Allrounder, No 17 - Learie Constantine

Lord and Master

Sriram Veera

March 16, 2007

Constantine wanted to show to the cricketing world that the black man's game was not merely a product of instinct and impulse but, also, of brain-work © The Cricketer International

He was the first superstar of West Indies cricket. He bowled furiously, batted aggressively and was an outstanding fielder. As Wisden noted: "His batting could win a match in an hour; his bowling in a couple of overs, his catching in a few scattered moments." But to restrict Learie Constantine to his cricketing achievements would be a crime. Yes he was the greatest allrounder of his times but more importantly, he blazed a trail by becoming the first black man to sit in the British House of Lords.

In cricket, Constantine wanted to show to the cricketing world that the black man's game was not merely a product of instinct and impulse but, also, of brain-work. He achieved that on and off the field. As C.L.R. James wrote: "he revolted against the revolting contrast between his first-class status as a cricketer and his third-class status as a man." The story is told of how when once in Lancashire he was asked by a young man: "Has ta bin down coal ole, mister?" He didn't react with intemperate words but with dignified action. Born into the family of a sugar plantation foreman he died as Baron Constantine, of Marvel in Trinidad and Tobago, and of Nelson, in the County Palatine of Lancaster, a former Cabinet Minister and High Commissioner of his native Trinidad.

Achievements
He was the first West Indian to play professional cricket in England. He was so popular - he played for Nelson in the Lancashire League for 10 seasons during which time the club won the championship eight times and were runners-up twice - that he was made a Freeman of the Borough of Nelson in 1962. Because of his League engagements he played little more than a hundred first-class matches, in which he scored 4,451 runs at 24.32, and took 424 wickets at 20.60.

His figures in Tests are not flattering but he almost single-handedly won two of his 18 matches and shaped a third. At Georgetown, in 1930, when West Indies beat England for the first time, it was Constantine who twice broke the English resistance with 4 for 35 and 4 for 87. At Port of Spain in 1934-35 he levelled the series - which West Indies eventually won by one match - with a mighty allround performance. After scoring 90 and 31, he took two for 41 and grabbed a thrilling 3 for 11 in the second. He trapped Maurice Leyland with only one ball of the match remaining. In his last Test, at The Oval in 1939, when he was 37 years old, his 5 for 73 helped West Indies earn a first-innings lead.

What made him special
Muscular but lithe, stocky but long-armed, he bowled with a bounding run, a high, smooth action and considerable pace. His batting depended heavily on hand-eye coordination and he was murderously innovative on his day. Don Bradman hailed him as the "greatest fieldsman ever seen". This eye-witness account from Neville Cardus gives us a flavour of Constantine as a cricketer. "He does not run after a ball hit through the slips; he springs after it, swoops on it rather than picks it up. There are no bones in his body, only great charges and flows of energy. He can catch anything. Constantine ought to have first refusal of all chances hit to any part of the field.

"When Constantine plays the whole man plays, not just the professional cricketer part of him. There is nothing in the world for him when he bats, save a ball to be hit - and a boundary to hit over. When he bowls, the world is three wickets, there to be sent spinning gloriously. Cricket, indeed, is Constantine's element; to say that he plays cricket, or takes part in it, is to say that a fish goes swimming. Constantine is cricket, West Indian cricket."

He was a box office draw purely for his fielding. Once, at Poona in India, a game was rained off. Constantine didn't want to disappoint the few thousand people who were still waiting. Out he came from the pavilion with a cricket ball in his hand. First he threw the ball high into the sky and then caught it behind his back. Then a wicketkeeper came on and Constantine fielded the ball and hurled flat and furious throws right on target. No one left the ground. Pure drama. Another typical 'Connie' trick was when he would walk to top of his bowling mark. The fieldsman would throw the ball at his back, and he, without looking behind, would turn his arm and catch the ball between his shoulder blades.

Muscular but lithe, stocky but long-armed, he bowled with a bounding run, a high, smooth action and considerable pace © Cricinfo Ltd

Finest hour
It came in the summer of 1928 and at Lord's, the home of cricket. Constantine top-scored with 86, the only batsman to score more than 30, as West Indies trailed Middlesex by 122 runs in the first innings. Constantine blasted through Middlesex, grabbing 7 for 57 with a stunning haul of 6 for 11 in his second spell. Chasing 259 West Indies were tottering at 121 for 5 when Connie launched himself into public imagination with a blistering assault. He hit 103 out of 133 with two sixes and 12 fours. One thunderous drive crashed so heavily into Jack Hearne's finger that he did not play again that season. Inside an hour Constantine had pulled off the heist and won the game. His name was etched on the English psyche. Permanently.

How history views him
As John Arlott wrote, history respects Constantine as a legend who raised the professional cricketer and the coloured West Indian to a level of respect never before accepted in Britain. In 1944 he fought a famous case against colour prejudice when he won damages from The Imperial Hotel in London for failing to receive and lodge him, his wife and daughter. His fellow players, all white-skinned, paid him a rich tribute by choosing him captain of the Dominions team that beat England in the end-of-war game at Lord's in 1946.

Life after cricket
He became a much-respected broadcaster post retirement. During the Second World War he was appointed as a Welfare officer for the Ministry of Labour in England. In 1954 he wrote the book Colour Bar and in the same year he gained entrance to the English bar. He returned to Trinidad and became its first High Commissioner in London. In 1964 he resigned over a bus dispute in Bristol and the subsequent falling out, over the issue, with his Prime Minister. However, he stayed in England and became a member of Race Relations Board and sports council and a governor of BBC. He was awarded the MBE in 1945, Knighted in 1962, made an honorary Master of the Bench in 1963, and created a life peer in 1969. Twenty-nine years after his death, the Nelson Leader hailed Constantine as one of Nelson's two men of the millennium. Trinidad posthumously awarded him the Trinity Cross, the country's highest honour.

Sriram Veera is editorial assistant of Cricinfo

© Cricinfo

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