Rowe gives a player’s view of the tour

Press, 26 February 1980, Page 1

Rowe gives a player’s view of the tour

Rumours were flying thick and fast yesterday that the West Indian cricket team was going home, having had enough of New Zealand cricket.

In spite of this, Lawrence Rowe, the No. 3 West Indian batsman, who has attracted more than his share of l.b.w. decisions of late, was in a cheerful mood.

Who will win the test? he was asked.

After a big grin, one of many, which exposed a beautiful set of white teeth, he said: “That’s very hard to say. It’s in a very interesting position at the moment.”

Looking at his position, in a Christchurch hotel room at midday yesterday, things could have gone either way. There were two bags packed and two unpacked. His wife of two months, Violet, had gone out to do some shopping when “The Press” arrived.

Rowe, at 31, 172 cm (sft Sin) in his cricket boots, is the fourth shortest in the West Indian team. The two Murrays and Alvin Kallicharran were shorter, he said. Unlike Joel Garner he has never made any deodorant ads, just one for "Bulldog” malt drink — a “non-alcoholic” West Indian drink, in Jamaica. Asked why he kept getting his legs in the way, he replied: “It is difficult to say. I don’t feel that I am, but the umpires think differently.” “It is the first time in my career that I’m walking out there worrying about my style of play,” he said. “You’re worried that the ball’s going to hit you and that you’ll be out regardless of whether you are or not.

“You must have some confidence in the umpires — when you lose that it’s something else, mun.” He said one only had to look at the number of decisions that had gone against his team to see why they were upset The pitches, and the climate were also upsetting, but the umpires were the most upsetting factor on the tour so far. “When the ball hits the edge of the bat and there’s a catch — the batsman’s out. There are no two ways about it,” he said. “You have to show your emotions somehow. The Australians do it. We do it.” But if they did it, the umpires seemed. to decide not to make any more decisions, he said. He said he had played all over the world and there had always been decisions for and against the West Indian team, but never anything like this tour.

“Some people tend to say we’re squealing, but regardless of how good you are, if every decision

goes the other way you can’t come out on top. The New Zealand team have played some good cricket since we’ve been here, and got us out. They were the underdogs, but they’ve stuck to it well and showed a lot of spirit, and our fellas admire them for that. They’ve batted exceptionally well. “But other things are important. When you’re plugging away waiting for a break and when it comes you don’t get it it’s very hard. It’s impossible to bowl everybody out if an umpire won’t make a decision.”

The team spent just over three months in Australia before coming to New Zealand, and he enjoyed the

By

GENEVIEVE FORDE

Australian part of the tour much more — they played much better; and the wickets and climate were much better.

“It’s easy for you to criticise us, but we’ve hardly stopped since we came here. We had seven hours travel from Adelaide and arrived in Auckland at about 11 or 12 at night. We had to go out to a lunch the next day and played the day following. It’s been play, travel, play, travel ever since. We’ve had no chance to practise. “From the first match we were criticised by the press. Lloyd was criticised for not going to a champagne breakfast in the middle of the test in Dunedin — in the the middle of a test! We were blamed for a hole in the dressing room in Wellington which was there when we got there. “There’s a paper at your door every morning where you read that you’re an overrated team. It would be much beter if they said New Zealand played well rather than we were over* rated,” he said. Both he and the other opening batsman, Gordon Greenidge, have their wives in New Zealand with them. Five wives were with the team in Australia, but the others had to return home before the New Zealand leg of the tour. Being a test cricketer did place a strain on a marriage, said Rowe, who has been divorced. He said most of the players in the present team were away from their families for nine or 10 months of the year, and this was “very hard to take. But it’s our job. You have to make sacrifices,” he said. The fast bowlers in the team were not as grim as they looked, he said, and were really quite nice underneath. “Off the field most of the guys are fabulous fellas,” he said.

Rowe’s father was a “chauffeur for the National

Bus Company’’ in Kingston. At “nine or 10” he started playing cricket, the most popular game in the West Indies.

In his test debut, against New Zealand in 1972, he scored 214 and 100 not out in the game — the only time in test history a player has hit a hundred in each innings of his first test. Since then, it has been rumoured, he is locally referred to as “Lord Lawrence of Kingston,” a title he denies, although he admits he is sometimes addressed as “Sir Lawrence” at home. Since then his career has had several ups and downs largely because of injury; an ankle which kept him out for a year in ’73, an “eye problem” discovered in India in ’74 which kept him out for two years (he now has contact lenses), and a broken hand suffered during a game in ’77 against Trinidad which kept him out for a few months until the Packer series.

The World Series cricket was very good, both for the players and for the game, he said. Since then, players in most test cricket sides had been able to live off the money they earn from cricket, and he thought night cricket, the white ball, and the 30-yard restriction in the one-day games (forcing teams to keep so many fieldsmen close in for the early part of the game, thus encouraging big hits) were good innovations.

His best score in an innings was 302 against England in the West Indies in a 1972-73 series.