Manny Martindale

Emmanuel Alfred Martindale (25 November 1909 – 17 March 1972) was a West Indian cricketer who played in ten Test matches from 1933 to 1939.

He was a right-arm fast bowler with a long run up; although not tall for a bowler of his type he bowled at a fast pace.

With Learie Constantine, Martindale was one of the earliest in the long succession of Test-playing West Indian fast bowlers.

During the time he played, the West Indies bowling attack depended largely on his success.

Critics believe that his record and performances stand comparison with bowlers of greater reputation and longer careers.

Chosen for the West indies tour of England in 1933 despite having played little cricket and being an unknown quantity, he was a great success.

He took over 100 first-class wickets and took over half of the West Indies' wickets in the three Tests played.

In the limited first-class cricket schedule played in the West Indies, Martindale had played in only four matches up to his arrival in England for the 1933 West Indies tour, and had taken only 14 wickets in them, including five in the trial match.

He had played so little cricket that few people in the West Indies knew much about him, but his reputation grew very quickly during the tour.

As such, his rise to prominence came after he was selected for representative cricket rather than from his early performances for Barbados.

In England, he was spotted very quickly as a potential success: The Times, reporting on the team's first practice the day after their arrival, wrote: "Within the limitations of net-practice (they) showed that in E. Martindale they have a bowler of pace worthy to succeed Constantine and Francis."

When the proper cricket started, Martindale was immediately successful.

In his second first-class match of the tour (and the third first-class game) against Essex he took eight first-innings wickets for just 32 runs and followed that with four for 73 in the second innings to finish with match figures of 12 for 105: these would remain the best innings and match figures of his career.

With an eye on the Bodyline controversy which had featured in England's tour of Australia the previous winter, The Times reported of Martindale: "It is very pleasant indeed to see a fast bowler bowling in the old tradition, packing his slips and attacking the off-stump rather than the leg-side ... The Essex batsmen not only got out to him but were thoroughly beaten during the brief time they were in."

Constantine was contracted to play Lancashire League cricket for Nelson and was released for only five matches across the summer: in the first of these, he and Martindale took nine of the 10 MCC first-innings wickets.

Martindale returned five for 70, but both bowlers were criticised in the press for bowling short at the MCC batsmen.

In the following match, against Hampshire, Martindale took six second-innings wickets for 61, and in the first-class averages published at the last weekend of May 1933, he had taken 34 first-class wickets at an average of 14.20 runs per wicket, more than twice as many wickets as any of his teammates.

Martindale was less effective in June when he also missed, or bowled less in, a couple of matches because of a "strain".

He was fit, however, to open the bowling for the West Indies in the first Test at Lord's at the end of the month alongside Francis, recalled because Nelson CC would not release Constantine for the match; Martindale took four wickets for 85 runs, but England won easily by an innings.

July brought a second eight-wicket innings for Martindale: the match against Nottinghamshire was cut short by rain, but Martindale's eight wickets for 66 runs included five batsmen clean bowled.

During the previous winter, England had played Australia in the controversial Bodyline series in which the English bowlers were accused of bowling the ball roughly on the line of leg stump.

The deliveries were often short-pitched with four or five fielders close by on the leg side waiting to catch deflections off the bat.

The tactics were difficult for batsmen to counter and were designed to be intimidatory.

By the 1933 season, it had become a sensitive subject.

In the game against Yorkshire, in which Martindale did not play, the West Indies captain Jackie Grant was frustrated to discover that the home team had prepared a soft pitch which reduced the effectiveness of fast bowling and he ordered Constantine to bowl Bodyline.

The tactics were not effective in that instance, but Grant and Constantine discussed the matter further and decided to use Bodyline during the second Test.

West Indies scored 375 and when England replied, Martindale and Constantine bowled Bodyline.

The pair bowled up to four short deliveries each over so that the ball rose to head height; occasionally they bowled around the wicket.

Many of the English batsmen were discomfited, and a short ball from Martindale struck Wally Hammond on the chin, forcing him to retire hurt.

Martindale was the faster bowler but Constantine was also capable of bursts of great pace.

Even so, the England captain Douglas Jardine, the man responsible for the Bodyline tactics used in Australia, batted for five hours to score his only Test century.

Many critics praised Jardine's batting and bravery in the game.

The ball carried through slowly on another soft pitch, which reduced the effectiveness of the Bodyline tactics, but public disapproval expressed during and after the match was instrumental in turning English attitudes against Bodyline.

Not all contemporary reports disapproved of the tactics; The Times report said there had been "plenty of fun" in the play.

He was the leading bowler when West Indies won their first Test series, against England in 1935–36, and had great success against the leading English batsmen.

In the final game of the series, one of his deliveries broke the jaw of Bob Wyatt, the England captain.

When he returned to tour England a second time in 1939, Martindale was less successful, but he had by then established himself in League Cricket in England.

He moved there to play initially for Burnley Cricket Club, but remained in England for the next 28 years as a professional cricketer.

Upon returning to live in Barbados in 1964, Martindale took up coaching.

He died in 1972.