Lawrence Rowe
Lawrence
Rowe possesed every stroke in the book and, like so many
great players, he raely lifted the ball off the grass. Every stroke he
played seemed to be played with that extra bit of time. Rowe
was a beautiful driver of the ball a master of the Square cut, he could
sweep like Kanhai and late cut like Worrell. Rowe made his
Test debut against the touring New Zealand side of 1972-73,
making history at Kingston scoring 214 and 100 not out, the first time
that a cricketer had scored a double and single century on Test
debut.
In the 1973-74 home series
against England Lawrence Rowe had his best series for the West Indies.
Rowe scored 616 runs made 3 centuries, one a tripple 302 at kensington
Oval Barbados, and top the batting averages with 88.00
After this magnificant series
Lawrence Rowe suffered many unfortunate occurances which forced him to
missed a number of Test matches. On the 1974-75 tour of India it was
recognised by the senior players and management that Rowe was being
bowled with unusual frequency. In his first three innings he had scored
nought, one and fifteen not out, after the second match it was
establish that Rowe had serious eye trouble and was not tracking the
flight of the ball.
Lawrence Rowe was
sent home and had to undergo eye surgery afterwards there was
a tragic downward turn in Rowe's career. Rowe happened to develop a
stye on one of his eyelids, he went to a distinguish opthalmic surgeon
who tested his eyes as a matter of routine. It was discovered that Rowe
had better than 20/20 vision, hence it can be assume that Rowe had more
time to track the flight of the ball.
It was also discovered that a
growth known as Pterygium was forming on both of Rowe's eyes, it had
almost covered the right eye completely and was well on the way to
obscuring the vision in the left. The growths were remove but
after Rowe could only just manage 20/20 vision in his right eye and
was well short of 20/20 vision in the left eye, contact lens
were prescribed but these were before soft lens were develop.
The next few years saw Rowe
struggled with inflamation, irritation and often watering of the eyes,
until during Packer World Series it was discover that his right eye was
not absolutely symmetrical. Special lenses, were design to accommondate
the slightly misshapen eye. It was also reccommended that he wear no
contact lens in the right eye afterwards there was marked improvement
in Rowes batting.
However, Lawrence Rowe never regain the prominance with the bat after
the problems with his eyes. In 1982-83, Rowe led a rebel tour to South
Africa during the days of apartheid. The West Indian public were
outraged by the tour, Rowe and his rebel team mates received a lifetime
ban by the West Indies Cricket Board from all levels of cricket.

Lawrence Rowe Test Cricket
Statistics
Full Name |
Lawrence George Rowe |
Number
of Test
|
30 |
Number of ODIs |
11 |
Test Run Aggregate
|
2,047 |
ODI Run Aggregate |
136 |
Test
Batting Average
|
43.55
|
ODI
Batting Average |
17.00 |
Total Test Wickets
|
-- |
Total ODI Wickets |
0 |
Test Bowling Average
|
-- |
ODI Bowling Average |
-- |
Test
Centuries
|
7 |
ODI
Centuries |
0 |
Date of Birth
|
January
8, 1949, Whitfield Town, Kingston, Jamaica |
Test Debut
|
West
Indies v New Zealand at Kingston - Feb 16-21, 1972 |
Last Test Match
|
New
Zealand v West Indies at Auckland - Feb 29-Mar 5, 1980
|
ODI Debut
|
Australia
v West Indies at Adelaide - Dec 20, 1975 |
Last ODI Match |
New
Zealand v West Indies at Christchurch - Feb 6, 1980 |
Batting
Style
|
Right hand bat |
Bowling
Style
|
Left-arm fast medium |
|
|
Screenshot |
Description |
 |
Cricket
Legends These players are the 50 greatest cricketers of
the century, as voted by a blue-ribbon panel of judges assembled by
ESPN. The panelists were asked to list in order, their top 50 players.
Cricketing legends from Australia, England, India, New Zealand,
Pakistan, South Africa and the West Indies all made it to the final 50.
Among them are some famous West Indies fast bowlers, great Aussie
legends, and modern heros of the game. Disc 5 features the great George
Headley. |
Format |
Pages |
Cost |
NTSC - DVD |
|
£124.99 |
|