Colin Everton Hunte Croft (born 15 March 1953) is a former West Indian international

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er. He was a member of the squad which won the 1979 Cricket World Cup.

Cricket career

Croft was (along with Andy Roberts,

Michael Holding Michael Anthony Holding (born 16 February 1954) is a Jamaican former cricketer and commentator who played for the West Indies cricket team. Widely regarded as one of the greatest pace bowlers in cricket history, he was nicknamed "Whispering De ...

, and Joel Garner) part of the potent West Indian quartet of fast bowlers from the late 70s and early 80s. With his height (), he bowled bouncers and was very aggressive. He was renowned for bowling wide of the crease over the wicket and angling the ball in to right-handers. His approach to the wicket was unconventional and footage of Croft bowling around the wicket show him on a run-up more typical of a ''left''-arm bowler. Croft's figures of 8/29 against

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in 1977 are still the best Test innings figures by a fast bowler from the West Indies. Croft was involved in a number of controversial incidents during the ill-tempered test series with

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in 1979–80. During the Second Test at Christchurch's

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in February 1980, the West Indies considered umpire Fred Goodall's officiating so poor that they refused to emerge from their dressing room after the tea break on Day 3 unless Goodall was immediately replaced. After 11 minutes, they were persuaded to resume. Croft collided with Goodall at the end of his bowling run-up during the fourth day's play after knocking a bail off the stumps with a previous delivery, unhappy at being no-balled frequently and having a caught-behind appeal turned down. West Indies captain Clive Lloyd later regretted not taking a firmer line with his players.

County career

Lance Gibbs arranged for Croft to go to

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...

on a coaching scholarship in 1972 where he played two games in the second eleven. With Warwickshire already having a quartet of West Indies Test players, no opportunity presented itself at the Midlands county, but Croft did play for

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in 1977, 1978 and 1982 taking 136 wickets at 26.5 in first class matches.

Rebel tour

In 1982 Croft accepted a place on the rebel tour of

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-divided

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, in violation of an international ban on sports tours of the country. The rebel players were granted "

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" status by the South African government to allow them access to all-white cricket playing areas. However, there was controversy when Croft was ejected from a whites only seating compartment on a train out of Johannesburg. All the players who took part in the tour were banned for life from international cricket, thus marking the end of Croft's cricket playing career. Croft moved to the

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to avoid recriminations at home.Colin Croft states so in the documentary ''Fire in Babylon''. The ban was effectively lifted in 1989, by both the WICB and the UN.

Teaching career

Croft taught maths at Lambrook school in Winkfield Row,

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, UK, in 2007–2008 for one and a half terms. He never coached cricket at the school.

Media career

Since 1994, Croft has been doing cricket coverage part-time, as a commentator/analyst, and was one of the first writers for

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, contributing over 500 articles so far to that entity. He has continued his sports journalism career everywhere that cricket is played, covering West Indies tours since 1994. Croft's first overseas sports journalism sojourn was to the

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in 1995. During the 2007 ICC

Cricket World Cup The ICC Men's Cricket World Cup is a quadrennial world cup for cricket in One Day International (ODI) format, organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). The tournament is one of the world's most viewed sporting events and consid ...

Croft provided analysis for the BBC's '' Test Match Special'' radio coverage on all the Guyana-based matches. He continued his analyst's role during the

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tour of

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the same year. In his private life, having been an Air Traffic Controller from 1973 to 1981, while also playing cricket for the West Indies cricket team, he has also obtained a Commercial Airline Pilot's licence in the US, with endorsements for the UK, and worked as a Commercial Pilot in the Caribbean. He also regularly appears as a studio guest on

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when

are playing.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Croft, Colin 1953 births Living people People from East Berbice-Corentyne West Indies One Day International cricketers West Indies Test cricketers World Series Cricket players Guyanese cricketers Demerara cricketers Lancashire cricketers Expatriate cricketers in England Guyana cricketers Guyanese people of African descent Cricketers at the 1979 Cricket World Cup Commercial aviators