Part 8
Pratham: Another final tour that you made to a different place – the subcontinent in ’74-’75.
Lance Gibbs: India.
Pratham: Yeah.
Pratham: I was earlier talking about the spin “quartet”- you outbowled them there in that series.
They had success as well, but you did a pretty good job to trump that.
Pratham: This was also the last series that Tiger Pataudi, the Nawab…
Lance Gibbs: He died.
Pratham: Yes, sadly.‘74-’75 was the last series he captained.
Pratham: You’d seen him play on his very first tour (India tour to Caribbean in ‘61-’62 where
Gibbs took 8 for 6) till now. What did you make of him as a person & captain?
Lance Gibbs: He was a nice fella, real nice.
Lance Gibbs: He was a super captain. You know, you could always tell what he was going to do.
I could tell what he’s going to do.
Pratham: I’ve heard he would gamble a lot in terms of selection?
Lance Gibbs: I’ve never really gone into the selection of opposition teams and things.
Pratham: Fair enough. Were you guys friends?
Lance Gibbs: Yeah. My wife stayed at his house as a guest.
Pratham: Your final Test tour and series in general was in Australia in ’75-’76.
Pratham: When I hear about people speaking about it from the West Indian camp, they often
mention that it had a very lasting influence on the psyche of West Indian cricket to some extent.
Pratham: The argument is that being in that cauldron of an environment and losing in the
manner the West Indies did (5-1 loss) did really spark the trend and push towards a different
pace dominant approach from the West Indian team on a whole.
Pratham: Pardon me, but there’s an anecdote from Ian Chappell about the tour that I always did
want to ask you about.
Lance Gibbs: What was it?
Pratham: He said that Jeff Thomson was bowling to you and you approached him (Ian
Chappell).
Pratham: And you told him -“I’ve got a wife and kid at home, please make sure that he doesn’t
blow my head off.”
Lance Gibbs: Hahahaha!
Pratham: Do you remember Jeff Thomson?
Lance Gibbs: Yeah, yeah, yeah!
Pratham: Was he the quickest bowler you ever saw?
Lance Gibbs: One of them.
Lance Gibbs: (On the quote) Man, listen – when you are batting at number 11, and you go out
there, all the fellas are trying to get an extra wicket (chuckles).
Pratham: All ramping up (their pace).
Lance Gibbs: Hahahaha!
Pratham: There is one moment I was gonna ask you about.
Pratham: 31st January, 1976. This is your final Test match on that Australian tour. Ian Redpath,
bowled Gibbs, caught Holding.
Pratham: Number 308. This is the leading wicket that you take to go past Fred Trueman as the
leading wicket taker in the world.
Pratham: So now we’ve reached the Mount Everest of bowling if you want to put it that way.
Pratham: Do you have any memory of what was going in your mind when you were almost there
and when you got there?
Lance Gibbs: Not really, not really.
Lance Gibbs: I play cricket hard to the end, you know. To end, I play hard. When walking off the
field, it’s a different thing.
Pratham: There was a discussion I heard of having a benefit match versus India for you in ‘76
when they toured. Like giving you a final game there. And that idea was not proceeded with?
Lance Gibbs: I’m not aware of that at all.
Pratham: Oh, okay.
Pratham: After you retired, did you think about coaching any of the spin bowlers that were
coming up in the Caribbean?
Lance Gibbs: No.
Lance Gibbs: You see, you would know the bowlers as they come on into the Test side. And to
pull them aside and start looking after them alone…it’s a different thing.
Pratham: After you retired, you went into the shipping business? Is that correct?
Lance Gibbs: Mmhhmm.
Pratham: And so what made you interested in that?
Lance Gibbs: I was in shipping before I became a cricketer.
Pratham: I see. So you just went back to…
Lance Gibbs: Something that I like.
Pratham: Fair enough. And what was your motivation for shifting to Miami?
Lance Gibbs: That’s where the shipping was all about. Major commercial vessels.
Lance Gibbs: If you know a guy in Miami – you want to ship something, you’ll get in touch with
Lance Gibbs. Cause you know him.
Pratham: What was your involvement in setting up the Broward County Cricket Stadium that we
see in Lauderhill? My understanding is that you were involved in that to a degree.
Lance Gibbs: Getting the ground right.
Pratham: So you oversaw the pitch preparation…
Lance Gibbs: Getting good wickets…cause you know, you’re given a ground. And you’ve got
wickets on the ground but they are not well prepared and stuff. I helped along the line.
Pratham: Do you go sometimes to watch matches?
Lance Gibbs: Yeah, yeah – I go there steady!
Pratham: You’ve been married to your wife Joy for 50 years now. At your wedding in ‘63, the late
Sir Clyde Walcott was your best man.
Pratham: What kind of a role has your wife played during your career? And what kind of role has
Clive played as a source of support? I know he retired earlier – 1960 was his last game.
Pratham: But what sort of role have both played in supporting your career?
Lance Gibbs: Whatever advice you could want.
Lance Gibbs: My wife knows all the cricketer’s names and different things and that. So I didn’t
have to worry – look at that.
Lance Gibbs: I could have said what happened in so so so so, and she would know!
Pratham: She has an encyclopedic kind of memory…okay!
Pratham: So just a couple of final questions.
Pratham: You played three one international games at the end of your career. And one of them,
the last of them actually, was a game against Sri Lanka in the first ever Cricket World Cup in ’75.
Pratham: What did you make of the format at the time? Did you feel you needed to bowl a little
bit differently compared to Test cricket in ODIs?
Lance Gibbs: No, I bowled the same way. Whoever I gotta bowl against, I gotta look to get him
out.
Pratham: What’s the most valuable thing you’ve gotten from your playing days?
Lance Gibbs: Meeting nice people.
Pratham: And that’s what’s continued to help you along the way.
Lance Gibbs: Yeah, yeah.
Pratham: And what’s one thing you miss the most about your playing days?
Lance Gibbs: This week, for example. I won’t be going out. I’ll stay in the house all day.
Pratham: I see. So you miss that ability to…
Lance Gibbs: Go out and…help others and that kind of thing.
Pratham: If there’s one thing that you could say to the youth today who are interested in playing
the game, what would it be?
Lance Gibbs: If you’re going to play a game, you gotta play it hard. You gotta play in the best
possible manner and behavior you can give. And be nice to people. That’s it!
Pratham: Alrighty. Well, that was it, Mr. Gibbs.
Pratham: I really thank you for the time that you’ve taken out to sit with me and chat about your
career…your life…it’s been a pleasure.
Lance Gibbs: All the best!
Pratham: Appreciate it!
The end