February 22, 1980.
The series was already acrimonious, full of negativity and controversial umpiring decisions. The immensely powerful West Indies side had bitten the dust in the previous Test at Dunedin by the wafer thin margin of one run. Disgruntled at an appeal being turned down, Michael Holding had kicked the stumps down.
Before the second Test, at Christchurch, the side had almost withdrawn from the series, the players packing their bags to go home. They had been persuaded to stay back and carry on with the tour. The first two days of the Christchurch Test were contested in eerie yet edgy calm. And on the third afternoon, there was a the catastrophic meltdown.
Richard Hadlee hooked a bouncer and missed. Colin Croft, repeatedly jeered by the crowd, appealed — somewhat belatedly — for a catch at the wicket. Umpire Fred Goodall turned it down. Years later Hadlee confessed to Goodall that there had indeed been an edge.
Croft reacted with a barrage of four letter words aimed at Goodall. The umpire was obviously not impressed and along with colleague Steve Woodward, walked down to have a word with Lloyd. As the two made their way towards him, the West Indian captain stood steadfastly at first slip, refusing to take a step forward to meet them. The complaint had little effect.
In his next over, Croft unleashed a series of bouncers at Hadlee. When Goodall no-balled him for bowling from too wide of the crease, Croft deliberately knocked the bails off as he walked back past the stumps. Jeremy Coney, the non-striker, was the one to pick them up.
The next delivery saw one of the most unsavoury incidents in cricket. As he ran in to bowl, Croft veered away at the last moment and rammed his shoulder into the back of Goodall. Even today, when one looks at the video of the incident, it looks extremely deliberate.
Once again, Goodall, obviously and unpleasantly surprised, walked all the way down to Lloyd. The West Indian captain remained motionless at slip. “I told Lloyd I have taken some treatment from players in my time, but it has always been verbal. You sort this out now,” he recalled later.
Lloyd let Croft stay on.
Croft refuses to admit that it had been intentional. Years later, he maintained: “In the heat of the moment they thought I did it on purpose. I did not do it purposely. If Fred Goodall was in Hollywood, he’d have picked up an Oscar. I’m six foot six and 230 pounds. If I’d meant to hit him, he wouldn’t have got up. It’s crap that I barged him deliberately.”
The New Zealand captain Geoff Howarth however found it disgraceful. According to him the fast bowler should have been banned for life, and he got away just because the game was being played 12,000 miles away in little old New Zealand.
The match ended in an acrimonious draw.
The video clips available make it more than clear that if it was indeed an accident, Croft had thought it through quite meticulously while walking back to his mark. With the current ICC regulations in place, he would have been banned for life. Lloyd too would have had to deal with some severe punishment.
Instead, the oft repeated myth is that the great West Indian pace bowlers never really sledged or misbehaved, and let their balls do the talking. All the while the photograph of Michael Holding kicking the stumps and the video of Colin Croft shoulder charging the umpire remain available for view.
But that is how myths are ...
Text: Arunabha Sengupta
Illustration: Maha