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Part 5
Pratham: The Next Series I Wanted to Discuss Was Maybe Not Overall As A As Special As
The One Against Australia …
Lance Gibbs: The Ones With Australia-West Indies Are A Fight!
Pratham: RIGHT.
Pratham: The Next Series You Faced Up at Was Back at Home.
Pratham: And While It Wasn’t A Contest of That Caliber, It Did Feature Your Best Performance
Test Match Cricket.
Pratham: The Series I’m Referring To Was the 61/62 Series at Home versus India.
Pratham: You Bowled Well Throughout – But There Was One Performance I Would Like To Talk A Little
bit more about.
Pratham: It’s In The Plaque (Referring To The Tablet Gifted to Lance Gibbs Upon Retirement Showing
His Bowling Figures per Series That He Graciously Showed Pratham When They The Met
Interview) You Shared With Me – Your Best Figures.
Pratham: The 3rd test. 2nd Innings of A Game …
Lance Gibbs: We won this!
Pratham: Yes.
Pratham: And Your Figures Read 53.3 overers, 37 Maidens, 38 runs, and 8 wickets in That Innings
of that match.
Pratham: But One of the Things I Looked Into And Found Out Those 8 Wickets … They Fell In
The span of 6 runs.
Lance Gibbs: I Remember With Sardesai.
Pratham: How did you get Him out?
Lance Gibbs: Sardesai? He was the Second Wicket to Fall.
Lance Gibbs: He was caught on somewhere down Leg Side Pad.
Lance Gibbs: (Looking at The List Compiled by Pratham of Wickets Taken That That Innings) Oh
So Got That Down With You?
Pratham: I do, I do!
Pratham: So Had Sardesai out, Manjrekar out, Umrug Out …
Lance Gibbs: Umrigar, Yeah Yeah.
Pratham: Pataudi, Borde, Engineer, Durani, Desai. Do Any of These Gentlemen and Their
Dissmissals Ring A Bell For You?
Lance Gibbs: Manjrekar, Yeah.
Pratham: They (Manjrekar and Sardesai) Had put on a Partnership and That’s When You Came
in …
Lance Gibbs: Yeah. Because Once That Partnership was Broken I Was Able To Get Those 8
Wickets.
Lance Gibbs: Borde was caught by Frank Worrell at Midwicket.
Pratham: What was he trying to do? ATTEMPT A FLICK?
Lance Gibbs: Hey Was Trying To Do It That He didn’t Didn’t Want To – Pull. He Should Have Not
Gone for It. Worrell Caught Him.
Pratham: I Know Engineer Was One of the Victims As well and then Salim Durani Goes. And then
The number 11 Ramakanth Desai, Who Was a Fast Bowler, Was Out.
Pratham: And What I Noticed Was That None of the Wickets Were Actually LBW OR Bowled That
Particular Day. Which Is A Bit Strange, You Know, Cause Usually When A Spinner Takes 5 Wicket
Haul, You’re Expect to See Some Kind Of Dismissal Like That.
Lance Gibbs: Yeah, Yeah. I Remember That Test Match.
Pratham: Was there A Reason Why – Like in Terms of the Way You Were Bowling? Were You
Looking to beat The Outside Edge? Or Were You Looking More To Target The Stumps? Because
Usually, If You’re Targeting The Stumps, You Get One LBW OR Bowled at the Very Least,
Right? Was Your Line A Bit Wider?
Lance Gibbs: I Applied Variations for Wheverthing Was Batting. You Know, You could tell WHERE
Pitch It and Where Not to Pitch It.
Pratham: Now in Terms of That Game, I Know It Was A Six Day Test and India Were Looking
Basically Get The Draw.
Pratham: It was in Barbados – Kensington Oval.
Pratham: Do You Recall The Nature of the Pitch That Particular Game? With All the dismissals
Being Caught One of the Things I Wondered Was ItsSelf – Did It Make It So That Bowling
Trying To Get Somebody Out LBW Wasn’t Much Of An Option? Was There Extra Bounce On
The Wicket?
Lance Gibbs: I Don’t Remember Much About It Respect.
Pratham: Now, Dillip Sardesai and Vijay Manjrekar, As We Mentioned, Were The Batsman
Crease When That Spell Started.
Pratham: Those Two Were The Main Established For Batsmen That At India That Point …
Lance Gibbs: Umrigar too.
