Foxes Flashback - Sir Andy Roberts

Sir Andy Roberts (29th January 1951)

Andy Roberts was one of the greatest West Indian fast bowlers, whose partnership with Michael Holding made their attack one of the most dangerous in World cricket in the 1970s and 80s, taking over 200 Test wickets. He was the first Antiguan to play for the West Indies (about 8 months before Viv Richards). He was a truly fast bowler, whose run up amounted to no more than 10-12 running paces, in contrast to the lengthy run of his frequent partner, Michael Holding.

The son of a fisherman, and one of a family of 14, Andy learnt his cricket in Antigua, progressing from playing for his Parish, his island, the Leeward Islands and finally the West Indies. He burst onto the English cricket scene with 119 wickets at an average of 13 in his first season with Hampshire. Maybe that took too much out of him, because he was never quite as devasting again, or maybe batsmen were more wary of him and got out to bowlers at the other end.

A good example of this came at Grace Road in 1975. At the peak of his form he almost bowled Hampshire to victory at Grace Road in the Benson & Hedges Cup semi-final. Needing 217 in 55 overs, it was clear that Andy was the only bowler that stood between Leicestershire and victory.  Though he only conceded 16 runs in his 10 overs and one ball, he only took one wicket, and Chris Balderstone with an unbeaten century saw Leicestershire home.

Very early on in his career, Andy had suffered a bad knee injury, indeed it was only down to some very hard work that he had a cricket career at all. He joined Leicestershire in 1981 very much to provide experience to a trio of young Leicestershire fast bowlers.

In all he played 80 matches for the county and took 191 wickets. His best performance was to take 6 for 38 and 8 for 56 against Glamorgan in 1982, which needless to say brought about a crushing victory for the county. There has been no better bowling performance in a match for Leicestershire since.

He played little in 1983 (it was a World Cup year so he was busy with the West Indies), and he returned for a few matches in 1984 to help out when injuries were taking their toll. He then retired, with the old knee injury continuing to cause problems.

In later years he was involved with overseeing the wicket at the Test match ground in Antigua, and coaching. In 2014, he was honoured by being awarded a knighthood by the Antiguan and Barbudan Government.