I Gotta Look To Get Him
Out.
Pratham: What’s The Most Valuable Thing You’ve Gotten From Your Playing Days?
Lance Gibbs: Meeting Nice People.
Pratham: And That’s What’s Continued to Help You Along The Way.
Lance Gibbs: Yeah, Yeah.
Pratham: And What’s One Thing You Miss The Most About Your Play Days?
Lance Gibbs: This week, for example. I Won’t Go Out. I’ll Stay in The House All Day.
Pratham: I see. So You Miss That Ability To …
Lance Gibbs: Go out and … Help Others and That Kind of Thing.
Pratham: IF There’s One Thing That You Could Say Youth Today Who Are Interested In Playing
The game, What Would It Be?
Lance Gibbs: If You’re Going To Play Game, You Gotta Play It Hard. You Gotta Play In The Best
Possible Manner and Behavior You Can Give. And be nice to people. That’s It!
Pratham: Alrighty. Well, That Was It, Mr. Gibbs.
Pratham: I Really Thank You For The Time That You’ve Taken Out To Sit With Me and Chat About Your
Career … Your Life … It’s Been A Pleasure.
Lance Gibbs: All The Best!
Pratham: Appreciate It!
The End