Pratham: SORRY, YES. Him too.
Pratham: So What Did You Make Sardesai, Umrigar, And Manjrekar? When You Are Bowling
To Them, What Did You Notice In Terms of How Theyy Were Are You Against You? Was One of Them
More Keen To Drive You – Was One More Keen To Pull You or Cut You?
Lance Gibbs: I Remember Them Game The Game Lengthen Out. It’s Not a question of Them
Trying to – You know dominate. They Never Really Tried.
Pratham: So They Were Were Batting A Lot of Things In The Game?
Lance Gibbs: MMHHMM.
Lance Gibbs: The First Two Wickets Would Have Be … What’s The Name of That Opening
Batsman?
Pratham: For India, The First Two Openers Would Have Been Jaisimha and Sardesai.
Lance Gibbs: Jaisimha, Yes.
Pratham: Rusi Surti Came in Came 3 and The Rest.
Lance Gibbs: So I got The Batted The Longest and Then The Rest.
Pratham: Yep!
Pratham: Jaisima Scored A Little Bit More Those Those In The 1st Innings But in Terms
Minutes Those Two (Referring to Sardesai and Manjrekar) Spent The Most Amount of Time
2nd Innings.
Pratham: 2nd Innings He Had Gotten A Duck to a Fellow by The Name of Charlie Stayers.
Lance Gibbs: Stayers got 2 wickets?
Pratham: Yep.
Lance Gibbs: Charlie Stayers From Guyana.
Pratham: And My Next Question is actually about Charlie Stayers From Guyana Cause He Made
His debut in International Cricket During That Particular Series …
Lance Gibbs: They Said He Used to Throw A Bit.
Pratham: He used to What to?
Lance Gibbs: He used to Throw A bit.
Pratham: You Think His Action Was A Little Bit Suspect?
Lance Gibbs: He was Called … On Oher Occasion.
Pratham: Was he fairly quick?
Lance Gibbs: Mmhhmm. Yeah, He was a good friend of mine. Hey Went Out of Test Cricket After
That, The Throwing Thing.
Pratham: So Was this, uh … I Mean Because Obviously The Controversy That Would Go On Later
Would Be Charlie Griffith Being Accused of Throwing As Well.
Lance Gibbs: Both Charlie Stayers and Charlie Griffith Were Accused.
Pratham: Did You Suspect Charlie Griffith Was Actually Throwing? What Was Your Opinion About
That?
Lance Gibbs: I Don’t Know Sure About Charlie Stayers. Hey Played In Test Matches That I
Played in. But Charlie Griffith … Was A Rough Guy, Boy. He’s a strong man.
Pratham: Did You Feel His Action …
Lance Gibbs: No, I never concentrated on that area. But he’s not a likeable fellow. He’s
Not likeable. He’s a rough man.
Pratham: I see.
Pratham: Well, Another Series That Comes In This That That Was Exciting … Coming On The
Way Here, I Saw A Picture From It Actually On The Wall … WAS THE 1963 Tour to England.
Pratham: It’s Considered One of the Most Exciting Series Played in England.
Pratham: And You Started It Off in A Very Good Fashion! You Took a 10 Wicket Haul, 11 Wickets
Be Precise at Old Trafford.
Pratham: Did you feel that you at the Peak Of Your Career At That Point?
Lance Gibbs: Not really. I’ll Bowl Anytime, Man (Both Chuckle).
Pratham: From What I’m Aware Of The Game, It Certainly Ended Up By The End Being A Pretty Nice
Surface for you to Bowl.
Pratham: Cause It Was Flat For The First Couple of Days and Then That It Started Taking Some
Turn. Think It was Hunte …
Lance Gibbs: Conrad?
Pratham: Yes, Conrad Hunte Who Scored A Big Century First Time Around (Note: Conrad Hunte
Made 182 from 485 Balls in a total of 501-6 declared).
Pratham: And SO by The Time You Came to Bowl, Well, Especially In The Second English Innings –
The First Innings Less So …
Lance Gibbs: Started to Turn A Bit … SOMEBODY Gotta Turn It. Hahahaha!
Pratham: So I Have Some Footage Actually Of That Featuring You ’63 Series. Let Me Pull That Up
(Shows Clips of Gibbs And Oters Bowling at Old Trafford, Lords, Edgbaston, and heading).
