Chase, Headley & Worrell – All WI Men’s Test Team Captains!

May 25, 2025 Sports

---

By:  Colin Croft – Former Guyana, Lancashire CCC & WI International Cricketer

Kaieteur Sports- Barbados’ off-spinning all-rounder Roston Lamar Chase, who debuted in Tests, v India, in July 2016, but who has NOT played a Test match for West Indies since March 2023, v South Africa, has been named, controversially so, as NEW captain of WI Men’s Test Cricket teams.

Chase’s WI Test career could only be described as industrious:  49 Tests:  2265 runs, H/S 137 no, avg. 26.33, plus 85 wickets, BBI/BBM 8-60; avg. 46.00 runs per wicket.  On statistics only, Chase is easily WI’s best present all-rounder.

It might be sacrilegious to mention Chase, and seriously significant past WI captains George Headley and Frank Worrell, in the same breath.  Headley and Worrell had put WI into cricket’s stratosphere, leading self-discoveries, and renaissance, with purpose and personality.

For the record, though, again, THE FIRST BLACK MAN EVER appointed to captain WI Men’s Test Cricket team WAS NOT Barbadian / Jamaican Frank Worrell.  So many places and people STILL have this stated incoherently and incorrectly.

That unique honour; FIRST BLACK MAN EVER to be appointed captain of WI Men’s Test Cricket team; went to Jamaican George Headley.  Neither Artificial Intelligence, Chap-GPT, nor supposedly intelligent, ill-informed, deluded cricket scribes or historians, can change that!

 

When MCC/England toured WI in 1947/1948, Headley was one of three WI captains used, something of a compromise, since there had been calls for him to captain for all four Tests.  T&T’s Gerry Gomez and Barbados’ John Goddard; both Caucasians; were the other two.

Unfortunately, after leading WI in that 1^st Test – drawn at Kensington Oval, Barbados – Headley had serious back injury problems.  Hence, Goddard captained WI, successfully, v England, and subsequently continued as captain, to India in 1948/1949 and England in 1950.

However, real cricketing history had already been made.  George Alphonso Headley had become the FIRST EVER BLACK WEST INDIES MEN’S TEST CRICKET TEAM CAPTAIN.

George Headley – Atlas of the West Indies!          

“MASSA” George Headley, described as “ATLAS” and “BLACK Don Bradman”, with reference to that greatest of Australian batters, is always included in ALL-West Indies Men’s teams.

Like “Atlas”, the mythical Greek figure who was supposed to have held up the sky, Headley always held WI teams’ batting returns in his hands.  Whenever Headley failed, which was very seldom, so did WI!

George Headley played 22 Tests; 2190 runs, 10 centuries, H/S 205, average 60.83, and 103 First Class games; 9921 runs, 33 centuries, H/S 344, average 69.86.

Crucially, Headley missed cricket fully during WW II; 1939 – 1945; and did not play Test cricket again until 1948, well after WW II had ended.

Many present-day WI front-line batsmen’s batting averages are less than 50% of Headley’s excellence, but that is another story for another time.   WI cricket has become desperately poor, despite all incoming CWI administrations’ loud utterances of intended improvements.

More than 25 years have passed since WI are/were supposed to have “turned a corner.”  One must believe that that corner must be like walking, circumnavigating the earth.  It never ends!

West Indies 1^st Ever Test Series

Born on 30 May 1909, George Headley just missed selection for WI’s first ever Test series; three Tests v England in 1928; the WI touring squad captained by Jamaican wicket-keeper/batter Karl Nunes.  19-year-old Headley was deemed to be “too young to be able to withstand the difficulties of such an arduous cricket tour.”

Headley, aged 20 +, debuted for WI in the next series; 1929/1930; in the Caribbean, v MCC.  At Kensington Oval, Barbados; Test No. 1; Headley scored 21 and 176; the first West Indian to make a century on Test debut, in that drawn Test.  What a brilliant start!

I met George Headley many times, for the first time during my first “away” tour from Guyana – 1971 WI Under19 Series in Jamaica.  Whenever our WI subsequently played at Sabina Park, he was always in our dressing room, lending valuable advice.  “ATLAS” was a great Ambassador for WI cricket.  George Headley died, aged 74, in November 1983.

Frank Worrell – Father of Modern-Day Wi Cricket

My first knowledge of Frank Mortimer Maglinne Worrell, one of the famous “Three W’s” – plus Clyde Walcott and Everton Weekes – started as a seven-year-old in primary school.  We all listened, way after midnight every night, to the “live” radio broadcasts coming from Australia – WI Tour of Australia 1960/1961, otherwise known as the first ever “Tied Test” series.

Worrell’s cricketing stats are still astounding.  He made his Test debut at Queen’s Park Oval, T&T, v MCC, in February 1948, just missing a century; 97 and 28 no., in a draw.

Worrell played 51 Tests, 3,860 runs, nine centuries, H/S 261, average 49.48.  208 First Class games, 15,025 runs, 39 centuries, H/S 308, average 54.24, plus 69 Test wickets at 38.72 runs per wicket, and 349 First Class wickets at 28.98 runs per wicket.

WI could do with such a fantastically gifted, wonderfully productive cricketer, in any format, right now!

“The Thinker” and “Nelson Mandela” of WI cricket, Frank Worrell became the FIRST Black man to captain WI Men’s Test Cricket team for a FULL Test series; that same 1960/1961 Australian tour; later for the 1963 UK tour too.

“Graceful, poised and dignified”, Worrell’s cricketing common sense, man-management skills and understanding of team-mates, and Caribbean people at large, made him the ideal candidate to bring WI cricket into modernity, with aggression, intention and enterprise.

So exceptionally good was the cricket played in Australia 1960/1961 between Australia and WI, and so respected were the tourists, that, despite just losing the five-Test series; 2-1; WI were celebrated, garlanded and motorcaded to Melbourne Airport for departure.

If Australia 1960/1961 highlighted modern WI cricketing skills, 1963’s WI tour to UK solidified Worrell and WI into world slayers, with abilities, arrogance, elegance and team spirit seldom seen since, perhaps only in Clive Lloyd’s and Viv Richards’ reigns as WI captains.

Beating England 3-1, and giving us, the next generation, inspiration, were, arguably, the best WI squad of all time, household names from 1960s to 1980s:  Frank Worrell (captain), Conrad Hunte, Easton Mc Morris, Seymour Nurse, Basil Butcher, Joe Solomon, Gary Sobers, David Allan (wicket-keeper), Wes Hall, Charlie Griffith, Afred Valentine, Deryck Murray (wicket-keeper), Joey Carew, Willie Rodriguez, Lester King, Lance Gibbs and Rohan Kanhai.

Frank Worrell died in 1967, aged just 43, from leukemia.  Many who had played with him or followed his guidance for their lives and cricketing exploits, spoke of Worrell’s diplomacy, verve and appreciation of the value of WI cricket to the Caribbean, something that, somehow, does not seem to matter universally anymore.

Roston Chase is the latest incarnation of WI captaincy that started with Karl Nunes, through great captains like Frank Worrell, Garfield Sobers, Clive Lloyd and Viv Richards.  Chase could try to roll them all into massive thoughts of inspiration.  Good luck to him.  Cheers.  Enjoy!

---

---