Alf Valentine
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| Full name | Alfred Louis Valentine | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born |
28 April 1930 Kingston, Jamaica |
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| Died | 11 May 2004 (aged 74) Orlando, Florida, U.S. |
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| Batting style | Right-handed batsman | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowling style | Slow left arm | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Role | Bowler | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Test debut | 8 June 1950 v England | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Last Test | 18 April 1962 v India | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Source: ESPNcricinfo
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Alfred Louis "Alf" Valentine (28 April 1930 – 11 May 2004) was a West Indian cricketer in the 1950s and 1960s. He is most famous for his performance in the West Indies' 1950 tour of England, which was immortalised in the Victory Calypso.
The West Indies toured England in 1950. They had a good batting line-up including the "three W's" (Clyde Walcott, Everton Weekes and Frank Worrell), but they were unusually short of bowlers. They took two young spinners, 20-year-old Alf Valentine and 21-year-old Sonny Ramadhin, who had only played two first-class matches each. Valentine in particular was a surprising choice as he had only taken two wickets in those matches at an average of 95, but somehow he had caught the eye of the West Indies captain, John Goddard.
Valentine did not impress in the first few matches of the tour, and was not certain to be in the Test team, until in the final warm-up match before the Tests he took 8 for 26 and 5 for 41 as the West Indies beat Lancashire by an innings and 220 runs.
He justified his selection for the Test side when in the first innings of the first Test, he took the first eight wickets, five of them before lunch on the first day. He finished with 8 for 104 in the innings, and 11 for 204 in the match off 106 overs. He was the first bowler ever to take eight wickets in his first Test innings, a feat which has only been achieved three times since as of December 2012[update].
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