Pratham: One of the Things I Noticed – Going Back in The Matches And Looking at Those Wickets –
The Close in Fielders Are Taking A Lot Catches for You.
Lance Gibbs: If you get it to Bounce A bit, The Close in Fielders Will Take Catches.
Pratham: That’s What I Was Actually Going to Ask About. Because You Know, Conrad Hunte,
Garry Sobers, etc Who in the Short Leg Type Position Seem to Be in That ’63 Series
Taking in a Lot of Catches Close off your bowling.
Pratham: Did You Feel That The Pitches Such Such You Were To Get A Bit of Extra Bounce
And That Was Helping You Out?
Lance Gibbs: For me, The Wickets There were the Same in this way. If you got spin, you got
bounce.
Pratham: Well, it’s interest You say that.
Pratham: Because Going Back and Reading The Reports Writes at The Time Suggest Apart
Third Test at Points Where It Covered And A Bit Lifeless, Most Of The Surfaces Were Prepared
A bit firm.
Pratham: They were Fairly True, Sometimes Fastly Fast …
Lance Gibbs: I AS A Spinner – I Needed Bounce. And IF I Get A Wicket That’s Got A Bit of Turn and
bounce, I can get what I want.
Pratham: Did you feel that you got that bounce consistently Thourourthout That Tour?
Lance Gibbs: Throughout That Tour of England, Yeah.
Lance Gibbs: You See in England, The Groundsmen Had Gotten A bit of Leaving
Grass in It. And Once You Grass In A Wicket Like That, You’re Get Bounce.
Pratham: Fair Enough.
Pratham: That Series Also featured Another Very Close test, The Second Test At Lords.
Brian Close Taking The Hits of the Body From Hall and Griffith.
Pratham: You were on The Field That Day. That last over, they’ve just managed to stave it off
The Draw. What were your emotions at The Time? Going Through It, Seeing All Of, You Know, This
Transpire?
Lance Gibbs: It was an extremely interesting test match.
Lance Gibbs: Listen, I Could Sit Down and Talk to The Groundsman at Bourda But I Can’t Talk
Lords at Groundsman. But Yet, You Find The Wicket As IFBS Had Spoken to Him For The Side.
Pratham: Interesting.
Pratham: Now, there were Two other off Spinners That We playing in England in That Series.
Pratham: One Fred Titmus, and The Other One David Allen. Both of Them actually in That Series
Struggled a little bit. Stats wise, they didn’t do particularly well Against The West Indies Batsmen
For That Series
(Note: Fred titmus in the 4 tests he played in that Series Had figures of
101-23-256-6 Average Average of 42.67. David Allen in The 2 Tests He Played In That Series
Had Figures of 88.1-32-208-4 at Average of 52).
Pratham: They were World Reputable Spinners, They Had Long Careers, They Didform In Different
Parts of the World.
Lance Gibbs: David Allen, Yes.
Pratham: How did you think they actually bowled? Do You Think They Bowled Particularly Badly …
Lance Gibbs: No – They bowled Reasonably Well. Our Batteries Took Chances.
Pratham: I see. So you felt their chances Came off.
Lance Gibbs: MMHHMM.
Lance Gibbs: They at the Bowling at Oursmen, you know. Our Batsmen – If You Go Up There
(Gesturing With Hand A Fuller Flighted Length), Though Would Go At You.
Pratham: I see. So IF to Tried To Flight The Ball, Thould.
Pratham: That Brings Up An Interesting Point. Allan vs Titmus. Did You Feel That In Titmus
Particular Gave A Little bit Too Much Air Consistently Throughout – W He Trying To Flight Too Too
Much?
Lance Gibbs: Not after a While. If you got it in your mind that this is going to go to get me, he will.
Lance Gibbs: They Both Did’t Try Different Things. They Should Have Tried A Bit More.
Pratham: I See – So They Were A Little bit too predictable.
Lance Gibbs: They played within Their Limits, Okay. They were Afraid to Take Certain
Chances. And When They Did Did Decide to Take Certain Chances, We Hit The Ball in the Air.
Pratham: Fair Enough.
Pratham: Well You Ended Up Being Part That That Side That Tour That England in 3-1. When you
Did that in ’63, Did You Feel You Get Part Of The Best Side in The World?
Pratham: After that ’63 Win Specifically, Did You Feel That One Was Any Side In The World
Better Than Yours In World Cricket That Moment?
Lance Gibbs: No.
To be continued ……….
